About Karen Boness

Karen is wildly passionate about permaculture, California native plants, edible landscaping and medicinal herbalism. Although she had an urban Milwaukee upbringing, both her parents were raised on northern Wisconsin farms where they had to grow, make and build everything needed to survive off the land. It was here that Karen received a BA in Psychology and worked her first job as a social worker serving developmentally challenged children in Wisconsin. After coming to California in her early 20's, she worked primarily in computer programming for about 20 years and later earned an MA in Counseling Psychology.

Karen's travels began in 1990. She spent an adventurous year traveling solo around the world, returned to the United States long enough to earn a TEFL certificate, then continued on, living and working in Ecuador and Japan teaching English as a foreign language.

After settling back in the States, Karen found her true passion in horticulture. She earned a Permaculture Design Certificate at La’akea Gardens on the Big Island of Hawaii and furthered her studies at Merritt College in Oakland, CA, where she received certificates in both Landscape Horticulture and Landscape Design. She augmented these with additional work in Medical Herbalism at the California School of Herbal Studies in Forestville, CA.

In 2003, Karen founded Wild Willow Landscape Design, where she offers ecological landscape design and horticultural consulting services, and in 2008 launched her garden workshops on location at the beautiful grounds of Kenwood Permaculture where she shares her expertise, passion and knowledge with others year-round.