Grow With Gordon Receives IU Kokomo’s 2026 Environmental Leadership Award
- gordonspermacultur
- Aug 6
- 3 min read
In February 2026, we received an email from Indiana University Kokomo that took us completely by surprise: Grow With Gordon had been selected to receive the 2026 Environmental Leadership Award.
Presented by the IU Kokomo Office of Sustainability, the award recognizes our work promoting sustainable practices in the community. We were also told that Grow With Gordon is only the third business to receive this recognition.
At first, we hesitated to share the news. We have always preferred to let our work speak for itself. But this award represents more than a plaque. It recognizes the kind of landscaping we believe in—landscaping that can be beautiful, practical, educational, and beneficial to the environment.
You can see IU Kokomo’s official announcement on the Office of Sustainability’s Facebook page or Instagram page.
Growing Something Meaningful at IU Kokomo
Grow With Gordon has worked with IU Kokomo on projects supporting biodiversity, ecological restoration, environmental education, and community involvement.
One of those projects is the pollinator orchard in IU Kokomo’s Sustainability Meadow. Faculty, students, and community volunteers planted 20 apple trees as part of a long-term plan to create habitat for pollinators and native wildlife.
James “Jim” Panyan, an IU Kokomo alumnus and co-owner of Grow With Gordon, oversaw the planting and landscaping. Several apple varieties were chosen so the trees could cross-pollinate. The larger design also considered deer pressure, future plantings, mulch, and how all the different parts of the landscape would eventually work together.
It was never meant to remain a simple row of trees.
As Jim explained in IU Kokomo’s article about the project:
“What we want is a functioning ecosystem that can support itself.”
Over time, the orchard is intended to support honeybees and other pollinators, increase biodiversity, and provide new learning opportunities for students. The surrounding ecological restoration area will serve as a living classroom for studying water, soil, native plants, invasive species, and wildlife.
Landscaping Can Do More
People often think of landscaping as a way to make a property look neat. We believe it can do much more.
A thoughtfully designed garden can feed pollinators, provide habitat, improve the soil, produce food, manage water more responsibly, and become healthier as it matures. It can also remain a beautiful and useful place for the people who live, work, or learn there.
That philosophy guides our approach to landscaping in Kokomo, Indiana, whether we are designing a new garden, caring for an established landscape, planting native species, creating an edible landscape, or restoring an overlooked space.
Sustainable landscaping does not mean applying the same formula to every property. It means understanding the conditions already present and choosing plants and practices that make sense for that particular place.
What the Environmental Leadership Award Means to Us
We are grateful to the IU Kokomo Office of Sustainability, its steering committee, faculty, students, interns, and volunteers. Their commitment makes projects like the Sustainability Meadow possible.
We are also grateful to our clients and community members who value thoughtful, plant-focused landscaping. Every pollinator garden, native plant, healthy tree, restored garden bed, and improved patch of soil contributes to something larger.
Receiving the Environmental Leadership Award encourages us to continue learning, teaching, and building landscapes that serve both people and the living world around them.
This reflects our commitment to sustainable landscaping in Kokomo and to creating landscapes that benefit both people and the environment.
We are proud of what has been accomplished—and excited about what is still growing.
Grow With Gordon
Fine Gardening. Curated Landscapes.
Kokomo, Indiana
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