November 19, 2025
I was out of my depth. The experts spoke from the Fall Horticulture Forum presented by Bartlett Tree Experts stage as I listened, rapt with attention.
Tim Boland discussed ripping out his entire front lawn to plant a prairie when he moved to his home in Martha’s Vineyard. Apparently, all good horticulturists tear out everything at the start to truly put their stamp on their space.
As a very occasional gardener, I’d moved into my home the year prior and gladly left the landscaping it came with. Desperate to maintain it, I’ve subscribed to the ethos “let it be” for four full seasons (or more).
But Newfields’ Horticulture Forum has given me a renewed sense of confidence to make my own mark. With speakers like Teresa Woodard, author of Garden to the Max (featuring Newfields’ own Irvin Etienne’s home garden), how could I not be inspired to “go big or go home?”
Between speakers Tim, Teresa, and Bryce Lane, I learned how to create a garden overflowing with joy, to manage shady spots in the yard, and to cultivate resilience. Here’s some achievable tips, inspired by the experts:
1. Make the vision board
I took a note from Teresa, who used a vision board as the launch pad for her recent book, and used Canva to try it out. Teresa’s approach embraces bold colors, fearless patterns, and collecting things that make you happy to maximize the joy. It’s not just throwing everything together, but rather aiming for an intentional, curated look. What happens when we “reimagine outdoor spaces not just as sanctuary but as vibrant contributions to healthful, greener earth?”
Images author’s own/Canva.
2. Bring the inside out and vice versa
I’m thinking about my indoor and outdoor spaces more fluidly. I’ve drawn inspiration from Renny Reynolds’ garden in Lake Worth Beach, Florida that’s featured in Teresa’s book. Junglesque, it abounds with unique plants, yes, but also with artifacts collected from his travels around the world; they add intrigue and blur the lines between indoors and out.
I now want to give that ceramic cow creamer that always dribbled and is currently gathering dust on the mantle a new life in my garden outside. I think it’d be a fitting companion for the gnome my brother painted for me that’s currently out there. Themes are key, and there can be a story in every garden creating little worlds within a landscape. Could this be the start of a ceramics theme for my garden?
Also, displaying plants in floating water bowls inside is a great hack. My colleagues and I joke that Hellebores popping up early in spring always seem a bit sad with their heads down, but they are beautiful. Bryce explained how breeders are working on a more confident Hellebore, but in the meantime he enjoys floating them in bowls of water inside to put their heads up! Genius.
Lenten-rose (Helleborus cv.) float heads up. Photo courtesy of Bryce Lane.
3. Think like a photographer
The speakers talked about texture, color, balance, proportion, unity, and more. Some of the very same elements I had learned about in high school photography class came flooding back. I want to apply some of these principles and visual elements to the spaces I create in my garden. (Thanks mom and dad for digging through my stuff to find my old photography class journal!).
A useful tip on texture from Teresa (via Lauren Springer of Fort Collins): It’s a game changer in garden design (more so than color). She looks at a space as if it were a black and white photo in shades of gray to bring out forms and textures.
4. Follow the light
When you move to a new garden it’s very difficult to figure out light exposures. I am ashamed to say I barely thought of it, though I had an a-ha moment when I realized why my Iris only blooms well when the shrubs around it don’t block out the sun.
This difficult task isn’t helped by plant tags as nuanced and varied as: “Partial Sun, Morning Sun, Afternoon Sun, Light Shade, Partial Shade, Edge Shade, Full, Deep, Dappled, Moderate, Dry Shade” ... the list goes on.
However, there’s liberation in knowing things change all the time. You need to experiment and learn the context of light in your own garden to make decisions. I look forward to the day when I can differentiate between the shade cast by a tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and an oak (Quercus sp.) tree. But for now I’ll pay closer attention to that iris, which I learned can bloom in both spring and fall.
Also, while I feel this intuitively living here, I learned there’s a big difference between morning and afternoon sun in Central Indiana. That affects how we garden. The heat load changes and influences the exposure requirements of plants.
Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) made Bryce’s list of shade tolerant plants that add color & texture (and aren’t Hosta—which typically steal the shady gardening spotlight).
5. Native plants aren’t the only option
Even among the forum speakers, there was some discrepancy in the percentage of native plants encouraged in a garden. The takeaway? Don’t get too hung up on the numbers. A few principles are key:
Plant local natives or regionally adapted non-native plants.
The world is changing, non-natives that are non-aggressive are important!
Aim to reduce turf grass square footage (talk about a monoculture). This will encourage pollinators.
And a parting point on pollinator plants: we have to be careful we don’t kick plants that don’t attract pollinators out of the garden for that sole reason. The best approach is to get informed and strive for a balanced approach in the kind of garden you create.
Keep going, keep growing
In the end, I learned about a new gardening inspiration, Polly Hill, an experimental horticulturist and founder of the arboretum where Tim Boland works. Polly began her garden at 50 years old after having her children. This reaffirmed my belief that it’s never too late to start something new. Polly started an arboretum from seed. When asked why she didn’t just buy established—or self-sufficient—plants Polly said: “I’d miss the teenage years, they’re the most interesting.”
It all comes back to cultivating joy. In Tim’s wise words: “There’s a lot of things stacked against us, but the simple act of gardening is making the world a better place.”
