August 5, 2025 • 23 mins
Landscape architect Matthieu Mehuys reveals how thoughtfully designed green spaces can double property values compared to basic landscaping, based on a compelling 20-year study of identical communities. He shares insights from his award-winning book "12 Universal Laws of Nature" and explains how regenerative landscaping can transform properties while addressing climate change.
• Assessing property potential starts with identifying what isn't working and changing the perception of green spaces from cost centers to value creators
• Well-designed landscapes require less maintenance than conventional approaches when implemented correctly
• Everyday gardeners can contribute to climate change reversal by creating carbon-sink gardens that improve soil health
• Weeds serve as nature's soil restoration team rather than enemies to be eliminated
• Regenerative landscape practices yield multiple benefits: increased property value, improved health, reduced maintenance, and ecological restoration
• Future vision includes creating model communities demonstrating how luxury living can harmoniously integrate with nature
Connect with Matthieu to discover how regenerative landscaping principles can transform your property while creating lasting environmental benefits.
www.paulownia-la.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The value of the properties where you had green
spaces that were well-developed,well-designed and
well-integrated.
The value of those houses weredouble, or are today double than
the ones where they just do alittle bit of grass and trees.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we
unlock real estate and businessinsights, one question at a time
.
Welcome to the 5 QuestionsPodcast.
I'm your host, mario Lamar, ourguest on today's show.
(00:39):
From growing up on a familyfarm in Belgium to becoming a
globetrotting landscapearchitect and award-winning
author, he is on a mission toheal the planet, one garden at a
time.
Built on regenerative practices, he is transforming how we see
(01:06):
land, nature and our role inshaping a greener future.
Welcome, mathieu Meyers.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Thank you Mo.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Welcome to the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thank you, Mario.
Thank you for the amazingintroduction.
Very excited to be on your show.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Mathieu, the concept of the podcast is very simple.
I ask five questions and we getstraight to the point.
You ready?
Yes, let's go Okay.
First question I have for youyou help farmers and land owners
unlock the full potential oftheir land.
What's the first thing you lookfor when assessing a property?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Great, question, so the first thing I look for when
assessing a property is mostlylike what is not working
currently, and when I do thatassessment I often come to see
that people are stuck mostly on,like they get overwhelmed with
the amount of weeds that are ontheir property.
Weeds is a huge topic.
Most of my colleagues don'teven dare to talk about weeds,
(02:12):
but I face it head on.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So that's something.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Then I also look at the current use of the space,
because many people see that thegreen space, even in real
estate projects in office spaces.
They think oh it's a leftoverspace, we have to maintain it.
It's a cost, and so I like tolook at the numbers, like how
much are they spending onmaintenance?
How do they look to that space?
(02:38):
Do they see it as somethingnegative?
Because most, like I said, mostpeople think like, oh, there's
something I have to take care of.
Because most, like I said, mostpeople think like, oh, there's
something I have to take care of, whereas there's actually huge
potential if we look at how wecan optimize the use of that
space and create huge value,both for the, for creating a
higher property value, toincrease the, the look and feel,
(03:01):
so how people interact with thespace.
There's tons of health benefitswhen you do it the right way,
if you don't spray and you don'tjust do lawn and a tree like
the the things that most peopledo.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, that's what I wanted to, to maybe ask your
opinion on it, because you knowthe introduction I I I gave you.
Yes, you do work on land, andmaybe with some people that just
work on their own personal land, but you also work with
investors on larger projectswhere they want to maximize,
(03:39):
like you said, the use of theirland, maybe even make it
eco-friendly where, um, theygrow their own vegetables and
for the community, uh.
So so you also look at biggerprojects, not just the, the
small garden of mr and and mrs,uh, everyone there, yeah, that's
(04:01):
exactly true.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So, yeah, do you want me to dive deeper?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
yeah, yeah, maybe maybe, if you don't mind, like
uh, what do you look for inthose bigger?
Because a lot of our audiencesare investors with multi-family
projects, for example.
So so what would you look atwhen, uh, in a project like that
?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
yeah, great question.
So, first of all, scale reallymatters, right?
So if I and and at the sametime, it doesn't matter, so it's
a little bit double, becausethe laws I wrote a book about
it's called 12 universal laws ofnature.
So the 12, 12 universal laws ofnature that I found they apply
to the smallest backyard or abalcony garden as well as to a
(04:45):
huge thousand acre farm.
The laws apply to everythingthat is outdoors and maybe even
to our personal life, so thatthat is one way that we can look
at it.
But if you can do something on abigger scale, then obviously
you can get way betteradvantages in so many ways.
And but the most importantthing is to do before, like
(05:06):
starting construction, beforethinking of of master planning,
all those things.
Things is taking a step backand and taking the time to get
clear on your vision what, whatdo you want to create?
What do you actually want toleave behind as a real estate
investor, because these projectsare big.
This is like you, it's a legacyfor you, right, right, yeah, so
getting clear on that.
