Map
What is happening around you. Gardens to visit, events, seed libraries, plants for trade, volunteering opportunities.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
◆ Belong · the mile holds a placeBelong to
Belong to
the mile.
A membership here is not a subscription to content. It is a standing relationship with the ground within a mile of your door, and with the people who tend it.
What belonging means
Three relations, one membership.
The people
The Holon team, neighbors, growers. Your membership keeps skilled hands on the same ground, named and credited, season after season.
The practice
Seasonal guidance, the portal, the record of your own yard. Belonging is something you do, at your own pace.
The record
Every member strengthens the shared ecological record the block keeps for itself and passes down.
If membership is out of reach
If membership is out of reach
Our 3% Initiative gives the same access to anyone who needs it, at no cost. It is funded by members and direct donations.
Compare what is included.
Five ways to engage with Holon. Every offering belongs to one of these columns. Use this table to find your fit.
| Offering | FreeAnyone with a Holon account | SaplingEntry membership | GroveActive partnership | HabitatFull ecosystem | Project workBy engagement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PortalWhat every Holon account unlocks. | |||||
MapWhat is happening around you. Gardens to visit, events, seed libraries, plants for trade, volunteering opportunities. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
VolunteeringFind ways to help in your neighborhood. Built for safety, regulation compliance, and small-scale local action. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
EventsHyper-local calendar of plant exchanges, gardening collaborations, and community gatherings. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Trade, share, and source native plants outside the conventional industry. Built to redirect a multi-million-dollar landscape supply chain toward local ecosystems. | — | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | — |
Plant LibraryA plant database that brings together ecology, safety, food, allergens, child and pet considerations, and local impact in one view. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
MessagingCoordinate small events, plant trades, and volunteer days with neighbors. Privacy and safety controls built in. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Track your garden's species, ecological data, and seasonal changes. Spreadsheet-power for the data-driven; light and friendly for everyone else. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Export a detailed report of your garden's plants and ecosystem benefits. Useful for HOA conversations, neighbor education, and sharing your work. | — | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | — |
Support / DonateContribute directly to Holon and the 3% Initiative. Every account can support the work, regardless of tier. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Commit / Set ObjectivesChoose commitments for your yard, and set a direction if it helps you. It is never required: a garden needs no objective to be worth keeping. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Check your own progress against your commitments. A starting point for community trust. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Invite neighbors to witness the commitments you keep. Deeper accountability, broader trust, and access to benefits that depend on it. | — | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | Sapling+ | — |
The ongoing work of caring for your garden across seasons. Tending, editing, protecting ecological balance. | Included | Included | Included | Included | — |
Exclusive EventsSmall gatherings for our most engaged community. Philosophy, hands-in-the-soil sessions, conversations about what is next. | — | — | Grove+ | Grove+ | — |
The yard becomes beautiful gradually as plants establish at their own rhythm. Lower cost, slower visible change. Same destination as the Accelerated path, just on the garden's timeline. | |||||
Monthly Art PackageOnce a month, a piece by a local artist whose work resonates with the kind of conservation we are building together. | — | — | Grove+ | Grove+ | — |
A focused visit to your garden. We learn what you have, what you want, and leave you with a clear next step. Sometimes that is all you need. | — | — | — | — | By project |
Materials & ToolsWe plan and source the right tools and materials for your context. Saves you money on things you would not have used. | — | — | — | — | By project |
Monthly Seed PackageA hand-curated mix of seeds for your region and season, shipped monthly. Add them to your Garden Card the moment they go in the soil. | — | — | Grove+ | Grove+ | — |
Our proprietary, non-permanent irrigation system, paid monthly instead of as capital expense. Survives extreme weather, no maintenance bills. | — | — | — | Habitat | By project |
Monthly Plant DeliveryA hand-grown plant from our gardens, shipped monthly, chosen for your region and season. | — | — | Grove+ | Grove+ | — |
Partial or full care by our team when you do not have the time or capacity. Scope and cost depend on your yard, your goals, and how much of the work you want to keep in your own hands. Included in Habitat membership at the agreed-on scope; available as a project line on any tier. | — | — | — | Habitat | By project |
Advocacy SupportEducation and technical arguments when an association or a neighbor questions your garden: we help you explain it in writing, with the plan and the reasons, at no cost. We are not lawyers and do not represent anyone. | — | — | — | Habitat | By project |
The yard looks beautiful right away, with the underlying ecosystem still maturing for another year or two. Higher cost, faster visible change. Same destination as the Natural path, reached faster. | |||||
Design / Architectural LandscapingFormal planning for members who want a complete plan before any Transition begins. Designers, ecologists, and urbanists working in your specific context. | — | — | — | — | By project |
Collaborative, improvised garden design with the household. A faster, more creative alternative to traditional landscape architecture, without skipping the safety planning. | — | — | — | — | By project |
Intervention / TransitionThe build. Local artisans, multi-disciplinary teams, and engineering rigor that quietly outclasses the conventional landscape industry. | — | — | — | — | By project |
Portal
What every Holon account unlocks.
