THE GARDENS OF HER
TEN WOMEN. TEN STORIES. TEN GARDENS.
A collection of gardens inspired by remarkable women and the stories they left behind.
remarkable women ~ Gardens to make your own
Gardens of Her ~ The Secret Garden
Some stories stay with us. They shape the way we see, the colours we love and the places where we feel most ourselves.
Gardens of Her is my collection of gardens inspired by women whose lives and work continue to move us. Each design brings a different mood to a Puglian garden, through planting, colour, texture and a place to pause.
I’m introducing the gardens one at a time, sharing each woman’s story and the garden she inspired. Each design is available to buy as a ready-made planting guide, so you can create it in your own garden.
Our first chapter begins with The Secret Garden.
The Secret Garden
Inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett
There is something quietly romantic about a garden hidden from view. Flowers spilling over an old wall, a path turning out of sight, a sheltered seat you only notice as you draw closer.
A place that feels discovered rather than designed, where you can slip away with a book and let the afternoon unfold.
In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox finds a door concealed beneath ivy, leading to a garden that has been locked and forgotten for years. With her cousin Colin and their friend Dickon, she begins to care for it. As the garden awakens, it becomes their private world, a place of friendship, hope and the small discoveries that make an ordinary day feel extraordinary.
For the opening design in Gardens of Her, I wanted to bring that sense of romance and discovery into a Puglian garden. Somewhere tucked beyond everyday life, softened by flowers and full of the promise of what might be waiting around the next turn.
The Garden In Puglia
Beyond the pergola
Create your own Secret Garden
Create your own Secret Garden
Here, the garden begins where you already spend time: at the edge of your pergola or stone patio. A gravel path winds through soft blue and white flowers towards a seat, drawing you gently out into the wider land.
The white flowering climber is the garden’s symbolic plant. Its flowers return each spring, softening the pergola and giving you something familiar to look forward to.
Existing trees can hold the view beyond, while a limestone boulder left from a building project can find a place among the planting. The pleasure comes from watching the garden settle in and become part of your home.
Create your own Secret Garden
Create your own Secret Garden
Create your own Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is an 80 m² ready-made planting design for a suitable space beyond your pergola. The €250 digital guide includes the planting plan, shopping list, plant photographs, planting steps and seasonal care.
Explore the guide to see what is included and check whether the design suits your space.
Inside the 17-page PDF you will find a numbered planting map, A3 planting and irrigation plans at 1:40, a nursery shopping sheet with plant varieties, quantities and suggested pot sizes, real plant photographs, step-by-step planting instructions, material suggestions, watering guidance, seasonal care and advice on buying your plants in Puglia.
remarkable women ~ Gardens to make your own
Gardens of Her ~ Frida Kahlo
Gardens of Her · Collection No. 02
Colour, courage and sculptural form.
Bring a little of Frida’s expressive spirit into your Puglian garden. Sculptural foliage, rounded forms and tall blue flowers sit among warm terracotta urns, with a generous flourish of magenta flowers at the entrance.
I’m introducing the gardens one at a time, sharing each woman’s story and the garden she inspired. Each design is available to buy as a ready-made planting guide, so you can create it in your own garden.
Our second chapter is The Frida Garden.
The Frida Garden
Inspired by Frida Kahlo
A garden can be a way of expressing who we are.
For the second garden in Gardens of Her, I wanted a space with presence: strong shapes, vivid colour and details that feel personal. Frida Kahlo became the starting point. Her connection with Casa Azul, the home where she spent much of her life, offered a thread between art, home and garden.
I have brought that inspiration into a Puglian setting. Pale stone and gravel meet warm terracotta. Sculptural foliage gives the beds their bold outlines, rounded forms add rhythm, and blue flowers repeat through the planting. Farther back, a deep blue tall shrub carries blue into the air.
At the house, magenta flowers make one generous statement. The terracotta urns stay empty: their shape is enough.
This is a garden to walk through slowly, to notice the light on a leaf and the colour beside a doorway. A place with character, made to feel part of the home around it.
The Garden In Puglia
The garden arrival or courtyard
The garden arrival or courtyard
The garden arrival or courtyard
Here, the garden begins where you arrive home, front door or even a courtyard. Pockets of planting within hardscape, structural planting, Aztec blue plants, terracotta pots, drawing you in with the magenta flowering focal point, and vivid planting.
The Frida Garden is a ready-made planting guide for a sunny, warm and sheltered space. Three separate planting pockets frame a clear route through pale gravel, giving you a design that can sit beside an existing house, patio, veranda or pergola.
Create your own Frida Garden
The garden arrival or courtyard
The garden arrival or courtyard
The 10 × 10 €250 digital guide includes 43 plants from nine plant types and three empty terracotta urns. The pockets can be repositioned to suit the setting, while retaining their full plant spacing and suitable growing conditions.
Inside the 16-page PDF you will find a numbered planting map, A3 planting and irrigation plans at 1:40, a nursery shopping sheet with plant quantities and suggested pot sizes, real plant photographs, step-by-step planting instructions, material suggestions, watering guidance, seasonal care and advice on buying your plants in Puglia.
remarkable women ~ Gardens to make your own
Gardens of Her ~ Virginia Woolf
Collection No. 03 - Gardens of Her
Quiet colour. Soft movement. Space to be yourself.
Bring a little of Virginia’s independent spirit into your Puglian garden. White lacy flowers, and feathery grasses move softly beside the water, with little romantic composite flowers and rounded evergreen shrubs set against pale Trani stone. A place to read, write and enjoy a little time of your own.