And then also, when, what theresearch has shown is that.
(05:29):
So they in the U S, they did a,a 20 year research showing that
there were two communities butexactly the same sizes, so they
and they had the same amenities,like the schools were in the
same location, they had streetsaccess, so everything outside of
the communities were the same.
The only difference inside ofthe communities or the homeowner
(05:52):
associations, it was like thesebigger developments Right.
The only difference was that onecommunity or the developers of
that community decided OK, we'regoing to invest a little bit
more in creating beautiful greenspaces.
So, rather than like, andthat's what the other developer
on the left side did is thatthey said?
(06:14):
okay, we'll just do what isexpected of us, we will plant
some trees and do the lawn andthe other property.
They said, okay, let's reallyinvest in something beautiful,
let's look at design, let'slet's choose specific plans and
do something unique.
And over the next 20 years, thevalue and, mario, this is
(06:36):
incredible the the value of theproperties where you had green
spaces that were well developed,well designed and well
integrated.
The value of those houses weredouble, or are today double than
the ones where they just do alittle bit of grass and trees.
But the plot sizes were thesame, the buildings were the
same, the accessibility toeverything around it was the
(06:58):
same.
So imagine what theopportunities are for real
estate investors if you reallydoubled down on creating
something unique from scratch.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And that's why I was excited to talk to you today,
because not a lot of people areaware of the impact that the
right focus on the land couldhave on a property.
We'll go to our second questionand, uh, you talk about
reversing climate change throughgardening can.
(07:31):
Can everyday people really makethat kind of an impact from
their backyard?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
yes, I believe so.
So again, there's some like I'mvery well connected in the
research.
So what they figured out?
In the world, there are twoplaces that are extremely
important for how our climatesfunction, so they are the lungs
of our planet.
So the first areas is thepristine landscapes like the
(07:58):
Amazon rainforest, the naturalparks in the US, the forests in
Canada, that are really reallypristine and well protected.
These are extremely importantum places for our own living.
They create oxygen, they theymake sure that climate doesn't
go crazy, which unfortunately ishappening now, because we are
(08:19):
losing the balance.
Yeah so, but these areimportant, but what they figured
out is that other spaces,specifically in the suburbs of
cities, where people are doingtheir own garden, they're
planting different plants,flowers are growing at different
times, you're growing their ownfoods, there's a lot of
different plants happening, andthat's not only like, not only
um, not only does it have to beplants that are from that region
(08:44):
.
You can also use like acollection of plants from all
over the world.
So, because there's added valueto that.
so they figured out that peoplethat are gardening and the let's
say the the more diverse, thebetter the better that impact
has on the climate, and what Ialso figured out is that when
you do gardening on aregenerative way, which is
there's a few principles thatyou have to follow, like, you
(09:06):
don't turn around your soil asmuch, you keep the soil covered
as much as possible, you usehigh quality compost, you plant
very diverse crops that are alsovery beautiful, that are better
for your personal health andactually, in fact mario, that's
the crazy thing that nobodytalks about when you do it right
, it's actually less maintenance, because people think like, oh,
if I want to create a beautiful, abundant garden, I'm going to
(09:28):
be spending all weekend, yeah,breaking my back on maintaining
it.
That's, that's a whole.
That's a whole myth.
That's a lie.
That that, though, it'sactually only the whole, that's
a whole myth.
That's a lie.
That, that, though, it'sactually only the gardens that
you think are lower inmaintenance, like your lawn and
cutting the lawn, these areactually way higher in
maintenance because you have tospray it, you have to um, your
maintenance company is coming,they're doing a bunch of stuff
(09:50):
and the bills just keep comingup, yeah, but if you create it
regeneratively and you only haveto do it once.
You set it up once, thenmaintenance goes down crazy.
So that's another whole topic,that that is a huge benefit of
doing in that way, but what whatthey figured out as well, when
you garden in such way, yourgarden becomes a carbon sink, so
(10:11):
we have too much carbon dioxidein the atmosphere.
It started it's not actuallyonly our own fault, it it
already started 2000 years agowhen the Romans started cutting
down the forests in Europe.
So that was already started,but then mostly industrial
revolution and still ongoingtoday.
But what they figured out islike when you do it in such a
way, more photosynthesis ishappening, and photosynthesis
(10:33):
draws carbon dioxide that's inthe atmosphere, draws it into
the soil.
So then you're actually havinga direct impact on the
environment, both locally, asyou're contributing to more
wildlife, and high-qualitywildlife, not just any animals,
but you're contributing tobutterflies, bees and all those
ecological aspects.
(10:53):
You're having fresh air foryour family, for yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
this is going to impact your personal health and
then also on a bigger scale, forfor the for the health of our
planet so the short answer isyes, it's possible to make a
difference, but you got to knowhow to do it right, and that's
why people should connect withexperts like you, uh, to make
sure they learn how to do it andit doesn't become a, you know,
(11:20):
an added chore on their, ontheir everyday living.
