Chicago, Illinois
Founded by Jeremy Ohmes
Wild World Gardens began with a front lawn and a question: What if our gardens could give back more than they take?
Inspired by ecologists and writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Doug Tallamy, Jeremy Ohmes began rethinking the relationship between people and the landscapes surrounding their homes. He removed his own front lawn and replaced it with 50 varieties of native plants. Almost immediately, the space came alive with butterflies, bees, birds, and other pollinators. What had once been a conventional lawn became a sanctuary for wildlife, Jeremy, and his family.
Around the same time, Jeremy was pursuing a certificate in Horticultural Therapy, exploring how gardening and our relationships with plants can support human well-being. He began imagining a business that could bring these two ideas together: creating landscapes that nurture both people and the ecosystems they inhabit.
In 2022, he founded Wild World Gardens, a Chicago-based landscape design company specializing in native plant gardens, pollinator habitats, rain gardens, and therapeutic horticulture.
Since then, Wild World Gardens has installed more than 200 native plant gardens throughout Chicagoland, transforming everything from small city lots and suburban yards to street parkways, office entrances, and school grounds. The team offers garden design, consultation, installation, and ongoing stewardship, helping people create landscapes that are both beautiful and ecologically beneficial.
At the heart of Jeremy's work is the belief that gardens can be places of reciprocity, where caring for the land also means caring for ourselves. Spaces that provide food, medicine, habitat, and connection, while making room for the many other species with whom we share our neighborhoods.