I’m introducing the gardens one at a time, sharing each woman’s story and the garden she inspired. Each design is available to buy as a ready-made planting guide, so you can create it in your own garden.
Our third chapter is The Virginia Garden.
The Virginia Garden
Inspired by Virginia Woolf
There is something precious about having a place where your thoughts can take their own course.
Virginia Woolf understood the importance of that freedom. A novelist and essayist, she questioned the expectations placed on women and made a powerful case for their creative independence.
In A Room of One’s Own, she argued that women needed money and a space of their own in which to write.
At Monk’s House in Sussex, she had a writing lodge in the garden. Her husband Leonard shaped and tended the garden around their home, where flower-filled borders, an orchard and views towards the Downs became part of their shared life.
For the third garden in Gardens of Her, I was drawn to this connection between a woman’s creative life and the place she made for it. I wanted a garden with room for a book, an unhurried afternoon and thoughts that do not need to lead anywhere in particular.
White flowers and fine grasses give the planting its lightness. Small touches of cerise bring the pleasure of colour, while little flower heads recall the informal charm of an English garden. It is a gentle interpretation of Virginia’s story, made for the warmth and light of Puglia.
The Garden In Puglia
The poolside garden
Create your own Virginia Garden
Create your own Virginia Garden
Here, the garden unfolds beside the water. White flowers, cerise pops and feathery grasses move gently in the breeze, while little composites soften the planting edge. Rounded evergreen shrubs give the border structure against pale Trani stone, a quiet setting for a book, an unhurried afternoon and a little time of your own.
The Virginia Garden is a ready-made planting guide for a sunny, warm and sheltered poolside space. Designed in repeatable 5 × 2 metre sections, the planting forms a continuous border suited to different pool lengths, with a separate 1.5 meter clear stone walkway between the flowers and the water.
Create your own Virginia Garden
Create your own Virginia Garden
Create your own Virginia Garden
The €250 digital guide provides a repeatable 5 × 2 metre planting plan using 15 plants from seven plant types. Repeat complete sections to suit your poolside border, retaining the full planting depth and spacing, with a separate 1.5 meter clear walkway beside the pool.
Inside the 16-page PDF you will find a numbered planting map, A3 planting and irrigation plans at 1:20, a nursery shopping sheet with quantities for 5, 10, 15 and 20 metre borders and suggested pot sizes, real plant photographs, step-by-step planting instructions, material suggestions, watering guidance, seasonal care and advice on buying your plants in Puglia.
remarkable women ~ Gardens to make your own
Gardens of Her ~ Maria Callas
Collection No. 04 - Gardens of Her
Pale flowers. Evening fragrance. A moment to linger.
Bring a little of Maria Callas’s elegance and passion into your Puglian garden. White flowers catch the fading light, with silver foliage, soft blue accents and fragrance drifting towards the terrace. A place to sit, listen to music and let the evening unfold.
I’m introducing the gardens one at a time, sharing each woman’s story and the garden she inspired. Each design is available to buy as a ready-made planting guide, so you can create it in your own garden.
Our fourth chapter is Maria’s Garden After Dark.
The Maria Garden
Inspired by Maria Callas
There is something special about a garden that gives you a reason to stay outside as the light begins to fade.
Maria Callas brought extraordinary feeling to her art. Born in New York to Greek parents, she trained in Athens before building an international career that took her to the great opera houses of Milan, London, Paris and New York. She became one of the most celebrated sopranos of the twentieth century.
Her gift lay in the way she brought music and character together. Through her voice and dramatic presence, the women she portrayed became vividly human, with all their tenderness, strength and contradictions. Her performances helped transform the way opera was interpreted.
For the fourth garden in Gardens of Her, I was drawn to that combination of elegance and emotion, the feeling a performance can leave with you after the final note. I wanted to create a garden to experience slowly, close to the terrace, where fragrance and the changing light give you a reason to pause.
White flowers catch the evening light. Silver foliage softens the planting, while a little soft blue adds depth. Evergreen shrubs give the border its shape, with airy flowers moving between them and scented planting bringing another pleasure as the day cools.
Maria’s Garden After Dark is my interpretation of her artistry, made for the warmth of Puglia. A place to open the doors, put on some music and settle into the evening.
The Garden In Puglia
The scented terrace garden
Create your own Maria Garden
Create your own Maria Garden
Here, the garden comes into its own as evening falls. White flowers catch the fading light, while silver foliage and soft blue bring depth to the planting. Rounded evergreen shrubs give the border structure, with airy flowers moving gently between them and fragrance drifting towards the terrace, a setting for music, quiet conversation and evenings spent outdoors.
Maria’s Garden After Dark is a ready-made planting guide for a sunny, warm and sheltered space beside an existing terrace or seating area. Designed as a 9 × 3 metre border, it contains 50 plants, with two optional scented climbers for suitable existing supports in separate planting pockets outside the bed.
Create your own Maria Garden
Create your own Maria Garden
Create your own Maria Garden
The €250 digital guide provides a 9 × 3 metre planting plan using 50 plants from eight plant types, plus two optional climbers. Designed for a sunny, sheltered border beside your terrace or seating area, retain the full planting depth and spacing, with separate planting pockets and suitable existing supports for the optional climbers.
Inside the 17-page PDF you will find a numbered planting map, A3 planting and irrigation plans at 1:30, a nursery shopping sheet with plant quantities and suggested pot sizes, real plant photographs, step-by-step planting instructions, material suggestions, watering guidance, seasonal care and advice on buying your plants in Puglia.
gardens of her
women behind the gardens continued…
