Planting a seed, growing a garden

I started self-study in horticulture and garden design in 2020 during COVID. Within a couple years, I was designing native, edible, and climate-resilient gardens, with a focus on strengthening our bond with nature, place, creativity, and wellbeing. As part of this study, I converted my half-acre lawn in Falls Church, Virginia to a native cottage garden. The four-year project brought me sweat, healing, connection, and abundant joy.

As I worked in the garden, memories flooded back: Helping my grandfather harvest vegetables in Vermont, and making sugar-on-snow from the maple syrup he cultivated on the maple and dairy farm where he worked most of his life. Gathering coconuts and mangoes from my family’s cattle ranch in Rio Verde, Goiás, Brazil in the summer before college. Picking raspberries, blackberries, and Concord grapes from my backyard growing up in Oakton, Virginia. An eight-grade career aptitude test, with results that said I might be a farmer.

After a lifetime spent in more urban pursuits, I started a new chapter in my 25+ year design career — the creation and cultivation of gardens. In 2024, I moved with my husband, Karl, and our furry family to a small farm in Lexington, Virginia, in the southern Shenandoah Valley and in northern South Central Appalachia. Our home, perched above Sugar Creek (and so forever endeared to us as Sugar Creek farm), is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Scott-Hutton farm. Here, we harvest watercress from the spring, watch Easterm bluebirds in the meadow, and connect with the abundant nature that surrounds us.

I’m a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA), Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS), and American Horticultural Society (AHS). I am currently studying botanical illustration, horticulture, and landscape design through the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and New York Botanical Garden (NYBG).

As part of my continuing design practice, I consult on and design native gardens for family, friends, and anyone who finds joy in nature.