No, you got it exactly right,mario.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's like there's science behind it.
There's also ancient knowledgethat is coming up again.
But we could.
We don't have to do it the oldway.
We can use some technologies,like I'm incorporating ai even
in my courses, uh.
So yeah, there's.
There's a lot of fun stuffgoing on to create a beautiful,
abundant farm garden estate,whatever you want to do outside
(11:46):
and whatever your goal is like.
Some people love to growvegetables, other love love to
have flowers, others just wantsomething that is unique and
different in design.
It's all possible.
You just have to get the expertguidance and know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
We'll go to our third question.
As an award-winning author,what inspired you to put your
story and expertise into a bookand what's the message you hope
resonates with most people?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Another great question so the idea of writing
a book.
It actually just came to mebecause what I do every year
between Christmas and New Year's, I take the time and I sit down
and I evaluate my last year andI also look at things that I
want to achieve in the next year.
And it's like kind of a miniretreat that I just I go to a
(12:35):
cabin in the woods or somewhereon the beach so I'm like, no,
not too much internet and I canjust completely disconnect and
then I write down and all of asudden I wrote down I'm going to
write a book.
I never really thought about it.
I was like, okay, who knowswhat's going to happen.
And two weeks later I get anemail from Raymond Aaron, who's
also going to be on on um on theship with with us together at
(12:57):
the summit at sea.
I got an email from him like,hey, if you want to learn how to
write a book, give me a, sendme a message.
And I was like, yeah, this ismy sign.
Like I just wrote down the goal, two weeks later I get like
this email.
So I worked with him, wedeveloped the book and I was
just just thinking like I'm 33now and since I was five years,
(13:20):
I grew up on a farm that becamevery industrial, but now
currently we're changing it tobe regenerative, ecological.
And I just thought like okay, Ihave, and I've traveled the
world, I've seen many places, Istudied landscape architecture.
So I thought like I have quitea unique story that not many
people have like growing up on afarm plus studying landscape
(13:40):
architecture and traveling tomany places and I started to see
patterns in how do thingssucceed and why do things fail.
And since I was a child, Ialways wanted to know and
understand how things work.
Like I took all the toys of mysister that had like mechanical
things, I would break them openjust to understand the mechanic
(14:02):
of it and that's what.
I did with nature, becausenobody really understands how
nature works.
Just to give, like, one example, weeds are actually mother
nature's way to start restoringthe health of the soil, mother
nature's way to start restoringthe health of the soil.
So every time that you'remaintaining quote-unquote your
garden because it's actuallydisturbing your garden, you're
working like the soil and you'reremoving the weeds and you're
(14:23):
shuffling like yeah, is itcalled scaffolding?
Or I don't even know what it'scalled because I never do it but
what is it called?
like when you're you're raking,shuffling the, shuffling the
soil yeah, and you think likeit's to clean things up and make
it beautiful.
Well, what turns out is thatwhen you keep a soil bare,
there's no plants on it.
Then you're sending a directmessage to Mother Nature oh,
(14:43):
there's been like aninterruption or there's been
something wrong.
We'll send in the weeds tostart restoring the health of
the soil because it's disturbed.
So weeds are actually justplants that are trying to help
you as a gardener, because theyadd minerals, they're, they're
regenerating.
So I started to figure out allthese patterns that I that I
found out through my ownexperience, talking to people
(15:05):
taking courses.
I did a bunch of stuff and Ithought it's time to to
synthesize that in a book sothat people can start
understanding and learning,because once you understand how
nature works, it's it kind ofclicks in your head and then you
go out in your garden and youthink differently.
You see a weed and you're like.
You start becoming curious,like, oh, why is this weed
(15:25):
coming here?
There's a reason for it.
What can we do there?
So that's what I do.
On on, on a micro scale, butthen we can also see patterns on
a macro level that we apply indesign and systems that we
create for real estate, forfarms and private gardens.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Let's move on to question number four.
Landscape architecture is oftenviewed just as a design like we
mentioned before.
Often viewed just as a designlike we mentioned before.
How do you see it as a tool foractivism and global change?
Because you have a differentview about it?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
yeah, it's a good question.
I don't know so much aboutactivism, because if you look at
activism per se in the the howI at least perceive it this is
like people going on the streetsoh, climate change, we have to,
the government has to changesomething, and it's been going
on since the 50s or 60s.
I don't believe in that,because it's like we have to
(16:25):
take our own responsibilitiesand do it ourselves because we
can't rely on the government.
On top of that, I'm just soexcited to do it because it's
more beautiful, it's for myclients.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's easier to maintain.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Like the, results are are amazing and for me, I just
know that where we have come asa human race, we've, like,
pushed the limits of usingnature to our own advantage and
it has created a lot of wealthand prosperity on our planet,
like the, the whole industrialrevolution has.
And, and how farming, howefficient farming has become,
has pretty much eradicated worldhunger.
There's, there's no more worldhunger.
