A Garden's Purpose

Essays and stories to inspire us to nurture diverse, meaningful relationships with gardens and landscapes.

The garden is a powerful, generous way of looking at the world. As beautiful spaces, gardens fill us with hope and wonder. As gathering places, they nurture friendships and communities. Thoughtfully crafted, they make us pause and appreciate our surroundings. Full of edible plants, they nourish us. Full of diversity – human and non-human – they connect us with the polychromatic world in which we live. They make us feel at home in our own bodies, in our cities, and on our planet.

Through stories and essays, The Calming Garden invites readers on a journey to understand gardens as places where we build mutually beneficial relationships with the living world around us. Each chapter in the book is dedicated to a specific idea or element of the garden, from places where gardens grow (i.e. a driveway in San Francisco, a bathtub as a planter, etc.) to garden management (why some lawns need watering every few days, and some gardens can go almost a full year without irrigation), to color and texture (i.e. how fine-textured plants like grasses can be used to unify a space), and everything in between.

Perfect for home gardeners, landscape designers, or as a gift for the gardener in your life, The Calming Garden is an ode to the wonders, designs, and habitats that live within a garden, and an inspiration to nurture diverse, meaningful relationships with the gardens and landscapes around us.