The Central Ohio Bioregional Working Group got its start in June 2025 with a simple but powerful intention: to reconnect people with place. Bioregionalism isn’t a new idea, but lately it’s resurfaced as a hopeful, practical way to think about “living locally.” At Simply Living, we’ve always believed that our communities – our dreamers and our doers – hold the power to respond to global challenges right here at home. When we refocus ourselves on the land, food systems, and neighbors in Central Ohio, we discover something remarkable: we already have everything we need.
On Sunday, November 16th, our group gathered at Leaves for Wildlife for another inspired session. This time, we were led by the thoughtful, deeply knowledgeable Patty Shipley, a naturopath, native plant nursery owner, and longtime advocate for healing people and ecosystems. Patty invited us to shift our mindset from extraction to reciprocity. Instead of taking endlessly from the earth, how can we begin to give back?
Patty, also the owner of Leaves of Life, has been providing functional medicine care in Worthington since 1998, and over 25 years she has seen a troubling trend: people in Central Ohio are getting sicker, and their illnesses are harder to treat. She emphasized the profound connection between environmental health and human health. “What happens to nature, happens to us,” she reminded us. And she encouraged us to adopt habits that protect and restore well-being, habits that start right at home.
One of the most powerful steps we can take is to use our own yards – our privately owned land – to grow edible, biodiverse, life-supporting plant communities. With 96% of Ohio’s land privately owned, individual choices add up quickly. While our protected wilderness is small, the opportunity for everyday residents to rewild, restore, and regenerate our landscapes is enormous.
Patty walked us through the environmental pressures facing our region: fragmented habitat (pictured below left), toxic releases (pictured below right), declining biodiversity, and the health challenges that mirror those trends. But the heart of her message was not doom—it was empowerment. We can take tangible, joyful actions that improve our own lives and strengthen the ecosystems we depend on.
Some of Patty’s key insights and invitations included:
Rethink the Lawn
Lawns may look tidy, but they are ecological deserts. They offer no food or shelter for pollinators or other wildlife, and maintaining them – especially with gas mowers and synthetic fertilizers – adds pollution to our air and water. Instead, we can reclaim these spaces with native plants, edible perennials, and habitat-rich landscapes that feed life.
Be Mindful with Inputs
Fertilizers, pesticides like atrazine and glyphosate, and even some everyday pharmaceuticals find their way into our water systems. Reducing or eliminating chemical inputs helps protect both human health and biodiversity.
Say Yes to Nature Therapy
Spending time outdoors is more than pleasant. It is profoundly healing. Forest bathing reduces stress, strengthens immunity, improves mood, and supports recovery. Even hospital patients with a view of nature heal faster. Children who grow up outside develop stronger bodies and minds. Nature is the medicine we all evolved alongside.
Plant for Biodiversity (and for Dinner!)
Monocultures strain ecosystems. But diverse native plantings invite pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects back into our landscapes. Patty highlighted “keystone plants”—species that support hundreds or even thousands of other organisms. In Ohio, classics like oak, willow, plum/cherry, birch, and cottonwood anchor our ecosystems. Many keystone species are edible, too: prairie crabapple (pictured below left), pawpaws, ramps, passionfruit vines (flower is pictured below middle), serviceberries (pictured below right), black cherries, wild strawberries, and more. These plants don’t just nourish the land – they nourish us too.
And yes, pawpaws (pictured below) taste like a combination of mango and banana. Yes, you should try them on yogurt and bake them into muffins! They are delicious!
Practice Permaculture Principles
When we plant natives, we naturally live into the three ethics of permaculture:
- Care for the Earth.
- Care for People.
- Take Only Your Fair Share.
By choosing plants for the canopy, understory, shrub, and ground layers, we create thriving mini-ecosystems that regenerate themselves year after year.
Steward the Space You Have
Because of HOA and city rules, Patty encourages maintaining spaces that are both ecological and neighbor-friendly. Clean edges, well-defined beds, and seasonal blooms keep native plantings beautiful and welcoming.
She also recommends techniques like the Chelsea chop and chop and drop to strengthen plants, enrich soil, reduce weeds, and replace costly mulch. And of course – in the Autumn – leave the leaves! They shelter fireflies, butterflies, and countless overwintering species essential to the food web.
The Heart of Bioregionalism
Patty’s presentation left us with a sense of hope and agency. If we each reimagine even a small patch of land- whether it’s a yard, a few patio containers, or a community garden plot – we can create ecological corridors where life thrives again. We can nurture our own health while restoring the health of the world around us.
This is the heart of bioregionalism: belonging to a place, giving back to it, and letting it care for us in return.
If you’d like to join us for future Bioregional Working Group sessions, stay tuned! There’s so much more to learn, share, and create together. Visit us at www.simplyliving.org to learn more about us! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest on our educational events, tours, films, and more!
