Encouraging more people to take part in healing the ecosystem begins with raising awareness of both the challenges and the remedies. Basil Camu, shares exactly that in his book, “From Wasteland to Wonder: Easy Ways We Can Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape.” Basil is my guest in this week’s encore episode.
Basil is the “chief vision officer and wizard of things” at Leaf & Limb, a tree care company in North Carolina that refuses to cut down living trees. He also leads the Project Pando, a nonprofit that gathers native seeds, propagates them and freely shares the seedlings. In “From Wasteland to Wonder,” Basil explains how individuals and communities can use trees and other plants to help reverse Earth’s biodiversity decline.
Basil is the “chief vision officer and wizard of things” of Leaf & Limb, a tree care company that refuses to remove living trees, and the leader of Pando Project, a nonprofit that collects native seeds, propagates them and gives away the seedlings. (Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb)
It’s easier on us mentally to put our heads in the sand and pretend that biodiversity loss is not happening — but we don’t have that luxury. It’s here and it’s real, and it’s our responsibility to change our landscaping methods so that our properties benefit the larger ecosystem.
You can read on for an abbreviated recap of my conversation with Basil, or check out the show notes from the original airing for a comprehensive version of the show notes.
From Cutting Down Trees to Saving Them
Basil, born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, once made a living cutting down trees. Today, preserving them defines his work.
For 15 years, he and his father ran Leaf & Limb, their family tree business, which began as a traditional service removing limbs and felling trees.
“We really didn’t even know how to properly prune back then,” Basil says. They wanted to have a proper business and play by all the rules, which includes carrying workers’ compensation insurance. “In our industry, workers’ compensation is extremely expensive because it’s such dangerous work,” he points out.
Competing was tough, since many rivals skipped workers’ comp insurance. To stand apart, they focused on proper pruning and pest control.
Basil’s outlook shifted as he dove into books on soil and regenerative farming by authors like Jeff Lowenfels, Paul Stamets and Michael Phillips. Learning how soil, trees and photosynthesis drive ecosystems, he realized the company’s practices no longer matched his values. Inspired also by Yvon Chouinard’s “The Responsible Company,” Basil embraced the idea that business can serve people and the planet.
In 2020, Basil and his father made a bold move: they stopped removing living trees — once 40% of their revenue — and committed Leaf & Limb to preservation and stewardship instead.
A large healthy tree isn’t likely to break or fall over in a storm. It’s trees that have not been maintained properly that create concerns. (Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb)
From Wasteland to Wonder
In 2020, Basil began presenting a talk titled “How Trees Can Save the World, and What We Can Do to Help” to garden clubs, the local arboretum and other places where plant people gather.
“When I went in with this presentation, I thought I was speaking to the choir. I thought these were things we all know,” Basil says. “But I found that people had these aha moments, and they were like, ‘Wow, this is really — this is amazing. Tell me more.’ And I just was overwhelmed by the positive response and the degree to which people wanted more information.”
He decided he would get the word out to a broader audience by writing a book. The audience he had in mind is “the common person living in suburban space.” He didn’t write for designers or people who already know a lot about native plants and the environmental issues the Earth is facing.
“I’m really speaking to the people who don’t have the time to learn these things, and they don’t have the money to hire the professionals,” he says.
He wanted to make the message easy to understand and while sharing with readers how they could save time and money while achieving ecological goals.
“From Wasteland to Wonder” by Basil Camu can be downloaded for free at leaflimb.com/wonder.
Joy, Not Finger Wagging, Inspires Environmental Action
“Something like 2 or 3% of the population actually do things to help address environmental issues,” Basil says notes. “So if scaring people and wagging the finger hasn’t been working, it’s time for a new approach.”
His approach is implicit motivation.
He wants to get people excited about the work while offering them ways they can save time and money.
One of the books on his reading journey that has taught him about changing hearts and minds is “Thinking in Systems” by Donella Meadows. Donella argues “that your biggest lever for creating change is changing hearts and minds,” Basil says.
Another pivotal book for Basil is “Breaking Through Gridlock” by Gabriel Grant. It motivated him to talk about topics he cares about through a place of joy and beauty, as well as saving time and money.
Joy and beauty are better motivators than finger wagging.
Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb
Basil Camu’s Top Takeaways
From the time Basil started writing “From Wasteland to Wonder,” he knew he wanted to give it away. (The eBook is free to download.) He calls the book his “act of reciprocity,” a phrase he picked up from Robin Wall Kimmerer in “Braiding Sweetgrass.”
