Our Story

Jake Harris

Jake has enjoyed his many pursuits in life as an educator, a community organizer, a bag monster, and a general contractor. For the past 9 years, he has devoted himself to the application of Whole Systems Design and Permaculture Principles. Jake has received a community education working with his hands, and is currently serving on the board for GrIP (Green Infrastructure Partnership.) He has studied the farms, forests, and gardens of the lovely PNW as well as Ecuador, Australia, Palestine, Israel, and throughout the USA. Jake loves getting to work on projects that advocate beautiful solutions right in our own gardens. This includes issues of climate change, peak oil, declining pollinator and wildlife habitat, water pollution, and access to sustainable food. He is overjoyed to share these pursuits with a great team, his wonderful wife Emma, his lovely daughter Luna, and their fabulous chickens.

Patrick Loderhose

Patrick comes to Stone Soup with a diverse background in all things outdoors. His experience includes work as a certified greywater installer, and as an advocate for proper greywater re-use. He also teaches and practices ecology, permaculture, wildlife tracking, and wilderness survival skills at Alderleaf Wilderness College. Patrick holds a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Newcastle, Australia. On the weekends you’ll find Patrick traveling, hiking, and canoeing with his wife, Meghan, and his best dog, Lucy.

Caitlin Moorleghen

Caitlin is the lead designer here at Stone Soup Gardens. Her aesthetic is diverse but driven by native, edible, medicinal and ecologically integrated plants, materials and systems. She studied Architecture at the University of San Francisco and wrote her final thesis on community gardens in the urban landscape. She loves working as a landscape designer and encourages communities to learn how to grow food, manage rainwater and be stewards of the land. Caitlin continues to be inspired by solutions driven by nature, the best teacher we have.

Luke Templer

Luke grew up riding his beloved BMX bicycle through the vibrant streets of Delhi, India, and came to Seattle for college after roaming impoverished rural waste-landscapes. He has attended Seattle Central, Antioch University, Dirt Corps, and holds a deep passion for Permaculture and empowering communities through ecologically designed appropriate technologies. He strongly hopes to return to India to help guide development in a more just, meaningful, and resilient manner. He is overjoyed to have the opportunity to contribute and be part of the Stone Soup Gardens team.

Bonnie Henwood

Bonnie Henwood grew up in Seattle and has always been in love with the Pacific Northwest and its ecosystems. A lifelong backyard gardener, she grew up hiking, camping, and exploring the outdoors. With a strong passion for wildlife and plants, she graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. In the summer after graduating she undertook a wildlife internship at Mt. Rainier National Park, hiking and backpacking through the trail systems and beyond doing surveys for American pikas and cascade red foxes. She has previously worked on a restoration crew with the Washington Conservation Corps, removing invasive plants and helping to create stream buffers of native trees and shrubs to enhance salmon and wildlife habitat. She is excited about everything Stone Soup Gardens does with permaculture, and is pumped to be helping people connect to nature right in their own yards! Other interests include painting, photography, hiking and biking, guinea pigs, and playing trombone.

Alex King

Alex grew up in a desert state and has always been fascinated by 'wild places'. Her first visit to the PNW spurred her green thumb enthusiasm. She spends as much time as possible outside and never tires of the lush wet scenery. Alex realized that she wanted to turn her hobby into a career and knew that training on the job would be the best way to jump in. She passionately dived into landscaping, nursery work, tree farming and now feels inspired to be building edible gardens. In her free time, Alex explores alternative healing methods such as Reiki, medicinal herbs, sound healing, forest bathing and volunteers at various organizations. One of her life goals is to visit as many national parks as possible and she jumps at every opportunity to travel internationally.

Why Stone Soup?

The namesake for Stone Soup Gardens is from one of our favorite children's fables about building community through food, Stone Soup. It is a story told throughout the world in many different ways but its fundamental message is that a community's greatest strength is found through sharing together. We seek to develop landscapes and infrastructure for our clients to share in this community strength. As gardeners we take a pile of stones and soil and turn it into a community meeting spot, a school, a sanctuary, a farm. Beyond just the landscape we teach the lessons of getting your neighbors involved.

Real Rent Duwamish

Stone Soup Gardens recognizes that our business benefits from the colonization of Duamish Land and from the knowledge cultivated by the Salish Sea peoples. In response to a call by the Duamish Tribe, we invest monthly in a more just future. RealRentDuwamish.org