I have to correct myself, likein in some conflict areas, but
(17:08):
this has more to do with um,wars and political situations
like we can.
If that wasn't there, we couldfix world hunger today.
The technologies are soadvanced, but that came with a
downside that we are extractingeverything from nature and we're
not putting things back.
(17:29):
But now we have the science andthe knowledge and we see that if
you look outside the wildfiresin all of the countries, many
countries are faced with eitherthey have a super long dry
period, no rain for months, andthen it does rain, but it comes
in such high quantities that thesoil just erodes and we're
losing topsoil of our planet isgetting washed into the ocean,
(17:52):
and the topsoil is what keeps usalive, because the topsoil is
what gives us food.
So we've pushed it too far withadvancing and extracting from
nature without giving back.
And it doesn't have to be thatlike that, because with the
technologies and the innovationthat are all actually
nature-based and based on on howour planet actually functions,
(18:15):
when you start applying that onyour development, on your farm,
on your private garden, you'llsee that there's so much
benefits and you're actuallysolving so many problems.
Maybe, as a gardener, you say,oh, I want to reduce the
maintenance of my garden and I'mgoing to solve that problem.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Well, when you're going to solve that problem,
you're going to solve many otherproblems like your plants will
be healthier.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
You have to do less work.
The food that is growing inyour garden is actually going to
make you healthier.
You don't have to spraychemicals that are expensive.
You don't have to buy a ton oftools that are useless like the
whole uh landscape and and well,it's garden center industry.
They just they're made to makeyou fail as a gardener.
(18:57):
They just want to keep you busywith the next best tool and the
next chemicals thing and and 95of those things don't work.
They actually make it worse.
Um, so there's there's a lot tosay about that a lot of things
are made for a visual aspectmore than practical aspect yes,
but then again, the beauty isthe way I in my company, we also
(19:19):
put a really high focus on oncreating beautiful designs, like
in in high-end projects.
It's about luxury, using nicematerials, getting like
something super unique designwise, but just as like an extra
bonus.
We just solve a bunch of otherproblems related to weeds and
how you maintain your garden andthe healthy environment that
(19:40):
you create, because most of the,the luxury gardens that are
created, they're using a ton ofchemicals just to keep it going
and to spray the the, the herbsand keep plants somewhat healthy
.
It's kind of like it's like Isay I like to refer it like it's
a, it's a guard, it's a personthat is constantly on
antibiotics or in treatments.
(20:01):
So that's how most of thegardens are kept alive.
But it's not sustainable andboth financially and every year
after year, we have to add moreand more and more.
So it's a dead end and ifpeople don't do it now, it's
going to become so much harderin the future because the
climate is becoming moredifficult.
Like things that used to work10 years ago or 20 years ago,
(20:24):
they no longer work in thegarden because the plants cannot
handle it.
Yeah, we need to grow aresilient, healthy plants, and
that's the that all startsactually with with the soil.
If we fix the soil, you fix all.
Well, I'm even daring to claimif we can fix the, the soil
problems of the world, we canfix any problem like housing
crisis, um, mass immigration.
(20:46):
All those things are related,interrelated, so, but if we risk
, if we take care and we respectof our and we respect our soil,
then like there's a veryprosperous future for us that's
your.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
We're here at our last and final question for
today.
But, looking to the future,what's your dream project?
Uh, what?
What legacy do you hope toleave behind through your work?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
a very nice question.
So I have like yeah, I thinkyou noticed, mario, from now
that I'm I'm not the typicallandscape designer that just
designs like a normal privategarden you certainly have a
passion behind it yeah.
So I like, I love gardening, Ilove farming, I love, uh
(21:36):
developments.
I love the power of real estate, because real estate we,
there's a lot of money involvedwe can make big changes in the
world.
So I love these aspects and mydream project is to bring all of
that into one bigger projectwhere we can say, okay, this is
like a hundred hectare suburb ofa city and we're going to
(21:56):
create a model that is the, anexample of how we can actually
live, live in harmony withnature.
Yeah, without having tocompromise, because a lot of
people think, oh, if we're goingto do good for nature, we'll
have to live in in huts and andlive like we lived a hundred
years ago.
But it doesn't have to be likethat.
We don't have to compromise inthe amount of luxury that we
(22:17):
have.
In fact, the the well-being andthe wellness of the spaces that
we don't have to compromise inthe amount of luxury that we
have.
In fact, the well-being and thewellness of the spaces that we
live and interact with it'sgoing to increase.
We'll live longer, we'll livehealthier.
So that's a project that I wantto create by combining housing
that could be luxury housing,affordable housing, adding farms
with production in it, andthere's this beautiful
interconnection of, yeah, thisbig model of how we can actually
(22:43):
live in harmony with nature andleverage the power of nature.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Well, certainly, we have a lot of real estate
investors in our audience andwith big projects, and if you
connect, if you have a projectand you would like to integrate
uh landscape a special kind oflandscaping where there's a
purpose, uh certainly connectwith mature because he will help
(23:09):
you change uh the outcome ofyour project for the better.