Volunteering
Find ways to help in your neighborhood. Built for safety, regulation compliance, and small-scale local action.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Events
Hyper-local calendar of plant exchanges, gardening collaborations, and community gatherings.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Trade, share, and source native plants outside the conventional industry. Built to redirect a multi-million-dollar landscape supply chain toward local ecosystems.
Plant Library
A plant database that brings together ecology, safety, food, allergens, child and pet considerations, and local impact in one view.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Messaging
Coordinate small events, plant trades, and volunteer days with neighbors. Privacy and safety controls built in.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Track your garden's species, ecological data, and seasonal changes. Spreadsheet-power for the data-driven; light and friendly for everyone else.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Export a detailed report of your garden's plants and ecosystem benefits. Useful for HOA conversations, neighbor education, and sharing your work.
Support / Donate
Contribute directly to Holon and the 3% Initiative. Every account can support the work, regardless of tier.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Commit / Set Objectives
Choose commitments for your yard, and set a direction if it helps you. It is never required: a garden needs no objective to be worth keeping.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Check your own progress against your commitments. A starting point for community trust.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Invite neighbors to witness the commitments you keep. Deeper accountability, broader trust, and access to benefits that depend on it.
The ongoing work of caring for your garden across seasons. Tending, editing, protecting ecological balance.
- Free
- Included
- Sapling
- Included
- Grove
- Included
- Habitat
- Included
- Project work
- —
Exclusive Events
Small gatherings for our most engaged community. Philosophy, hands-in-the-soil sessions, conversations about what is next.
The yard becomes beautiful gradually as plants establish at their own rhythm. Lower cost, slower visible change. Same destination as the Accelerated path, just on the garden's timeline.
Monthly Art Package
Once a month, a piece by a local artist whose work resonates with the kind of conservation we are building together.
A focused visit to your garden. We learn what you have, what you want, and leave you with a clear next step. Sometimes that is all you need.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- —
- Project work
- By project
Materials & Tools
We plan and source the right tools and materials for your context. Saves you money on things you would not have used.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- —
- Project work
- By project
Monthly Seed Package
A hand-curated mix of seeds for your region and season, shipped monthly. Add them to your Garden Card the moment they go in the soil.
Our proprietary, non-permanent irrigation system, paid monthly instead of as capital expense. Survives extreme weather, no maintenance bills.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- Habitat
- Project work
- By project
Monthly Plant Delivery
A hand-grown plant from our gardens, shipped monthly, chosen for your region and season.
Partial or full care by our team when you do not have the time or capacity. Scope and cost depend on your yard, your goals, and how much of the work you want to keep in your own hands. Included in Habitat membership at the agreed-on scope; available as a project line on any tier.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- Habitat
- Project work
- By project
Advocacy Support
Education and technical arguments when an association or a neighbor questions your garden: we help you explain it in writing, with the plan and the reasons, at no cost. We are not lawyers and do not represent anyone.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- Habitat
- Project work
- By project
The yard looks beautiful right away, with the underlying ecosystem still maturing for another year or two. Higher cost, faster visible change. Same destination as the Natural path, reached faster.
Design / Architectural Landscaping
Formal planning for members who want a complete plan before any Transition begins. Designers, ecologists, and urbanists working in your specific context.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- —
- Project work
- By project
Collaborative, improvised garden design with the household. A faster, more creative alternative to traditional landscape architecture, without skipping the safety planning.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- —
- Project work
- By project
Intervention / Transition
The build. Local artisans, multi-disciplinary teams, and engineering rigor that quietly outclasses the conventional landscape industry.
- Free
- —
- Sapling
- —
- Grove
- —
- Habitat
- —
- Project work
- By project
Three ways to be a member.
Sapling
Entry membership
$3 / month
About a dollar a week. Less than a single coffee, redirected to the keeping of your yard.
You and us, getting to know your yard. Priced at the platform cost of one Portal account. Trade and source plants through the Distributed Nursery. Send neighbors a Garden Report when an HOA conversation needs evidence. Invite neighbors to witness the commitments you keep.
Grove
Active partnership
$30 / month
About a dollar a day. Comparable to a Substack you read or a wine club shipment.
