Meet Archie Galang | Landscape Artist

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

Hi Archie, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
I do gardening and landscaping, and I specifically focus on ecological and sustainable landscapes. Contrary to the traditional landscaper in Houston, where turf grass and imported foreign species dominate the industry, Archies Garden Beds 3 pillars to holistic gardening focuses on soil restoration, native plant landscaping and organic vegetable gardening. These 3 pillars are the foundation to our everyday practices, methodology, and interaction with our clients and the land.

Traditional landscaping in Houston has been a bit damaging to our environment through overuse of chemical treatments such inorganic fertilizers and pesticide. There are numerous negative effects of these factors, one being chemical run off, eventually spilling into our streams and our oceans. These chemicals have a dangerous effect on the local eco- system, such as excess nitrogen, which constantly being dumped into our soil for agricultural purposes. This ultimately will cause invasive species that take advantage of the high nitrogen level content in the water, depleting the necessary elements such as oxygen for native species to thrive. This disrupts entire eco-system and contributes to mass species such as fish to die in its own habitat.

As previously mentioned, many landscapes in the average Houston home are full of beautiful non- native species. These foreign plants require more attention, such as water and fertilizing in order to survive Houston’s weather. The average American household uses 70% of its potable water in irrigation. One can conclude that, albeit water being scare during the summertime droughts, we are using the last drop to keep foreign species alive that aren’t suitable to our environment in the first place.

Native plants offer a better alternative because they do not require that much watering, if at all, and excess nutrients to keep them alive. These species were found throughout its natural habitat, which were prairies before human intervention threw pavement over it, and called it a road. Prairies have been in the area long before we established a city here, and its even believed that the native Americans had special relationships with the land keeping prairies alive and thriving through prescribed grazing. Essentially with the introduction of western ideology, we have disturbed this natural relationship with land and the people that live on it, and our western way of lawns, perfect clean edges, nicely cut turf grass, exotic species has contributed to excessive prairie land loss. These effects will be felt throughout the generations to come as we will see more reoccurring droughts due to moisture loss that deep prairie plant roots provide, and heavy floods due to the soil loosing its ability to absorb water effectively.

All this to say, that Archies Garden Beds contributes positively to the environment and the Houstonians that live in it by restoring commercial and residential landscapes through ecological and sustainable methods. Our mission is to put in place as much as native species as we can, get Houstonians to start going out and planting their own food using sustainable organic practices, and remediating highly damaged soil beneath our lawns. Sustainable gardens and landscapes provide much more than aesthetic purposes, it provide mental space, clean air and land, requires less water to survive, and provides habitats for our native species. There is an aspect in sustainable landscaping that brings everybody together in all industries to create a community, with the goal of restoring our relationship with nature.

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?
I started my business during the pandemic. I always wanted to go into landscaping, and the pandemic opened the door of opportunity for that. After working for my uncle landscaping company cleaning pools, I mustered up the strength to start my own. I first started going to meetings and presentations I can find on local apps such as meet up and event brite. This has caused me to meet many likeminded individuals that helped shaped my way of thinking, and thrusted in me in certain directions I never imagined myself going in. As mentioned in the previous writing, I now focus on a very specific niche industry. It can be challenging, because I am going against the river of conventional landscaping and pushing for what I believe will be the future.

I don’t blame other people for having different way of thinking, as this has been common practice, long before I was even born. I dont beleive I know everything, But I think with all the rising enviromental issues we have been having, I think it takes people with heart and passion, which I meet on the everyday, to stand up and go against the grain. As many of my mentors have said, it has been a slow burn, but I think now is the time to push as if our life depended on it, as it is essential to our survival in this planet.

Some people I encounter I meet are hesitant, as it is a entirely new topic. but surely enough once they get it, they get it. Being that this industry is pretty niche, there aren’t that many suppliers, so I have to rely heavily and on all my groups of friends in the industry, to connect me with the right people and the right resources. I even have to go outside of Houston sometimes to source plants that I am looking for. Landscaping is a tough industry to navigate in general, as there are some layers to it, and often at times I feel that I am going against a monsoon. There are large landscaping companies, and even national ones that want all the money, and aren’t even a bit concerned of the environmental damage they are causing. But the moment that people notice that my heart is in this, they extend their hand. So i do get knocked back sometimes, but its always someone there to help me get back up. And that is what I most love about this industry.

I’ve learned tons of lessons, but the biggest one I want to get across is the importance of mental health, and doing things for yourself. In business, it is so easy to get lost in the sauce, with managing relationship with clients, friends, and your network, to operating a business, and even garnering all the information you can to level up your own capabilities. All of this can be done, but it can’t be done if your still suffering from past trauma. Our trauma can cause us to loose interest, curl up into a ball, want to give up, refuse help, and sometimes clash with people who care about you. We are all human beings, and we deserve happiness, and we can’t find that happiness or success, if were caught up in our own thoughts and emotions. If were not drawing healthy boundaries.

I want the world to know that, we only have one life to live, we have only one planet, and our population depends on it. We must be kind to ourselves, to our neighbors, and land that we live on. I love gardening so much because there is such a leveling component to it, where everybody regardless of their background come together, to enrich our spirits and land we till.

I think that is what life is all about, doing something your good at and you enjoy doing. It was almost as if this was my calling.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Ill take them to Memorial Park, Houston Arboretum, Houston Botanical Garden, I’ll take them out to Galveston and ride the ferry boat to watch the sunset.

Houston offers so much to do, ill take them to happy hours, a night out at downtown, Montrose area and uptown.

I love the Chinatown area on Bellaire as it is so diverse in that area. You can literally take them on a food trip around the world in one area in Houston.

You don’t really need to spend much to enjoy Houston, and if you want to spend, you can find a day of luxury. We have it all.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout a group of classmates from my permaculture design certification course with urban harvest, now turned friends, we call Earthseeds. We have formed the group with our goal to use our background and interest to challenge the norms of the conventional landscaping, and gardening community for diversity and bring new ideas to Houston. Currently we are reading a book called ” The Parable of the Sower,” which has inspired us to meet weekly and discuss how we can collaborate and positively contribute for a better future of sustainability to protect the planet and the people.

I would also like to shout out my native landscapers and nurseries, called the Stewards Guild. We are currently pushing for the push of native plants in all areas of landscaping.

I also would like to shoutout all the organizations I am involved with, Native Plant Society, Urban Harvest, OHBA (Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance), Houston Arboretum, Plant it Forward, Houston Botanical Gardens, Texas A &M agri life extension plus more. All these organizations have helped shaped me and my business.

Website: www.archiesgardenbeds.com

Instagram: archiegalang