That's here.
Thank you so much for being onthe show with us today.
Uh, I hope that everybody ourlisteners will take a piece of
your wisdom and advice on theirjourney and we'll speak very
soon again.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Nice.
Thank you very much, Mario, forhaving me.
This was great.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Thanks for tuning in to the 5 Questions Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, like
and hit the notification bellon our YouTube channel so you
never miss an episode.
Stay tuned for more insightsand tips to transform your real
estate and business game.
See you next time.
The value of the properties where you had green
spaces that were well-developed,well-designed and
well-integrated.
The value of those houses weredouble, or are today double than
the ones where they just do alittle bit of grass and trees.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we
unlock real estate and businessinsights, one question at a time
.
Welcome to the 5 QuestionsPodcast.
I'm your host, mario Lamar, ourguest on today's show.
(00:39):
From growing up on a familyfarm in Belgium to becoming a
globetrotting landscapearchitect and award-winning
author, he is on a mission toheal the planet, one garden at a
time.
Built on regenerative practices, he is transforming how we see
(01:06):
land, nature and our role inshaping a greener future.
Welcome, mathieu Meyers.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Thank you Mo.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Welcome to the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Thank you, Mario.
Thank you for the amazingintroduction.
Very excited to be on your show.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Mathieu, the concept of the podcast is very simple.
I ask five questions and we getstraight to the point.
You ready?
Yes, let's go Okay.
First question I have for youyou help farmers and land owners
unlock the full potential oftheir land.
What's the first thing you lookfor when assessing a property?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Great, question, so the first thing I look for when
assessing a property is mostlylike what is not working
currently, and when I do thatassessment I often come to see
that people are stuck mostly on,like they get overwhelmed with
the amount of weeds that are ontheir property.
Weeds is a huge topic.
Most of my colleagues don'teven dare to talk about weeds,
(02:12):
but I face it head on.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So that's something.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Then I also look at the current use of the space,
because many people see that thegreen space, even in real
estate projects in office spaces.
They think oh it's a leftoverspace, we have to maintain it.
It's a cost, and so I like tolook at the numbers, like how
much are they spending onmaintenance?
How do they look to that space?
(02:38):
Do they see it as somethingnegative?
Because most, like I said, mostpeople think like, oh, there's
something I have to take care of.
Because most, like I said, mostpeople think like, oh, there's
something I have to take care of, whereas there's actually huge
potential if we look at how wecan optimize the use of that
space and create huge value,both for the, for creating a
higher property value, toincrease the, the look and feel,
(03:01):
so how people interact with thespace.
There's tons of health benefitswhen you do it the right way,
if you don't spray and you don'tjust do lawn and a tree like
the the things that most peopledo.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, that's what I wanted to, to maybe ask your
opinion on it, because you knowthe introduction I I I gave you.
Yes, you do work on land, andmaybe with some people that just
work on their own personal land, but you also work with
investors on larger projectswhere they want to maximize,
(03:39):
like you said, the use of theirland, maybe even make it
eco-friendly where, um, theygrow their own vegetables and
for the community, uh.
So so you also look at biggerprojects, not just the, the
small garden of mr and and mrs,uh, everyone there, yeah, that's
(04:01):
exactly true.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So, yeah, do you want me to dive deeper?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
yeah, yeah, maybe maybe, if you don't mind, like
uh, what do you look for inthose bigger?
Because a lot of our audiencesare investors with multi-family
projects, for example.
So so what would you look atwhen, uh, in a project like that
?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
yeah, great question.
So, first of all, scale reallymatters, right?
So if I and and at the sametime, it doesn't matter, so it's
a little bit double, becausethe laws I wrote a book about
it's called 12 universal laws ofnature.
So the 12, 12 universal laws ofnature that I found they apply
to the smallest backyard or abalcony garden as well as to a
(04:45):
huge thousand acre farm.
The laws apply to everythingthat is outdoors and maybe even
to our personal life, so thatthat is one way that we can look
at it.
But if you can do something on abigger scale, then obviously
you can get way betteradvantages in so many ways.
And but the most importantthing is to do before, like
(05:06):
starting construction, beforethinking of of master planning,
all those things.
Things is taking a step backand and taking the time to get
clear on your vision what, whatdo you want to create?
What do you actually want toleave behind as a real estate
investor, because these projectsare big.
This is like you, it's a legacyfor you, right, right, yeah, so
getting clear on that.
And then also, when, what theresearch has shown is that.
(05:29):
So they in the U S, they did a,a 20 year research showing that
there were two communities butexactly the same sizes, so they
and they had the same amenities,like the schools were in the
same location, they had streetsaccess, so everything outside of
the communities were the same.
The only difference inside ofthe communities or the homeowner
(05:52):
associations, it was like thesebigger developments Right.
The only difference was that onecommunity or the developers of
that community decided OK, we'regoing to invest a little bit
more in creating beautiful greenspaces.
