by Kate Jonuska
tales of gardening for connection, healing and even “rewilding”
GARDENING CAN OFTEN BE a solitary activity, but in “American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens,” authors Teresa Woodward, Allison McCullough and Nick McCullough expose how gardening is also a community, one that thrives on mutual respect and the free exchange of ideas.
“The American gardening spirit is one of the most creative and diverse I have experienced in all my travels,” writes Nick McCullough, explaining that the book was inspired during pandemic lockdowns, when landscape designers may have been isolated in their own yards but found joy connecting online. The book is a pictorial tour through 20 of these professionals’ home gardens from across the nation, each sharing their favorite plants and invaluable tips—plus occasional adorable photos of their dogs.
The first section is dedicated to authors Nick and Allison McCullough’s garden, which boasts sculpted hedges, brilliant purple highlights and the integration of several found objects. They include tips on how to shop for antique and repurposed objects both online and in small towns. Later, Jeff Epping of Wisconsin shows off his stunning and lush gravel garden and shares his experience about the plants that thrive in gravel. Other designers are “rewilding suburbia” or restoring historic properties, each story fresh and interesting.
A heart-warming number of these personal stories are healing journeys, from an injury that created a new career in plants to a Black gardener renovating a former plantation in Georgia. Not every area of the country is represented, nonetheless, in addition to offering hundreds of pages of visual inspiration, “American Roots” warms readers’ hearts by showing both the diversity and unity within the community of American gardeners.
