Meet Nathan Fournier | Ecological Landscape Designer and Contractor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathan Fournier and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Coming from an engineering background, I’ve always been interested in the idea of optimization. To get the most return with the least amount of input. I stumbled across the idea of Permaculture… a design science focused on creating permanent, resilient systems that support society, rooted in nature.

This notion struck a chord in my heart, and I realized how foolish the idea of the perfectly manicured grass lawn was. Sure, grass has its place, but I believe we are shifting into a new paradigm where homeowners replace their lawns with wildflower meadows, vegetable gardens, backyard orchards, and native plant habitats. Imagine the resilience we could create within our neighborhoods if every house on the block had an abundant, diverse garden packed with food and medicine instead of a monoculture grass lawn that is soaked with poison and chemicals, killing important pollinators and polluting our water. The communal connections it would create, the physical and mental health benefits it would have, and the vital ecological functions it would serve…

This is why I created a landscaping business that specializes in converting grass lawns into abundant, beautiful ecosystems packed with food, medicine, and native plants 🌱

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
While most landscaping companies specialize in killing life with synthetic chemicals and mowing grass, we’re the opposite. At HomeHarvest, we facilitate life in all its forms. Instead of mowing and treating grass, we convince homeowners to convert their lawns into abundant ecosystems packed with food, medicine, and native plants. We design and install sensational garden spaces, where we can become fully immersed in the beauty and bounty of nature surrounded by incredible color, sounds, smells. tastes, and a general feeling of peace and serenity.

As an ecological and edible landscaping company, we specialize in native flower gardens, raised garden beds, backyard fruit trees and berry bushes, and holistic design, creating whole human habitats that provide our basic needs while building healthy soil, sequestering carbon, and adding massive ecological value.

The core of what we do is rooted in Permaculture design, which is a design science centered around mimicking Mother Nature to create productive, abundant ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. This unique approach to land care has opened a whole new industry where there are very few competitors, and very much demand.

With a background in mechanical and aerospace engineering, I’ve always enjoyed understanding complex systems and the science of design. Now, I look at our landscapes with a similar eye, with an overwhelming respect and admiration for the beautiful and incomprehensible complexity of the natural systems that create and support life on this planet. I’ve learned to step back and observe, rather than force my own beliefs onto the landscape, in recognition of Mother Nature as the ultimate engineer.

After living the cubicle life for a few years after college, I realized pretty quickly that I wanted to do more. I had an hour commute and turned my car into my university on wheels. I listened to every nonfiction audiobook and podcast I could find, which led me down a path of personal development, permaculture, and real estate. When I first heard permaculture explained in a podcast, I knew it was my life’s purpose. I knew that was my path, and that someday I would own a permaculture design business. The only problem was that I had just spent 4 years and over $100,000 getting a degree that I no longer wanted to use…. and I had no gardening experience. So I set off on a quest to continue learning, now focused on making as much money as possible so I could do what I love without worrying about debts and bills. That led me to real estate.

I learned that the vast majority of wealth creation in the world was through the ownership of real estate, and I became intrigued. I dug deep and started a house flipping business part-time, learned construction through YouTube, and worked quit my job and pursue my passion.

All the while, I would listen to courses and books on Permaculture design through audio, and finally in 2019 I had the opportunity to work as an apprentice on a permaculture and regenerative agriculture farm in New Zealand. This was a transformational experience, and gave me the hands-on work I needed to become comfortable enough to start offering it as a service. Then, COVID-19 hit.

I was told that if I didn’t get on a plane home that weekend that I would have to expect to stay there indefinitely… while there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be stuck in a global pandemic, I decided that now it was more important than ever to teach people how to grow their own food, boost their immune systems, and reconnect with nature. So, I came home and started writing my business plan.

As I was researching business names, my girlfriend suggested “Home Harvest” and it was perfect! So, I searched it and little did I know that there was already an existing business, doing exactly what I was planning on doing, with the name HomeHarvest, just an hour away in greater Boston. I called the owner, Ben Barkan, out of the blue, told him what I was doing, and asked if he wanted to collaborate. After some discussion and rapport building, we decided to work out a licensing agreement for the brand and I would open a new location here in Central Massachusetts. And that was how HomeHarvest™️ Central MA was born! This collaboration has allowed me to piggy-back off of Ben’s success and learn the ropes of this unique, niche business.

I truly believe that this is some of the most important work that needs to be done on this planet. The plague of the perfectly manicured grass lawn needs to come to an end, for the sake of our own health and the health of our planet. The kicker is that it can require less work, less inputs, and be incredibly beautiful as well! For those fortunate enough to own land, it is your moral and ethical responsibility to be a steward of that land and to heal it from the destruction we have caused by planting millions of acres of a non-native, resource-intensive, monocrop that provides no usable outputs. The colonialist culture of control and domination over nature has wreaked havoc on our ecology and our health. It’s time to take responsibility for ourselves and create robust, resilient communities centered around growing our own nutrient-dense food, growing and use natural medicine, and creating native wildlife habitats. I encourage everyone to be the neighbor that builds raised vegetable gardens and plants wildflowers in their front yard to show how beautiful, functional, and valuable our landscapes can be for all living things.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Worcester is a booming, beautiful city that has come a LONG way over the past 10-20 years. Depending on the season, I would recommend getting some tapas at Bocado, heading over to a WooSox game at the brand new stadium where you can enjoy some local craft beer from Greater Good on tap, then swing over to Vincents for some live music, drinks, and meatball sandwiches.

The next day you can grab brunch and coffee at Birch Tree Bread and maybe head to Tower Hill botanic gardens in Boylston for a relaxing, calming walk through their beautiful grounds. Grab dinner at the Armsby Abby, then head to the Palladium for an awesome rock concert!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to thank Kay Baxter, Bob Corker, and Vitor Crispin from the Koanga Institute in New Zealand for helping me connect to the Earth and the spirit of nature in a new, beautiful way.

Website: homeharvestcentralma.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeharvest.centralma/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homeharvest-central-ma

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeharvestcentralma

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCQsGnxXNOaeFQCKEQBffpQ