Everything in Sapling, plus monthly seed and plant deliveries from our gardens, hands-on help with the keeping when you need it, exclusive events with the Holon team, and advocacy support if your work runs into HOA or neighbor pushback.
Habitat
Full ecosystem
$300 / month
About the cost of a typical Houston HOA fee, redirected to your land instead of the cul-de-sac. Includes Irrigation as a Service.
Everything in Grove, plus our proprietary Irrigation as a Service. No capital expenditure, no permanent install, no maintenance bills during freezes or droughts. Built for the people who want the most active partnership we offer.
Every tier funds free access through our 3% Initiative for those who need it.
Give a membership
A vitality yard makes a meaningful gift.
A Holon membership is a quietly beautiful present for the people in your life at moments that ask for ground. A new chapter, a settled chapter, or a chapter you simply want to mark. It says: I see what you are building, and I want to help the ground hold it. We will reach out to the recipient with care, on a date you choose, with a Site Conversation as the first step.
Good occasions to give one
A new home
A housewarming gift the household will live inside for years. The yard becomes a love letter from you to their soil.
A wedding or partnership
Most wedding registries are about the inside of the house. Give them the outside; give them the block they will raise children on.
A move to a new city
A new yard is the fastest way to feel rooted in an unfamiliar place. The Holon team's visits become a way to know the neighborhood.
A baby on the way
A garden the child will grow up inside. Native pollinators on the porch by the time they walk.
Retirement
A yard becomes a daily practice with seasons. The Holon team's visits become a weekly social anchor.
A birthday or holiday
Standard gifts depreciate the moment they are unwrapped. A vitality yard appreciates over decades.
Give a garden
Or pool a whole garden
A gift membership is one person's gesture. A garden registry is a whole circle's: for a wedding, a new home, a baby on the way, a retirement or a milestone birthday, everyone who loves the couple or family can chip in toward one native yard, designed, installed, and tended by Holon. It is the next tier up from gifting a membership: instead of one gift, the whole community funds the ground itself.
Start a garden registryWhat a garden costs.
Until now, Houston gave you two ways to get a garden. Hire it all out, and the price carries trucks, insurance, and an office you will never visit. Or do it all yourself, and the price hides in retail markups, eighty hours, and your back in July. We are building a third way: Do It Together, with you, with us, with your street. Move the slider and watch the cost change shape instead of just size: from money into mornings, from one bill into many hands. We still show the math. We stopped pretending the math was only in dollars.
The Holon way: how much of it happens together?
Mostly youTogether
Half and half. Your street joins for the big pushes. Mulch arrives on a Saturday with twelve neighbors and coffee. Craftspeople take only what is truly technical.
Who carries the work
You 42%Your street 14%Craftspeople 12%Holon 32%
Dollars, year one
$3,100
your own purchases$300
to craftspeople$400
to Holon$2,400
full-service comparison: $12,000 and up
Your Saturdays
~7 (41 hrs)
the daily noticing stays yours
Heavy lifting
Moderate
Houston summer counts
People in the story
13
neighbors, makers, the Holon team
About $400 of this goes directly to craftspeople within a few miles of your yard.
Estimates are modeled on a 1,000 square foot yard with Houston-area native palettes and average soil. Natural Transition seeds the yard over seasons; Accelerated Transition installs the bones up front. The numbers here are a model of the mix, not a quote. We confirm your numbers, and your size, in a free Site Conversation.
The two old roads
Hire it all out
$12,000 to $25,000
A full-service native build on a thousand square feet typically lands here. The people doing the work are skilled, most of them love the work, and the same structure that writes your bill pays them too little. Materials pass through a few large suppliers, the watering requires a state license, and the benefit concentrates: one yard improves, the money leaves the street, and the hour outside with a neighbor never happens, at any price.
Do it all alone
“Free,” paid differently
The same thousand square feet, done alone, looks free and is not. Native plants run ten to fourteen dollars a gallon at retail, when you can find them. Nine cubic yards of soil move by hand. Count the tools, the weekends, the heat index, and the risk of becoming a contractor's emergency in week three. Doing it yourself is brave. It is also the same disease as the first road: every input traveling the long way around to reach you, alone.
Two roads, one structure. The cost was never in the plant. It was in the distance.
For institutions
Corporate, foundation, or institutional gift?
If your organization is exploring a gift, sponsorship, partnership, or donor-advised-fund routing that doesn't fit the residential tier ladder, write to us here. A real human reads every submission and replies within two business days.
Common questions
Ten questions we hear often, answered plainly.
What is Holon?
Holon is a Texas non-profit that helps homeowners and organizations turn their yards into native habitat. We are a community first, with paid services that fund free access for everyone else.
