About Us

Bluestem Design was established in 2013 by Lisa Davis when she left her position as Director of Children's Education at Denver Botanic Gardens after 11 years to stay home with her newborn daughter. Bluestem Design is the merging of two of Lisa's passions - education and plants.

Lisa's love of gardening began as a young child when each summer she helped her parents plant and maintain the vegetable and flower gardens. She had her own small space to plant each year and eventually took over the maintenance of the yard. She continues to advise her parents on garden design and maintenance. At her own home, she has transformed the yard into a beautiful space year-round that features water-smart plants and provides many opportunities for her daughters to explore, play and garden. Over the years, her garden has been the envy of the block and she regularly advises neighbors on what to plant. While at Denver Botanic Gardens, she had the opportunity to work side by side with experts, learning garden design and developing an ever-growing palette of drought tolerant plants to work with. She regularly helped groups of children design and plant their own garden spaces, following the basic principles of garden design. She also taught the basic principles of gardening to teachers interested in creating school gardens.

Lisa's passion is gardening with kids. She loves passing along the joy and excitement that comes from putting your hands in the soil and tasting freshly picked sun warmed tomatoes to a new generation. Lisa has served as the school garden coordinator for Lowry Elementary for the past five years, working with all of the classrooms to teach kids how to plant and care for a garden, and in the process grows several hundred pounds of vegetables per year for the Food for Kids backpack program, school cafeteria and youth run farmers markets. In addition, she has consulted with several area schools on their garden programs, outdoor classrooms and nature play areas.

Lisa documents her experiences working in a school garden at her Seasons in a School Garden blog, offering curriculum, strategies and how-tos for others to implement successful school gardens.