Why Golden Grove Exists
Welcome to Golden Grove Design Co. and thank you for being here! I’m Austin Gilkey, the founder of GGD. I started this company with a particular goal in mind: building stronger communities by growing our connection with nature. This can mean a lot of different things for a lot of people. This can also look very different in practice as each person’s connection to nature is inherently personal.
As for myself, my connection with nature during my adolescence was pretty rudimentary as I’m sure it is for most people. I loved spending my free time outside—climbing trees, walking creeks, playing sports, crafting imaginary street games, the list goes on. But as I grew older and those particular activities subsided, that connection faded to the background and became very passive.
This all changed in 2017. My friends and I, who were in high school at the time, had started hiking at state parks in our free time. Admittedly as a way to not hang at our parents’ houses, we made it an every weekend occurrence and had an absolute blast. Making these unique lifelong memories in the outdoors at our age was truly exhilarating and freeing. The traction we were building was not going unnoticed and inspired others. Mutual friends started joining us or even venturing out on their own excursions. Then tragedy struck.
A close friend who had struggled with his mental health unfortunately took his own life. Personally, this was someone who I grew up with, had sleepovers with, played sports with, and went to school with. This hit very close to home. In the months leading up to this tragic event, he had been starting to hike as an escape from what he was dealing with. He even reached out on a few occasions to hang out and get outside. Despite being in shock and disbelief, I knew I had to do something to honor him.
I realized how powerful spending time in nature can be for healing, hope, and connection in our lives. Not only does a hike have positive impacts for our physical health, it has many benefits for our mental health, too. I felt this was a valuable message for everyone at this time and couldn’t keep it to myself. I had an opportunity to make a positive out of this terrible tragedy. I started a hiking club at my high school and led various hikes with my classmates. I cultivated new friendships and even made club shirts for everyone. This was a great way to bring everyone together and cope with the loss of someone very close to us.
This inspired me going forward and opened up a whole new world for me. Two of my closest friends and I began to see the outdoors through a different lens. We started paying attention to how land was used, how natural systems functioned, and how our built environments shaped the way we live. Inspired by the pockets of raw nature we experienced on our hikes, we wondered why many of our developed landscapes were so disconnected from the natural world around them.
I carried these lessons and realizations into college when I switched my major to landscape architecture within one week of being there. Despite never knowing the field existed, I felt this was my opportunity to spread my passion and ideas into the world. It gave me an avenue to directly make a positive impact and bring nature closer to home.
As I’ve grown into this field and my career, I’ve always carried this perspective with me. Nature is powerful and has an intrinsic impact on us as humans. Let’s try to embrace that! In such a busy and complex world, I make an effort to simplify my day to day by taking those brief moments to breathe the fresh air, recognize flowers in bloom, appreciate the architecture of a tree, watch birds fly plant to plant, or absorb a strong breeze. These moments are grounding and can remind us that there is simplicity amongst chaos—you just have to look for it.
To bring it full circle, I’ve been experiencing various challenges in my personal life while building Golden Grove Design Co. While they are challenging, it has been a good reminder of all those lessons I’ve carried with me throughout my journey. However, I realized the true message woven throughout it all: resilience. Whether it’s humans or the natural world, we always bounce back after turmoil or disturbance. And there’s the hidden truth we tend to forget—humans are a part of nature.
Golden Grove Design Co. exists to help bring nature closer to home. Whether that’s through native plantings, edible landscapes, pollinator habitats, or simply creating beautiful spaces that invite people outdoors, my goal is to create landscapes that foster a deeper connection to the natural world.
My hope is that these spaces help people slow down, reconnect, and experience the same sense of wonder, healing, and resilience that nature has provided throughout my own journey.
Because when we strengthen our connection to nature, we strengthen our connection to ourselves, our communities, and the places we call home.
