Barely ten years after women could get their own credit cards and several decades before climate change would force us to limit our watering schedules, Alison Peck–a bold woman with a passion for sustainability–started the very first xeric landscaping company on the Front Range of Colorado.
Alison Peck moved to Boulder in 1980 after majoring in Physics and Chemistry at University of California, Santa Cruz: an epicenter for the green movement that gained momentum after a decade of building concerns about inflation, food shortages, and the flagrant environmental abuse of the planet. Deeply forged by this ecological awakening of the 60s and 70s, Alison’s passion to live in harmony with nature led her to dive headfirst into cultivating an entire life centered around sustainability. And in the early 80s, Boulder was an incubator for alternative lifestyles, music and arts, and environmental co-ops galore, with Boulderites having worked very hard to preserve the natural landscape that makes this city so special.
However, Boulder was not the only city in Colorado pursuing preservation and conservation. At that time, Denver was also pushing forward with its own conservation practices. In fact, while fixing up her family’s “new” home in North Boulder and growing their own food, Alison got a job developing energy conservation education programs for Denver Public Schools. About this same time, Denver Water was asked by the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado President, Jim Grabow, to co-sponsor a new program to focus on public education pertaining to landscape water conservation. Shortly thereafter, in 1981, Nancy Leavitt of the Denver Water Board coined the soon-to-be-famous term “xeriscaping”.
Yep, it’s true, folks! The landscaping term known world-wide originated right here in Colorado! Xeriscaping (pronounced ZEER-uh-scaping, not zero-scaping) was a portmanteau of the word “xeros”–the Greek word for dry–and “landscaping”. This style of landscaping focused on conserving water through seven principles: planning and design, soil improvement, reducing turf, mulching, efficient irrigation, low-water use plants, and regular maintenance. The co-sponsorship then led to the first xeriscape demonstration garden and the very first water-conservation program dedicated to Denver citizens.
Back in Boulder, Alison–who had already taken courses in permaculture while informally being mentored by local landscape architect Jim Knopf–decided that she wanted to engage more directly in the pursuit of healing the land. So, in 1984, she started her very own landscaping company. But she didn’t want to be just any landscaping company like the others around town: installing junipers, huge swaths of Kentucky bluegrass, and ash trees galore. Alison wanted to honor the idea of Earth as our mother through a better practice of landscaping–finding plants that could thrive with our natural rainfall, planting native plants that supported our local biodiversity, and designing gardens that provided habitat, healing, and handsomeness.
So Alison chose the name Matrix Gardens, a nod to the fact that we are in a matrix with Mother Nature. Matrix now has many meanings in English, but the root word–mater–comes from the Latin word for mother. Merriam-Webster defines matrix as “something within or from which something else originates, develops, or takes form”. Alison deeply understood that we ourselves only take form from our own mothers and that all living things arise from the very planet we inhabit–truly the ultimate Mother.
Alison’s drive to care for the Earth practically led to the creation of the very first xeriscape landscape company on the Front Range. And while we no longer have Alison with us on this side of the veil, after forty-two years in business, Matrix Gardens continues her legacy of creating landscapes that honor the land we live on and the atmosphere we live under. Landscapes that invite people to experience their gardens rather than just work at them. And landscapes that allow us to revel in the natural beauty that comes to fruition when we engage with nature rather than against it.