Robin writes: “Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.”
Basil says the top three takeaways from “From Wasteland to Wonder” are:
- The way we currently manage the suburban landscape is creating a wasteland, and it’s harming the well-being of Earth.
- The paradigms and practices that he put forth do the opposite. They help heal Earth.
- When we work to help heal Earth, we save time and money because we’re working with powerful natural systems instead of working against them. It’s like swimming in a stream of water, he says. “If you can swim with that stream, you’re going to make a lot more progress.”
Most tree care and landscaping practices were designed to fight natural systems, Basil says. “If we could just go the other way, flow with the energy, find ways to channel that natural system in our favor, well then, we can have the best of all worlds.”
Planting trees and native meadows is an investment in the future.
Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb
Forgetting What Nature Once Was
We have this mismatch between human lifespans and geological time spans,” Basil says. While humans live 70 or 80 years, we see only a sliver of change. What looks normal to us today might horrify our ancestors
This “shifting baseline” blinds people to environmental loss. What we see feels ordinary, but it’s not. Basil points to once-common sights — windshields splattered with insects, monarch butterflies in abundance — that are now rare within a single lifetime.
Generations grow more detached from a pre–Industrial Revolution world with more trees and less carbon. That desensitization makes inspiring action harder.
Still, Basil frames this as the book’s “low point,” a setup for hope. The rest of “From Wasteland to Wonder” highlights solutions: restoring soil, supporting birds and butterflies, cleaning water, and capturing carbon — right in our own yards.
Saplings Are Superior
Basil is not a fan of containerized or balled and burlapped trees. “There are just so many issues with the root systems and with how the trees are raised and the health of these trees,” he says.
Instead, he encourages planting saplings. They are younger than containerized or balled and burlapped trees, but they get acclimated to their planting location much more quickly and catch up in growth.
“There’s just a litany of reasons why they end up performing better in the long run,” Basil says. “But guess what? They’re really easy to plant. You can put your shovel in the ground, wedge it open, slide a sapling in place, and you’ve got a tree in the ground. You can do 25 or 30 of these in the time it takes to do one from the nursery.”
Container-grown trees are used to regular water and fertilizer applications, so once planted in suburban landscapes they remain dependent, often needing extra care for years before establishing. Research shows that saplings are hardier and live longer.
Suburban trees have an average lifespan of 35 years, while wild trees live for hundreds of years, if not thousands, Basil points out. It’s old trees that do the most good building soil and feeding life — so plant saplings.
Basil says a tree is like a carbon pump, taking carbon out of the air and pumping it into the ground and its leaves. Native trees are even better at sequestering carbon because they are eaten by native life, he adds.
“The trees that are from here feed life that’s from here,” he says.
Old trees do the most good building soil and feeding life.
(Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb)
Make an Impact Beyond Your Yard
“Suburban space in the U.S. represents maybe 3% of landmass,” Basil notes. “Meaning if everybody in suburban space just immediately adopted these practices we’re discussing, it would only be a blip on the radar in terms of landmass. But what’s really important is that people live in suburban spaces. This is where ideas and discussion and laws and policy are passed. So the big value here is not necessarily getting a perfect amount of native meadows and trees on your property. … The more important thing is that you understand these topics. So now that when you go vote for local bills and local bonds, now you’re a better-informed voter. You can spend your money differently.”
Why Structural Pruning Is Superior
“When a tree grows in its natural ecosystem, which is the forest, it has to compete for sunlight, which means that it is forcing that tree to grow straight and tall,” Basil says.
The tree must have a central trunk with well-spaced, reasonably sized branches. But when that same tree grows in the suburban landscape, it’s able to grow fat and happy however it wants. It creates a tree that potentially has a weak structure. “If a high wind comes or a storm comes, something could break,” Basil says.
That could mean a damaged car and a mortally wounded tree.
To avoid that danger, structural pruning is an approach to tree trimming that takes strong winds into account. Structural pruning preserves a dominant leader and maintains well-spaced branches along the main trunk.
Trained and certified arborists practice structural pruning, which encourages trees to grow stable and healthy.
(Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb)
Why to Avoid Mosquito Spray Services
Mosquito spray companies use neurotoxins — which are dangerous for kids and pets — and wipe out all life, causing a massive outbreak of tree pests because the beneficial insects were sprayed dead, Basil explains.
