Hello! My name is Chris and I am currently the sole proprietor of Untamed Gardens. As a designer and gardener I bring extensive experience in the field, a truly enduring fascination with landscapes, and a deep respect for the ways in which humans need healthy ecosystems to thrive.

In over 10 years as a professional horticulturist I have worked as a technician on Minnesota prairie restorations, an arborist in an urban park system, a gardener in a 4,000-acre public park with native-only landscaping, and as the manager of a green roof maintenance portfolio in New York City. Before any of that I spent an entire childhood around plants, both working in a family vegetable garden and escaping to explore local woodlots and creeks where I chased a lot of frogs and played a lot of make believe.

For me, the outdoors and growing things have always been more than an academic interest. As a member of the LGBTQ community natural spaces were early and persisting refuges—places where imagined, better worlds could take form. The deep impact these spaces had on me started a lifelong interest in the complex experiences—emotional, mental, and physical—that different landscapes inspire in people. My work as a designer, gardener, and horticulturist is in pursuit of fostering richer lives for people by finding better ways for us to live among the other living things around us.

I am a relatively recent transplant to the Berkshires after living in Kentucky, Minnesota and New York City. In addition to horticulture I have worked as a middle school science teacher, delivery driver, retail associate, kitchen porter, and warehouse logistics coordinator, and I graduated from Carleton College with a degree in English Literature. I also go by Raina and my writing on land, wildlife, and gender can be found at www.medium.com/RainaPike. I prefer they/them pronouns.