So, rather than like, andthat's what the other developer
on the left side did is thatthey said?
(06:14):
okay, we'll just do what isexpected of us, we will plant
some trees and do the lawn andthe other property.
They said, okay, let's reallyinvest in something beautiful,
let's look at design, let'slet's choose specific plans and
do something unique.
And over the next 20 years, thevalue and, mario, this is
(06:36):
incredible the the value of theproperties where you had green
spaces that were well developed,well designed and well
integrated.
The value of those houses weredouble, or are today double than
the ones where they just do alittle bit of grass and trees.
But the plot sizes were thesame, the buildings were the
same, the accessibility toeverything around it was the
(06:58):
same.
So imagine what theopportunities are for real
estate investors if you reallydoubled down on creating
something unique from scratch.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And that's why I was excited to talk to you today,
because not a lot of people areaware of the impact that the
right focus on the land couldhave on a property.
We'll go to our second questionand, uh, you talk about
reversing climate change throughgardening can.
(07:31):
Can everyday people really makethat kind of an impact from
their backyard?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
yes, I believe so.
So again, there's some like I'mvery well connected in the
research.
So what they figured out?
In the world, there are twoplaces that are extremely
important for how our climatesfunction, so they are the lungs
of our planet.
So the first areas is thepristine landscapes like the
(07:58):
Amazon rainforest, the naturalparks in the US, the forests in
Canada, that are really reallypristine and well protected.
These are extremely importantum places for our own living.
They create oxygen, they theymake sure that climate doesn't
go crazy, which unfortunately ishappening now, because we are
(08:19):
losing the balance.
Yeah so, but these areimportant, but what they figured
out is that other spaces,specifically in the suburbs of
cities, where people are doingtheir own garden, they're
planting different plants,flowers are growing at different
times, you're growing their ownfoods, there's a lot of
different plants happening, andthat's not only like, not only
um, not only does it have to beplants that are from that region
(08:44):
.
You can also use like acollection of plants from all
over the world.
So, because there's added valueto that.
so they figured out that peoplethat are gardening and the let's
say the the more diverse, thebetter the better that impact
has on the climate, and what Ialso figured out is that when
you do gardening on aregenerative way, which is
there's a few principles thatyou have to follow, like, you
(09:06):
don't turn around your soil asmuch, you keep the soil covered
as much as possible, you usehigh quality compost, you plant
very diverse crops that are alsovery beautiful, that are better
for your personal health andactually, in fact mario, that's
the crazy thing that nobodytalks about when you do it right
, it's actually less maintenance, because people think like, oh,
if I want to create a beautiful, abundant garden, I'm going to
(09:28):
be spending all weekend, yeah,breaking my back on maintaining
it.
That's, that's a whole.
That's a whole myth.
That's a lie.
That that, though, it'sactually only the whole, that's
a whole myth.
That's a lie.
That, that, though, it'sactually only the gardens that
you think are lower inmaintenance, like your lawn and
cutting the lawn, these areactually way higher in
maintenance because you have tospray it, you have to um, your
maintenance company is coming,they're doing a bunch of stuff
(09:50):
and the bills just keep comingup, yeah, but if you create it
regeneratively and you only haveto do it once.
You set it up once, thenmaintenance goes down crazy.
So that's another whole topic,that that is a huge benefit of
doing in that way, but what whatthey figured out as well, when
you garden in such way, yourgarden becomes a carbon sink, so
(10:11):
we have too much carbon dioxidein the atmosphere.
It started it's not actuallyonly our own fault, it it
already started 2000 years agowhen the Romans started cutting
down the forests in Europe.
So that was already started,but then mostly industrial
revolution and still ongoingtoday.
But what they figured out islike when you do it in such a
way, more photosynthesis ishappening, and photosynthesis
(10:33):
draws carbon dioxide that's inthe atmosphere, draws it into
the soil.
So then you're actually havinga direct impact on the
environment, both locally, asyou're contributing to more
wildlife, and high-qualitywildlife, not just any animals,
but you're contributing tobutterflies, bees and all those
ecological aspects.
(10:53):
You're having fresh air foryour family, for yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
this is going to impact your personal health and
then also on a bigger scale, forfor the for the health of our
planet so the short answer isyes, it's possible to make a
difference, but you got to knowhow to do it right, and that's
why people should connect withexperts like you, uh, to make
sure they learn how to do it andit doesn't become a, you know,
(11:20):
an added chore on their, ontheir everyday living.
No, you got it exactly right,mario.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's like there's science behind it.
There's also ancient knowledgethat is coming up again.
But we could.
We don't have to do it the oldway.
We can use some technologies,like I'm incorporating ai even
in my courses, uh.
So yeah, there's.
There's a lot of fun stuffgoing on to create a beautiful,
abundant farm garden estate,whatever you want to do outside
(11:46):
and whatever your goal is like.
Some people love to growvegetables, other love love to
have flowers, others just wantsomething that is unique and
different in design.
It's all possible.