When a client reports a tree with an outbreak of scale, he knows the client was having that property sprayed for mosquitoes.
“They come in, they spray the whole yard. It kills all the parasitic wasps and the ladybirds and the things that eat scale insects and aphids,” he says. “Now the problem is those predatory insects take a long time to bounce back, whereas the mites and the others just explode. So you actually get these huge outbreaks of pests in your yards.”
Basil recommends removing standing water and English ivy, and applying repellent at the point of contact — yourself — to reduce bites.
Basil’s Project Pando
Basil works with local tree-planting nonprofits that don’t have the money to buy containerized trees and don’t have volunteers who know how to plant the trees for success and can keep up with watering.
Basil’s nonprofit, Project Pando, raises saplings and gives them away for tree-planting and ecological restoration projects. They require no special knowledge to plant and don’t have the water demands of containerized trees.
Pando Project volunteers collect seeds locally and bring them to drop-off stations all over town. The seeds are processed and then sown in air-pruning beds.
The nonprofit also provides educational videos and resources, and identifies when tree seeds will be ripe so volunteers know the best time to collect them.
Project Pando gives away 10,000 to 20,000 trees annually to nonprofits engaged in ecological restoration.
Project Pando propagates seedlings from native, local trees and gives the seedlings away for ecological restoration projects.
(Photo Credit: Tessa Williams, Media Director at Leaf & Limb)
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Basil Camu of Leaf & Limb and Project Pando on “From Wasteland to Wonder.” If you haven’t listened yet, you can do so now by scrolling to the top of the page and clicking the Play icon in the green bar under the page title.
What valuable lessons did you take from “From Wasteland to Wonder”? Let us know in the comments below.
Links & Resources
Some product links in this guide are affiliate links. See full disclosure below.
Episode 282: The Vital Role of Soil Bacteria in the Garden, with Jeff Lowenfels
Episode 134: Bird Population Decline and What Gardeners Can Do to Help
Episode 138: Why Pruning Matters: Principles, Recommendations and Tips from the Pruner’s Bible
Episode 237: Ecological Gardening: Creating Beauty & Biodiversity
Episode 331: The Ecological Garden Blueprint: 10 Essential Steps That Matter Most
Episode 335: Better Soil Health and Crop Yields Through Regenerative Agriculture, with Gabe Brown
Episode 364: Easy Ways to Help Heal Earth in Suburban and Urban Landscapes
Episode 392: Prevent Eye Injuries in the Garden
Episode 403: Winter Tree Care, with Basil Camu
Episode 415: Fruit Tree Pruning: How to Cultivate Healthy Fruit Trees
joegardener Online Gardening Academy™: Popular courses on gardening fundamentals; managing pests, diseases & weeds; seed starting and more.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Organic Vegetable Gardening: My new premium online course. The course is designed to be a comprehensive guide to starting, growing, nurturing and harvesting your favorite vegetables, no matter what you love to eat, no matter where you live, no matter your level of gardening experience.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Seed Starting: Everything you need to know to start your own plants from seed — indoors and out.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Beginning Gardener Fundamentals: Essential principles to know to create a thriving garden.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Growing Epic Tomatoes: Learn how to grow epic tomatoes with Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Pests, Diseases & Weeds: Learn the proactive steps to take to manage pests, diseases and weeds for a more successful garden with a lot less frustration. Just $47 for lifetime access!
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Perfect Soil Recipe Master Class: Learn how to create the perfect soil environment for thriving plants.
“From Wasteland to Wonder: Easy Ways We Can Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape” by Basil Camu – free ebook
“From Wasteland to Wonder: Easy Ways We Can Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape” by Basil Camu – hardcover
“How Trees Can Save the World, and What We Can Do to Help” presentation by Basil Camu
“Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web” by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis
“Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae” by Jeff Lowenfels
“Teaming with Bacteria: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Endophytic Bacteria and the Rhizophagy Cycle” by Jeff Lowenfels
“Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition” by Jeff Lowenfels
“Mycorrhizal Planet: How Symbiotic Fungi Work with Roots to Support Plant Health and Build Soil Fertility” by Michael Phillips
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“The Responsible Company” by Yvon Chouinard
“Thinking in Systems” by Donella Meadows
“Breaking Through Gridlock: The Power of Conversation in a Polarized World” by Jason Jay and Gabriel Grant
