President, The Villages Chapter Florida Native Plant Society

12 years of experience using native plants in managed community residential landscapes

A Chemical Engineer by degree, Steve Turnipseed is retired from a 32-year international career with Chevron. Steve provides passionate, strategic leadership for The Villages Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) and as an advocate for native plant landscaping.

Steve has personally converted his turfgrass lawn into a Florida Friendly Landscape using over 100 species of native plants. Steve’s landscape has been recognized with multiple awards from the Florida Native Plant Society and was featured in an episode of Flip Your Florida Yard, a new reality television series from Crawford Entertainment that uses landscape transformation projects to encourage water conservation and other Florida-Friendly landscaping™ benefits.

Steve has also directly assisted over 20 other residents of The Villages in successfully converting their yards to Florida Friendly landscaping using all or mostly native plants, assisting in design consultation, plant selection, navigating the approval processes and planning for maintenance that meets community standards.

Steve regularly teaches workshops and consults with managed community residents to help them achieve aesthetic requirements while incorporating more native plants.

Florida Water Star™ Accredited Professional

Certified UF/IFAS Master Gardener