You just have to get the expertguidance and know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
We'll go to our third question.
As an award-winning author,what inspired you to put your
story and expertise into a bookand what's the message you hope
resonates with most people?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Another great question so the idea of writing
a book.
It actually just came to mebecause what I do every year
between Christmas and New Year's, I take the time and I sit down
and I evaluate my last year andI also look at things that I
want to achieve in the next year.
And it's like kind of a miniretreat that I just I go to a
(12:35):
cabin in the woods or somewhereon the beach so I'm like, no,
not too much internet and I canjust completely disconnect and
then I write down and all of asudden I wrote down I'm going to
write a book.
I never really thought about it.
I was like, okay, who knowswhat's going to happen.
And two weeks later I get anemail from Raymond Aaron, who's
also going to be on on um on theship with with us together at
(12:57):
the summit at sea.
I got an email from him like,hey, if you want to learn how to
write a book, give me a, sendme a message.
And I was like, yeah, this ismy sign.
Like I just wrote down the goal, two weeks later I get like
this email.
So I worked with him, wedeveloped the book and I was
just just thinking like I'm 33now and since I was five years,
(13:20):
I grew up on a farm that becamevery industrial, but now
currently we're changing it tobe regenerative, ecological.
And I just thought like okay, Ihave, and I've traveled the
world, I've seen many places, Istudied landscape architecture.
So I thought like I have quitea unique story that not many
people have like growing up on afarm plus studying landscape
(13:40):
architecture and traveling tomany places and I started to see
patterns in how do thingssucceed and why do things fail.
And since I was a child, Ialways wanted to know and
understand how things work.
Like I took all the toys of mysister that had like mechanical
things, I would break them openjust to understand the mechanic
(14:02):
of it and that's what.
I did with nature, becausenobody really understands how
nature works.
Just to give, like, one example, weeds are actually mother
nature's way to start restoringthe health of the soil, mother
nature's way to start restoringthe health of the soil.
So every time that you'remaintaining quote-unquote your
garden because it's actuallydisturbing your garden, you're
working like the soil and you'reremoving the weeds and you're
(14:23):
shuffling like yeah, is itcalled scaffolding?
Or I don't even know what it'scalled because I never do it but
what is it called?
like when you're you're raking,shuffling the, shuffling the
soil yeah, and you think likeit's to clean things up and make
it beautiful.
Well, what turns out is thatwhen you keep a soil bare,
there's no plants on it.
Then you're sending a directmessage to Mother Nature oh,
(14:43):
there's been like aninterruption or there's been
something wrong.
We'll send in the weeds tostart restoring the health of
the soil because it's disturbed.
So weeds are actually justplants that are trying to help
you as a gardener, because theyadd minerals, they're, they're
regenerating.
So I started to figure out allthese patterns that I that I
found out through my ownexperience, talking to people
(15:05):
taking courses.
I did a bunch of stuff and Ithought it's time to to
synthesize that in a book sothat people can start
understanding and learning,because once you understand how
nature works, it's it kind ofclicks in your head and then you
go out in your garden and youthink differently.
You see a weed and you're like.
You start becoming curious,like, oh, why is this weed
(15:25):
coming here?
There's a reason for it.
What can we do there?
So that's what I do.
On on, on a micro scale, butthen we can also see patterns on
a macro level that we apply indesign and systems that we
create for real estate, forfarms and private gardens.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Let's move on to question number four.
Landscape architecture is oftenviewed just as a design like we
mentioned before.
Often viewed just as a designlike we mentioned before.
How do you see it as a tool foractivism and global change?
Because you have a differentview about it?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
yeah, it's a good question.
I don't know so much aboutactivism, because if you look at
activism per se in the the howI at least perceive it this is
like people going on the streetsoh, climate change, we have to,
the government has to changesomething, and it's been going
on since the 50s or 60s.
I don't believe in that,because it's like we have to
(16:25):
take our own responsibilitiesand do it ourselves because we
can't rely on the government.
On top of that, I'm just soexcited to do it because it's
more beautiful, it's for myclients.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It's easier to maintain.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Like the, results are are amazing and for me, I just
know that where we have come asa human race, we've, like,
pushed the limits of usingnature to our own advantage and
it has created a lot of wealthand prosperity on our planet,
like the, the whole industrialrevolution has.
And, and how farming, howefficient farming has become,
has pretty much eradicated worldhunger.
There's, there's no more worldhunger.
I have to correct myself, likein in some conflict areas, but
(17:08):
this has more to do with um,wars and political situations
like we can.
If that wasn't there, we couldfix world hunger today.
The technologies are soadvanced, but that came with a
downside that we are extractingeverything from nature and we're
not putting things back.
(17:29):
But now we have the science andthe knowledge and we see that if
you look outside the wildfiresin all of the countries, many
countries are faced with eitherthey have a super long dry
period, no rain for months, andthen it does rain, but it comes
in such high quantities that thesoil just erodes and we're
losing topsoil of our planet isgetting washed into the ocean,
(17:52):
and the topsoil is what keeps usalive, because the topsoil is
what gives us food.
