Casey Zap: Grower and Landscape Designer

From beats to botany, Casey Zap has done it all. When he was deep into the music scene in New York, he never would have expected that his life would shift to him getting into landscape design. 

Really, it was a total accident that triggered his interest in plants. The simple act of throwing out a rotten papaya in his yard and realizing that it started growing into a tree sparked a fascination in him. 

“It fruited, and I gave them to my neighbors and that was a really good experience for me. I really enjoyed, like sharing this thing that I had grown.”

When he first started the Center for Subtropical Affairs, Casey integrated what he knew about making a popular social setting in from his club experience in order to draw people in to learn about plants, hosting events and parties. 

While that was great for his transition from his old career into the plant world, his focus is now on spreading education around civic ecology through local communities. 

“We just have to tap back into this kind of connection that we have with the ecosystems that we live in and be good stewards because we're not going to be here forever.”

A film by Jacopo Fantastichini.