Garden Moxie
An ornamental garden in Kentucky. Built season by season. What began with a handful of borrowed plants has become an ongoing study in how gardens take shape—through observation, design, and time.
The Work
I’m Sue Libertiny, a mechanical engineer who stepped away from a career to build a garden on 20 acres of Kentucky land. What started quietly has become my passion.
Before Kentucky, I gardened for years on an established property in Michigan — a place with mature beds, fertile soil, and the kind of history that only time can build. When my husband and I made the decision to move and build from the ground up, that familiar garden was left behind. Rabbit Run is where we landed in the meantime: a working base, a testing ground, and a temporary home while our permanent home, Sugar Hill, takes shape.
Rabbit Run is, in every sense, an experimental garden — testing plants and color schemes under real conditions, learning what works and what doesn’t. These lessons will shape Sugar Hill.
The Perspective
Great gardens are not accidents. They are built from a series of design decisions — about enclosure, movement, perspective, and time.
Garden Moxie draws from both lived experience and the work of historic gardeners to explore what makes a garden not just beautiful, but meaningful. I’m focused on the design principles that help make spaces extraordinary.
Garden Moxie Field Notes
Garden Moxie Field Notes is a letter that arrives every other week. A quiet record of the garden as it unfolds. Part observation, part design study—each letter connects what is happening here in Kentucky with the ideas and traditions that have shaped gardens for generations.
Latest from the Garden
After visiting inspiring garden centers in Detroit, I began asking a question: why do some gardens feel magical while others simply look good on paper? The answer lies in the design language behind great gardens.
In this video, you’ll discover the core garden design principles used by landscape architects and historic garden designers — including enclosure, sight lines, sensory layering, micro climate, and the concept of the ‘garden room’.
Start Here
If you’re new to Garden Moxie, I suggest you begin with the design principles that help us create beautiful spaces.
Start with the Bones
Why structure matters more than plants
Timeless Design Principles
The elements that make a garden feel complete
What Great Gardens Teach Us
Lessons from the designers who built them
These aren’t quick tips. They are the design principles that help us build extraordinary spaces.