So we've pushed it too far withadvancing and extracting from
nature without giving back.
And it doesn't have to be thatlike that, because with the
technologies and the innovationthat are all actually
nature-based and based on on howour planet actually functions,
(18:15):
when you start applying that onyour development, on your farm,
on your private garden, you'llsee that there's so much
benefits and you're actuallysolving so many problems.
Maybe, as a gardener, you say,oh, I want to reduce the
maintenance of my garden and I'mgoing to solve that problem.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Well, when you're going to solve that problem,
you're going to solve many otherproblems like your plants will
be healthier.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
You have to do less work.
The food that is growing inyour garden is actually going to
make you healthier.
You don't have to spraychemicals that are expensive.
You don't have to buy a ton oftools that are useless like the
whole uh landscape and and well,it's garden center industry.
They just they're made to makeyou fail as a gardener.
(18:57):
They just want to keep you busywith the next best tool and the
next chemicals thing and and 95of those things don't work.
They actually make it worse.
Um, so there's there's a lot tosay about that a lot of things
are made for a visual aspectmore than practical aspect yes,
but then again, the beauty isthe way I in my company, we also
(19:19):
put a really high focus on oncreating beautiful designs, like
in in high-end projects.
It's about luxury, using nicematerials, getting like
something super unique designwise, but just as like an extra
bonus.
We just solve a bunch of otherproblems related to weeds and
how you maintain your garden andthe healthy environment that
(19:40):
you create, because most of the,the luxury gardens that are
created, they're using a ton ofchemicals just to keep it going
and to spray the the, the herbsand keep plants somewhat healthy
.
It's kind of like it's like Isay I like to refer it like it's
a, it's a guard, it's a personthat is constantly on
antibiotics or in treatments.
(20:01):
So that's how most of thegardens are kept alive.
But it's not sustainable andboth financially and every year
after year, we have to add moreand more and more.
So it's a dead end and ifpeople don't do it now, it's
going to become so much harderin the future because the
climate is becoming moredifficult.
Like things that used to work10 years ago or 20 years ago,
(20:24):
they no longer work in thegarden because the plants cannot
handle it.
Yeah, we need to grow aresilient, healthy plants, and
that's the that all startsactually with with the soil.
If we fix the soil, you fix all.
Well, I'm even daring to claimif we can fix the, the soil
problems of the world, we canfix any problem like housing
crisis, um, mass immigration.
(20:46):
All those things are related,interrelated, so, but if we risk
, if we take care and we respectof our and we respect our soil,
then like there's a veryprosperous future for us that's
your.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
We're here at our last and final question for
today.
But, looking to the future,what's your dream project?
Uh, what?
What legacy do you hope toleave behind through your work?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
a very nice question.
So I have like yeah, I thinkyou noticed, mario, from now
that I'm I'm not the typicallandscape designer that just
designs like a normal privategarden you certainly have a
passion behind it yeah.
So I like, I love gardening, Ilove farming, I love, uh
(21:36):
developments.
I love the power of real estate, because real estate we,
there's a lot of money involvedwe can make big changes in the
world.
So I love these aspects and mydream project is to bring all of
that into one bigger projectwhere we can say, okay, this is
like a hundred hectare suburb ofa city and we're going to
(21:56):
create a model that is the, anexample of how we can actually
live, live in harmony withnature.
Yeah, without having tocompromise, because a lot of
people think, oh, if we're goingto do good for nature, we'll
have to live in in huts and andlive like we lived a hundred
years ago.
But it doesn't have to be likethat.
We don't have to compromise inthe amount of luxury that we
(22:17):
have.
In fact, the the well-being andthe wellness of the spaces that
we don't have to compromise inthe amount of luxury that we
have.
In fact, the well-being and thewellness of the spaces that we
live and interact with it'sgoing to increase.
We'll live longer, we'll livehealthier.
So that's a project that I wantto create by combining housing
that could be luxury housing,affordable housing, adding farms
with production in it, andthere's this beautiful
interconnection of, yeah, thisbig model of how we can actually
(22:43):
live in harmony with nature andleverage the power of nature.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Well, certainly, we have a lot of real estate
investors in our audience andwith big projects, and if you
connect, if you have a projectand you would like to integrate
uh landscape a special kind oflandscaping where there's a
purpose, uh certainly connectwith mature because he will help
(23:09):
you change uh the outcome ofyour project for the better.
That's here.
Thank you so much for being onthe show with us today.
Uh, I hope that everybody ourlisteners will take a piece of
your wisdom and advice on theirjourney and we'll speak very
soon again.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Nice.
Thank you very much, Mario, forhaving me.
This was great.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Thanks for tuning in to the 5 Questions Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, like
and hit the notification bellon our YouTube channel so you
never miss an episode.
Stay tuned for more insightsand tips to transform your real
estate and business game.
See you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!