Mindful Botanica LLC

Mindful Botanica LLC Garden Design and Maintenance We are a garden and landscape company owned by Samantha Jesse and Wesley Mata Rojas.

We are a bilingual team, speaking English and Spanish. Samantha operates out of Ann Arbor, Michigan and services the surrounding southeast Michigan area. Her husband, Wesley, is based in San Juan de Dios de Baru, Costa Rica and services the surrounding areas in southwestern Costa Rica. Together, we aim to provide professional landscape services for you have a beautifully maintained home garden. Our approach uses practices that are conscious of the environment and local wildlife; we apply integrated pest management and advocate for using native plants in the landscape, when possible/necessary. Somos una empresa de jardinería y paisajismo propiedad de Samantha Jesse y Wesley Mata Rojas. Somos un equipo bilingüe, que habla inglés y español. Samantha opera desde Ann Arbor, Michigan y presta servicios en el área circundante del sureste de Michigan. Su esposo, Wesley, tiene su sede en San Juan de Dios de Barú, Costa Rica, y presta servicios a las áreas circundantes en el suroeste de Costa Rica. Juntos, nuestro objetivo es brindar servicios profesionales de paisajismo para que tenga un jardín doméstico bellamente mantenido. Nuestro enfoque utiliza prácticas que son conscientes del medio ambiente y la vida silvestre local; Aplicamos el manejo integrado de plagas y abogamos por el uso de plantas nativas en el paisaje, cuando sea posible/necesario.

A new kind of project for Mindful Botanica! 🌿🪵Our first retaining wall is officially in the books! This beautiful untrea...
10/03/2026

A new kind of project for Mindful Botanica! 🌿🪵

Our first retaining wall is officially in the books! This beautiful untreated red cedar border is the first step in transforming this sloped garden into a layered privacy planting.

We were lucky to have some guidance along the way from our experienced and dear friend Andy 🧡 who generously shared his retaining-wall know-how as we tackled our first build. There was plenty of digging, leveling, measuring, hauling, and learning along the way, and I’m so happy with how it came together!

We even had a curious little site inspector stop by to check our progress 🦃😝

And this garden is only getting started 🌲

Later this fall, we’ll add evergreen trees to begin creating privacy along the deck. Then over the winter, I’ll be designing the next layer of the garden, bringing more texture, color, and seasonal interest to the space in front of the trees.

One project, built in layers. Can’t wait to watch this space evolve! 🌱

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09/07/2026

Things I’ve found in mulch: 🐸🐍🐭🌿🍄💩
Toads. Snakes. Mice. Weeds. Fungi. Cat p**p.

But this 2019 discovery still takes the cake 😝🍑
Those little back feet absolutely kill me.

Gardening really is just digging around outside and occasionally uncovering something you were NOT prepared to see.

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Lauren Bernofsky, Bill Emerson 🎵

Not every garden needs a redesign 🌿Sometimes the best design starts with what you already love.I originally designed thi...
08/25/2026

Not every garden needs a redesign 🌿

Sometimes the best design starts with what you already love.

I originally designed this Japanese-inspired garden three years ago, and since then, both the garden and the space around it have evolved.

This season brought a patio renovation, which meant temporarily removing and transplanting some of the original plantings, reshaping the beds, and installing new edging to better define & frame the space.

The next opportunity? The gaps 🌱

Through our Winter Design Program, we don't have to start from scratch. We can design within an established garden, identifying open spaces and bloom-time gaps, preserving favorite plants, and introducing carefully selected additions that complement the existing style and tie everything back together.

Because sometimes thoughtful garden design isn't about creating something entirely new.

It's about knowing what to keep, what to adjust, and what the garden needs next ✨

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08/14/2026

No hot takes. No garden lessons. Just ✨this✨

🦋🌼

Consider this your regularly scheduled garden serotonin.

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🍄 MUSHROOM MONDAY! 🍄Since we're already talking fungi in my Stories today, I couldn't resist turning this into a full-on...
08/10/2026

🍄 MUSHROOM MONDAY! 🍄
Since we're already talking fungi in my Stories today, I couldn't resist turning this into a full-on fungi appreciation post.

Because here's one of my favorite pieces of biological weirdness:
Fungi are actually more closely related to animals, including us, than they are to plants 🤯

Yep. That enormous mushroom next to my face and I are sitting on the same side of a very, VERY distant evolutionary family tree.

Welcome to the family reunion 😝🍄

Fungi and animals share a more recent common ancestor with each other than either does with plants. And despite mushrooms spending their lives looking suspiciously plant-ish, fungi aren't plants at all. They're their own kingdom.

They don't photosynthesize. Instead, fungi get their nutrients by breaking down organic material and absorbing what they need.

And here's another fun connection:
🌱 Plants primarily store carbohydrates as starch.
🍄 Fungi store carbohydrates as glycogen.
🧍 Animals do too.

And the mushroom itself? That's only part of the organism. A mushroom is a fruiting body. Much of the fungus can exist out of sight as microscopic threads called hyphae, collectively forming mycelium, throughout soil, wood and other organic material.

Ecologically, fungi are absolute powerhouses. Depending on the species, they decompose organic matter and recycle nutrients, partner with plant roots, provide food and habitat, act as parasites, and play countless roles in keeping ecosystems functioning 🌎

So we're interrupting the regularly scheduled garden content for a little fungi appreciation🍄💚

Swipe through for some fantastic fungi I've encountered over the years.

