The art of seeing beauty
in the everyday.
Great gardens and the people who make them.
Sue Libertiny
I’m a former mechanical engineer who walked away from a career to build a garden on 20 acres of Kentucky land.
My love of gardens started with a friend and a handful of perennial divisions. She was dividing plants from her own garden and offered me some. I was newly married with a new house. I grew up watching my mother and grandmother garden — so the plants were familiar, but the garden was mine for the first time. They grew. They looked beautiful. And something that had been quiet in me for a long time stopped being quiet.
Garden Moxie
Field Notes
Garden Moxie Field Notes is a letter that arrives every other week. Each issue draws on the wisdom of the great historic gardeners — the designers, artists, and visionaries who shaped the garden world — and asks what it means for the gardens we are making today.
Latest Video
After visiting inspiring garden centers in Detroit, I began asking a question many gardeners never consider: 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’.