Written for my undergraduate senior thesis, this piece blends styles of memoir, essay, and literary journalism to document my journey towards creating a new relationship with the land outside my house, through transforming my weed-choked backyard into a native plant garden. I examine what it means to take care of an outdoor home, as a human family that is part of an urban ecosystem. This project explores ideas surrounding people and plants, the effects on a space of actions and interactions both past and present, and brings into conversation different ideas and philosophies from homeowner to ecologist, city park to indigenous author, that shape the way we think and relate to the living world around us.