Mackenzie Laurin
My name is Mackenzie Laurin; I am the founder, horticulturist, and practicing herbalist behind The Ladybird Company. My story begins with my hands in the dirt.
Quite literally, as it turns out- my first memory is of me, around 2 years old, in my mom's vegetable garden, shovelling fistfuls of dirt into my mouth. In my mind, this memory feels like the creation of my consciousness- I blink, and the world comes into colour: two dirty hands, a brilliant blue sky, a garden of vibrant greens, and my mom, exasperated and rushing over to scoop the dirt out of my mouth. So commenced my lifelong love affair with the soil.
In 2021, I graduated from the Horticulture Technologist diploma program at Olds College, where I focused my studies on native ecosystem restoration, permaculture, and ethnobiology. Shortly after, my health deteriorated, and I felt the door shut on the path I had so intently envisioned for myself. Isolated within a body that made each day a battle to be fought, and faced with an indifferent healthcare system that began to feel more and more disconnected from true healing, I reached a breaking point. I had found myself in the quiet ruins of the life I thought I would live, and I took it for what it was. A push. I needed to take my power back, or risk never again being in control of my life and my health. It was at this unhappy crossroads that I chose to turn backwards, to the passions that had guided me in my youth. Through independent study, fieldwork, and everyday practice, I dedicated every spare moment I had diving into the study of herbal medicine, nutrition and the biological sciences, and in every sense, it felt like coming home. Over the years, an idea took root in my heart. One that felt, in my bones, like something greater calling to me.
From that day on, The Ladybird Company rapidly began to take shape. Aspirations turned to fully formed ideas, turned to testing products, turned to crafting tailored medicines for my loved ones. In early 2025, it was finally ready, and I launched the company.
The Ladybird Company became the vessel through which I could share my lifetime of lessons; gifted to me by the elders, plants, and animals that have been my teachers. All of the offerings of my business stay true to this gift of connection. Through plant walks, classes, workshops, and seasonal gatherings, I invite others to experience that same sense of wonder and belonging. This work is more than a business to me- it is a love letter to the land that raised me. One story, one seed, one shared cup of tea at a time.