Pages and Petals
The Story Behind Novel Gardens
When it comes up in conversation that I wrote a gardening book, there is usually very little surprise. I have always loved to talk about plants. However, if the conversation goes a little deeper, I inevitably hear the same question: "You wrote a book about what?"Admittedly, basing landscape design on classic novels is a bit unusual. To me, however, plants and books have always been a natural combination. My grandmother read and gardened obsessively, and she passed both of those passions down to me. Most of the time, I listen to audiobooks while I work in the dirt. I especially love the classics. One of my more embarrassing moments involved being discovered in the hydrangeas, sobbing hysterically over the end of Jane Eyre.
As a landscape designer, I spend a lot of time reading trade articles. One afternoon, I came across a grower’s blog post about "goth gardens" featuring black plants, dark foliage, and dramatic color palettes. While the post was well done, it felt like an appetizer when I was craving a full meal. My design brain immediately started pulling threads. I envisioned black and purple, silver and decay, and elegant, faded pinks. The idea kept circling back to Miss Havisham’s garden from Great Expectations. It was strange, undone, and beautiful in a way that resists being tidy.
I have always loved designing with themes. Thinking in a narrative helps me stay cohesive. When you have a clear image in mind, such as a Victorian tea party or a Mediterranean villa, every subsequent decision becomes easier. Sometimes those themes even become shorthand on my job sites. My team and I might refer to a project as "the Dirty Dancing house" or "the bee garden" to keep the vision clear.
The more I thought about novels and gardens together, the more insistent the idea became. Eventually, I did what I always do when an idea will not let go. I sat down with a sketchpad, watercolors, a cup of coffee, and the cat. Using my son’s old school laptop, I started designing and writing. The process was less linear than I expected and hard. OMG! Some chapters began as plant palettes. Others started with a single image or a specific sentence from a book. Many designs were revised, undone, and rebuilt as the mood of the story became clearer.
Novel Gardens began as a quiet obsession with those places and a question I could not stop asking. What if the mood and mystery of those fictional landscapes could be translated into real gardens? What if literature didn’t just inspire how we think, but how we plant?
Bring the Story to Your Garden
If you are ready to transform your own landscape into a literary escape, Novel Gardens is now available in two formats.