What does Holon actually do for me?
Three things. We help you plan your yard's transition with the right plants for your soil and climate. We can install and maintain the work, or we can hand you the tools and knowledge to do it yourself. And we bring you into a local network of neighbors who keep gardens, plant sources, and events.
What does it cost?
A free Holon account costs nothing. Sapling membership is $3/month, Grove is $30/month, Habitat is $300/month (with 20% off when paid annually). One-time projects (Site Conversation, Design, Transition, Irrigation) are quoted based on your yard. The full breakdown is in the Compare table above.
How does the process work, step by step?
1) Free Site Conversation: we visit, listen, and leave you with a clear next step. 2) Plan: you choose your approach (Natural Transition over 2 to 3 seasons, or Accelerated Transition over months). 3) Build: we install, or you DIY with our support. 4) Keep: ongoing care, either by you, by us, or both.
How does this compare to a conventional lawn?
Conventional sod-and-irrigation runs $4,500–$12,000 to install plus $1,500–$3,500 a year forever. A Holon vitality yard is a one-time investment with much lower ongoing cost, and it pays back in cleaner air (PM2.5 capture), cooler microclimate, songbirds, and property value.
Who does the design and Transition work?
Holon's small in-house team plus a network of local artisans, ecologists, and landscape professionals we have vetted. We work in multi-disciplinary pairs so no single person is the bottleneck.
How long does a transition take?
Natural Transition: 2 to 3 seasons of patient succession. Accelerated Transition: a few months from install to a finished look, with full ecosystem maturity over 1 to 2 years.
What if I want to cancel or pause?
Membership is annual but can be paused, changed, or ended at any time without fees. Project work is invoiced per project, with milestone payments and no long-term lock-in.
Can I save money by doing it myself?
Yes. Sapling membership gives you the Distributed Nursery (peer-to-peer plant sourcing), the Plant Library, and Garden Card tools. Many members plan and plant on their own with our support. The tradeoffs are time, expertise, and survival rate; we are honest about all three.
What about commercial, multi-acre, or school projects?
Yes. We work with HOAs, schools, religious campuses, and commercial properties. The base process is the same; the scope and timeline scale up. Start with a Site Conversation, we will tell you honestly whether your project fits our model.
What these words mean
Holon uses some specific language. Here are plain definitions for the terms used above. Tap any underlined word in the table to see the same definition right where it appears.
- Your Holon team
- The small Holon team that knows your yard's history and visits on a schedule you set.
- Keeping
- The ongoing care of a garden across seasons. Tending, editing, protecting the ecological balance you have built.
- Distributed Nursery
- A peer-to-peer way to source, trade, and share native plants outside the conventional supply chain.
- Garden Card
- Your garden's profile in the Portal. Species list, ecological data, seasonal notes.
- Garden Report
- An exportable PDF summarizing your garden's plants and their ecosystem benefits, written for non-technical readers.
- Your own record
- Check your own progress against the commitments you set for the keeping of your yard.
- Witnessed by neighbors
- Trusted neighbors witness your work and stand behind it, opening access to benefits that depend on community trust.
- Site Conversation
- A focused visit to your garden where we listen, look, and leave you with one clear next step. Replaces the pricier 'site assessment' framing some of our peers use.
- Irrigation as a Service
- A non-permanent irrigation system, paid as a monthly service instead of a capital install. No freeze-damage replacement bills.
- Assisted care
- We do some or all of the keeping for you. The Holon team coordinates with you on what stays in your hands and what goes to ours. Always scoped to your specific yard and goals; included in Habitat membership at the agreed scope, available as a project line on any tier.
- VibeScaping
- Collaborative, improvised garden design. A faster and more creative alternative to traditional landscape architecture, without skipping the safety and regulatory steps.
- Natural Transition
- A garden transition paced over 2 to 3 seasons through patient succession. The yard becomes beautiful gradually, on the garden's timeline rather than ours. Lower cost, slower visible change. The end result is fully gorgeous, identical to an Accelerated Transition garden, just reached at a different pace.
- Accelerated Transition
- A garden transition that uses mature plants and active soil-building so the yard looks beautiful within months. The underlying ecosystem still matures for another 1 to 2 years. Higher cost, faster visible change. The end destination is the same as a Natural Transition; you are paying to skip the wait.
- 3% Companion
- Anyone who accesses the same membership benefits through our 3% Initiative at no cost. Open by application to those for whom paid membership is out of reach.
Ready when you are
Ready to start?
A Site Conversation is the simplest way in. We come visit, we listen, and you leave with a clear next step. No charge for the conversation.