Because gardening gets infinitely more interesting when we stop looking only at the flowers 🌿

And remember: the next mushroom you meet isn't a weird little plant.

It's your extremely, extremely, extremely distant cousin 😂🍄

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“I found someone who can do it cheaper.” 👀We hear it. Every professional does.And yes, sometimes someone can do the job ...
08/08/2026

“I found someone who can do it cheaper.” 👀
We hear it. Every professional does.

And yes, sometimes someone can do the job for less.

But price only tells you what you paid. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what you’re getting 🌿

These are two recently installed garden edges at two different properties. Same basic job. Very different ex*****on.

A clean garden edge isn’t created by simply putting edging in the ground. The line matters. The depth matters. The grade matters. The installation matters. Those little details are what create a finished result that looks intentional rather than accidental.

Professional work isn’t just about getting the job done. It’s about getting the details right.

That’s part of what you’re paying for when you hire someone who knows their craft: experience, precision, and the judgment to notice the things that can seem small until they’re staring you in the face from across the lawn 😅

Can someone else give you a lower estimate? Probably.

But “cheaper” and “better value” aren’t necessarily the same thing 😉

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We’ve been a little quiet on the Costa Rica front lately, but definitely not because nothing’s been happening 🌴While I’v...
08/04/2026

We’ve been a little quiet on the Costa Rica front lately, but definitely not because nothing’s been happening 🌴

While I’ve been busy with the Michigan season, Wes has been working away on projects of his own, including this driveway transformation.

And this one was all him 💚

What started as a rough, muddy driveway area is now a clean, defined entrance finished with fresh gravel and natural stone edging. The stone gives the driveway structure and definition while still feeling completely at home surrounded by the tropical landscape.

I especially love how something as simple as rock can completely change the way a space feels. No need to overcomplicate it. Good materials, thoughtful placement, and a whole lot of hauling rocks around apparently does the trick 😂🪨

Michigan may be keeping me busy right now, but Mindful Botanica is still growing roots in Costa Rica, too 🌿🇨🇷

More from Wes and our Costa Rica projects coming soon.

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Hemos estado un poquito callados por el lado de Costa Rica últimamente, pero definitivamente no porque no haya nada pasando 🌴

Mientras yo he estado a full con la temporada de trabajo en Michigan, Wes ha seguido breteando en sus propios proyectos, incluyendo esta transformación de la entrada.

Y este proyecto fue 100% de él 💚

Lo que empezó como una entrada rústica y llena de barro ahora es un espacio mucho más limpio y definido, con piedra nueva y bordes hechos con piedra natural. Las piedras le dan estructura y forma al camino sin perder esa sensación natural que queda tan bien rodeada del paisaje tropical.

Me encanta cómo algo tan sencillo como la piedra puede cambiar por completo un espacio. No siempre hay que complicarlo: buenos materiales, colocados con intención y, aparentemente, un montón de brete moviendo piedras 😂🪨

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Anyone can buy plants. Thoughtful garden design is the real art 🌿This garden is a perfect example.Before we ever thought...
07/31/2026

Anyone can buy plants. Thoughtful garden design is the real art 🌿

This garden is a perfect example.

Before we ever thought about adding new plants, we focused on understanding what was already here. Healthy perennials were carefully divided and relocated so they could become part of the future design instead of being discarded.

We also uncovered and restored a beautiful buried rock border, preserving a meaningful feature created by the homeowners' family and giving it new life.

Now the site is clean, prepped, and ready for its next chapter.

This winter, I'll create a planting plan that balances beloved garden favorites with Michigan native species, resulting in a landscape that's beautiful, functional, and designed to grow more stunning with each passing season.

Then next spring... we'll bring that vision to life 🌱

The Winter Design Program is about so much more than drawing a pretty plan. It's about giving a garden the time, intention, and thoughtful preparation it deserves before a single new plant goes into the ground.

✨ Beautiful gardens aren't created by chance. They're created by design.

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07/26/2026

Some gardens begin in spring. This one began in fall 🌿

Through my Winter Design Program, we looked beyond what the garden was and planned for what it could become ~ fuller, more layered, more resilient, and better suited to the conditions of the site.

We preserved & refreshed the original edging, handmade by my client’s husband’s family, then built the new planting around a balance of Michigan native plants and familiar garden favorites. The goal wasn’t to erase the garden’s history. It was to give it a new chapter 🤍

And this is still only the first growing season. Many of those native perennials are just little babies right now, with a whole lot of growing left to do.

Winter design → spring planting → years of growth ahead.

Imagine year 3 ✨

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There’s more to a garden than the plants you can see 🌿✨A garden carries the fingerprints of the person who tends it: yea...
07/25/2026

There’s more to a garden than the plants you can see 🌿✨

A garden carries the fingerprints of the person who tends it: years of plant knowledge, observation, experimentation, timing, intuition, and thousands of tiny decisions made season after season.

Inspiration is everywhere, and that’s a beautiful thing. But a signature style comes from the person behind it.

You can recreate the ingredients. You can study the finished product. You can even ask for the same look.

But authenticity isn’t something you can copy 😉🌸

~ Science in bloom, balanced by nature 🌿

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Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI
48104

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