Thirty years ago, when women in landscaping were even fewer and further between, Megan Wilson had dreams of starting her own business. With some savings scraped together and plenty of desire and determination, she went on to create an award-winning landscape design company that is an inspiration for all
At heart, Megan is a farm girl with a green thumb and a deep connection to the land she grew up in, around Thames in the Coromandel. She is also a self-made landscape designer, who has fought hard for everything she has achieved.
“I’m from a coastal, hill country farming background, born into a well-known sheep shearing family,” explains Megan.
“I left home at 17 and quickly found work in a nursery. By the time I was 20, I’d built and was running my own nursery specialising in trees. I spent a lot of time hanging out with plants, which, as an introvert, suited me just fine!” she laughs. “But, in all seriousness, it also meant spending a lot of time with plant people, which helped me develop my language around plants, which is a language only plant people really understand.”
In 1983, Megan got involved in a large-scale project reforesting Driving Creek – a 24ha Coromandel property purchased by legendary potter Barry Brickell that had previously been used for logging, gold mining and farming.
More than 27,000 native trees, including kauri, rimu, totara, matai, miro and kowhai were planted, using saplings from Megan’s nursery. The site is now an established tourist attraction with a pottery, miniature steam train and zip lines through the forest canopy.
“I learned so much from the experience and it really helped lay the foundations for my career,” says Megan.
With all her landscaping knowledge learned on the job and through starting her own business, Megan eventually decided to add some formal qualifications to her name. As with much in her life, paying for university didn’t come easily; she had to sweat for it – and was happy to do so.
“I funded my graphic design and landscape design course by shearing sheep for two years. I went all over the North and South Island to find work.”
In fact, shearing is still something Megan finds time for – and has won awards doing it!
“My record is about 500 lambs in one day and 440 ewes,” she says. “It’s great to see more women shearing professionally. We’ve always been part of the shearing culture, although we haven’t always been the ones doing it; I used to wait my turn when the men were at smoko. The change in culture has been very positive.”
Hard work pays off
With a wealth of experience and two design qualifications under her belt, Megan moved to Tauranga and started her current business, Earth Canvas, in 1994 with just $3,000 in the bank.
Through a combination of hard work and determination, and aligning her softscaping skills with a landscape designer called Mark Cashmore, Megan's business was quickly up and running.
“My work ethic and strength in design, particularly in soft landscaping, complemented Mark’s network of landscape construction specialists and pool builders. Working with Mark really helped me understand the business and grow my own contact book.”
Having spent more than half her career collaborating with Mark, Megan truly appreciates his impact on her work.
"Mark continually fronted clean design solutions and gave me a place to excel and show what plants can do. It was an honour to work with someone so gifted."
All these years later, Earth Canvas is essentially the same business – small but strong and comfortable doing what it’s good at.
“The first thing I want to build is a relationship and the rest flows from there,” says Megan. “I always strive to build a deep connection between my designs and the natural world.
“I specialise in redeveloping private and commercial sites. Recently, I’ve been involved in the layout of decking and flow between spaces via soft landscape design at a 2.1ha site in Welcome Bay, Tauranga.
“I also service a number of maintenance contracts for work I’ve implemented in the past."
During her time in business, Megan has preferred to keep things small. Her staff numbers generally never move beyond two or three, and most only stay for a couple of years before moving onto a bigger company or starting their own business.
These days, Megan relies on a small network of preferred subcontractors to help bring her designs to life.
Female role model
In 2020, Megan had to tackle the tricky hurdle of moving her well-established and connected business from Tauranga to Thames, so she could be closer to her mum.
“It was a tough period. It was around Covid during my mum’s last few years and I was determined not to fail – at looking after my mum or keeping my business alive. “On the business side, I’d created a support system and I wasn’t going to let that disappear. On the family side, I wasn’t going to let mum down.”
On reflection, Megan says that while it was challenging business-wise, she was glad to return to the land she grew up in.
Megan's commitment to being self-sufficient developed early on – and it's a trait that has carried her through all her experiences.
“I learned that you had to make sure you made things work for yourself because, 30 years ago, if you didn’t want to get married, there wasn’t much security in being a woman. So, I’ve always worked hard to make sure I can provide for myself.”
Megan adds that while times are different now, she still feels there needs to be more visible women in the industry to inspire the next generation – and show them they can succeed in a traditionally male-dominated field.
Strong roots
Megan is a long-term RML member, having originally joined during the LIANZ days in the early 2000s. She says her membership helps her stay up to date with industry best practice and prove to others that her work meets a high standard.
The quality of Megan’s work speaks for itself. One of her garden designs helped a Tauranga property win the ‘renovation up to $500,000 category’ at the 2021 Registered Master Builders House of the Year awards. (see main photo)
“I used plants as natural green walls and layering to link the upper parts of the house to the ground level, and added a curved lawn area to achieve some proportion to the house when viewed from the upper levels and to create a destination in the garden. I was very proud of that job!”
As Earth Canvas enters its early thirties, Meagan’s determination to be the best burns as brightly as ever.
“I think the people I work for see my longevity and capability and respond well to it. At the end of the day, the success of the business is how I put a roof over my head. The past 30 years have certainly been a humbling process.”
It may be humbling, but Megan has also had plenty of proud moments and continues to provide inspiration to a new generation of women in the industry.
