Sara grew up in Liberty, Maine and spent much of her childhood outdoors in milkweed patches and mossy woods where she found a peaceful, magical feeling. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t love wildflowers, mushrooms, and wildlife.

Although her path to this work has been non-linear, she has been gardening for all of her adult life, and growing plants from seed for many years. She started working with Amber a few years ago and has learned so much from her, about caring for plants and designing beautiful gardens.

A renewed passion for native plants and using gardening as a force for good in the world led Sara to enroll in the certificate program for Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, where she continues her studies. She finds gardening and growing plants to be therapeutic and endlessly fascinating, and enjoys helping clients find joy and satisfaction through bringing native plants and insects and other wildlife into their landscapes and lives.

Amber grew up in Montville nestled in the hayfields and pastures of her grandparent’s dairy farm on Haystack Mountain. With her dad leading the way, she helped build her own home in the woods of Montville. She now lives there with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys nothing more than puttering around the land, wandering the woods observing and investigating, and working in her gardens.

Amber has always had a love of nature; she spent most of her childhood immersed in it. She has been working in the horticulture industry since she was 12, raking blueberries on her uncle’s crew, and at 14 she started working at various local greenhouses. In her later teenage years, she went on to work in residential gardens under the mentorship of Linda Huntington, who she credits much of her garden know-how to. She also remembers fondly her sophomore year of high school learning horticulture from Pat Janssen at the Waldo County Vocational School. These two women shared not only their knowledge but a contagious excitement for gardening. Amber ran her own gardening business for over 22 years, and in 2021 collaborated with Sara to create Rooted Elements.