Quick Takes With: Edwina von Gal

As a regular reader, you may already be familiar with Perfect Earth Project, as Gardenista has partnered with them on an ongoing series about nature-based, toxic-free gardening. But you may not know much about the group’s tour-de-force founder, Edwina von Gal. The venerable landscape designer-turned-sustainable gardening advocate has been calling for less lawn, more wildlife for decades, via both her projects for clients and her nonprofit. She is currently on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, and an honorary trustee of the Native Plant Trust.

Edwina, who resides in Springs, NY, recently responded to our Quick Takes questionnaire from her retreat, Cocoloche, in Panama: “I built it with minimal resources to explore just that. How could I keep my footprint light and—with good design and the materials at hand—make a place that would engage and awe people?” It’s her philosophy to garden design as well. 

Read on to learn Edwina’s favorite hardscaping material (hint: it’s not hard), her go-to work pants (we want them now, too), and why she thinks it’s imperative for designers to push back on client’s misguided requests.

Your first garden memory:

The patch of silver dollar plant (Lunaria annua) that always returned in a spot by our swing set. I looked for it every year, and would open it and spread the seeds without realizing I was its dispersal agent.

Garden-related book you return to time and again:

Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States: The Guide to Creating a Sustainable Landscape. It’s a straightforward and well-organized book that includes excellent cultural information for choosing the right plant for the right place. I just wish it had more!

Instagram account that inspires you:

@PerfectEarthProject, of course. 😉

Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.

Experimental. Exuberant. Engaging.

Plant that makes you swoon:

Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboretum). It blooms late in the summer and then follows the show with brilliant fall color. It is relatively small, so it won’t outgrow its space or out-compete the plants beneath it. Since it is a southern plant, it is a bit of assisted migration for me, providing familiar blooms for wildlife that are moving north to escape the heat.

Plant that makes you want to run the other way:

Crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia). It’s overused and under-useful for biodiversity. One good thing about it, though, is that in the conventional landscapes where it is so popular, it doesn’t need to be sprayed with pesticides.

Favorite go-to plant:

Monarda punctata. It tends to be short lived—it might act like an annual—but I am willing to replant it as I never tire of its odd combination of wacky complicated bloom and understated presence. Not to mention how many pollinators love it, too.

Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:

When to stop.

Unpopular gardening opinion:

Designs that are harmful, but the designer does it anyway, because it is “what the client wants.” We are hired for our expertise. But how can we, the ones who are expected to know, allow even one more garden to be harmful to the environment and the people who enjoy them?

Gardening or design trend that needs to go:

Monocultures: large swaths of one plant.

Every garden needs a…

…birdbath. A nature-based garden provides habitat: food, shelter, and water. Birds love birdbaths and they are so much fun to watch. Each bird species has its own bathing style.

Favorite gardening hack:

Paint pens and wooden sticks for labels. They fall apart in a year or two, but at least there are no bits of plastic that are forever popping up in the soil.

Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.

Cut flowers, branches, and seed pods—never purchased. There is always something in my garden, year-round, if I rummage around. Store-bought flowers are most often very hard on the environment.

Favorite hardscaping material:

Scaping that isn’t hard! I love using resources that are as local as possible. Wood decking around a pool—sourced from the property itself. For example, tree trunks cut into slices can become “pavers” in places too shady for lawn.

Tool you can’t live without:

No Blist’r Trowel is lightweight and ergonomically designed. There are no welds to break, and mine has a red handle, so I don’t lose it.

Go-to gardening outfit:

Old denim shirts, Gamine jeans, and a leather pruner holster that Dianne Benson gave me a long time ago. At the time I thought it was excessively heavy, but it just needed to be worn and now it is part of me and will last beyond me.

Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:

Marder’s in Bridgehampton, NY.

On your wishlist:

An indoor/outdoor plant/potting room.

Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:

Manitoga, Russel Wright’s place in Garrison, NY, is the perfect integration of place and architecture. The house and the landscape fit seamlessly together.

The REAL reason you garden:

It’s my drug of choice—euphoric.

Anything else you’d like us to know? Future projects?

We have a lot of exciting programs at Perfect Earth Project, including our new Living Lands program, which provides individualized coaching for private land owners and landscape professionals to transition from conventional, toxic methods to nature-based practices. Sign up for our newsletter to learn more. And be sure to visit our amazing Pathways to PRFCT partners, who are maintaining beautiful, healthy, and biodiverse public spaces.

Thank you, Edwina! You can follow her on Instagram @edwinavongal or @perfectearthproject.