About Us
The earth is a living web of soil, plants, people, and everything in between.
At Living Outside, our work is designed to integrate ourselves, our client projects, and our communities into co-evolution with local and regional ecosystems.
All our projects begin with active observation. Consultation enables us to understand you and your project goals. Data collection from soil qualities, soil microbial communities, and plant communities enables us to understand your project within the environment of soil and plant ecological succession. From this land-based perspective, we strategize with you on how to integrate your project goals with soil food web and soil structure development and native plant integration. Improvements and regeneration of latent potentials emerge from this simple but critical focus.
We call this approach The Modern Landscape. It's modern because sustainable regenerative land management's future must be built within the life-sustaining foundational systems of soil and plants.
Working with Living Outside, your project becomes a part of The Modern Landscape movement - where design, building, and management are rooted in the primary building blocks of biodiversity: soil microbes and plants.
Living Outside invites you as community partners – into collaborative observing, creating, integrating, and sharing the regenerating wealth of The Modern Landscape.
“The plant you see above ground is actually in a complex symbiosis with soil microbes in the root zone, the rhizosphere. If you don’t know what organisms are present in your soil and on your plant leaves, much of your soil and crop management is being left to chance.”
Dr Elaine Ingham 2004
Our Services
Ecological Land Management
Ecological land management prioritizes the health of ecosystems. Our key scalable practices include:
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Supporting the soil food web
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Managing soil and plant health
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Managing weeds, pests, and diseases
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Integrating native plant biodiversity
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Developing soil organic matter
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Compost production
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Improving water infiltration and conservation
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Monitoring ecosystem biodiversity
Work with us to achieve your goals and ecological regeneration:
Require less maintenance
Reduce your carbon footprint
Foster generative ecosystems
Participate in habitat restoration
Soil Assessments and
Our Lab
Our Soil Food Web certified lab provides soil food web assessments and, in combination with our field tests, identifies your land in ecological succession.
We also offer small group microscopy sessions, making lab assessments more accessible:
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Soil Food Web Assessment
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Soil Qualities
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Native Plant Community Data
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Ecological Succession ID
Education and Communication
Learn about the practical, science-based techniques of The Modern Landscape in our weekly and monthly publications:
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Subscribe to our newsletter
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Follow us on our social media
We provide tailored educational opportunities for individuals, small groups, communities, and corporate training:
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one-on-one coaching
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workshops
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group presentations
Our presentations and workshops include:
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The Modern Landscape (P)
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Native Plant Integration (P)
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Integrating Organic Matter Back Into The Landscape (W)
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Learn How to Compost I (W)
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Improving Your Compost II (W)
Our Work
Ecological Land Management
Our
Commitments
to the
99 Calls to
Action
with soil
With plants
With People
Soil Assessment and Our Lab
Education and Communication
All Videos
All Videos
How to Build Your Backyard Thermal Compost Pile 1.0
Fall Leaves Are Host to Pollinator Eggs
Leaf Towers 1.0
Our Team
Mary Beerman
Mary Beerman is the owner and lead ecology researcher of Living Outside. She owes much of her horticultural interest to her family’s agricultural background. Her early years in interior design confirmed the importance of integrating nature into our living environments and the degree of her clients' disengagement led her into botany, horticulture, and soil science.
Mary’s early years in organic farming and compost production, 2006 - 2015, introduced her to the ecological principles of the soil food web, the soil’s microorganisms, and testing land management practices.
From 2013-2023, Mary integrated her soil food web-based ecological approach to land care as a professor in Durham College’s Horticultural Sciences Faculty. Her Masters, 2023, investigated plant and soil microbe relationships and land management industries' understanding of ecological land management.
As a Soil Food Web Consultant and Certified Lab Technician, Mary and the Living Outside team, are ready to help you center yourself and your land management goals and practices within a soil-plant ecological context and regenerative coexistence.
Get In Touch
We are often in the field. Please allow up to 24hrs for us to get back to you!
705-879-7322