The Art Box - Episode 353 - Desert Love: Growing Native with Kym Martin

In this episode of The Art Box, we sat down at Mystery Ranch, with Kym Martin, Outreach Coordinator for Desert Love Native Plants, a nonprofit nursery rooted at Cactus Joe’s near the Red Rock Canyon foothills. Desert Love is more than a nursery, it’s a movement to make native plants accessible while inspiring communities to reimagine their landscapes and become stewards of the desert.

Kym shares her journey from 15 years of teaching English to cultivating a new classroom in the desert, where lessons come from yucca, creosote, and the quiet resilience of native flora. She lights up when talking about her favorite, the globe mallow, an unassuming wildflower that paints the desert in bursts of orange. Just as the mallow creates color and habitat, Kym envisions building native plant corridors throughout the city, stitching together pockets where pollinators, birds, and people alike can thrive. With a background in permaculture and water-harvesting, she brings both knowledge and passion to her role, reminding us how native plants can reshape not only our landscapes, but our communities.

Learn more at: https://www.desertlovelv.org/