September 15, 2025
Last week, native plant expert Andrea DeLong-Amaya gave an informative presentation about designing with Texas natives for my Garden Spark speaker series. Thanks to everyone who came out to learn, and a big thank-you to Andrea for sharing her knowledge and to Leaf Landscape Supply for sponsoring the talk!
Next Garden Spark talk on sale now
The next talk will be on Thursday, October 9th. Tickets are available here. You won’t want to miss it!
This talk is for anyone who loves whimsy and magic in a garden and is curious to see how an artistic gardener created an utterly unique landscape. Jill Nooney of Bedrock Gardens will tell us how she and husband Bob transformed an old dairy farm into a garden wonderland — which I’ve visited twice and still marvel over — and then succeeded in turning it into a public garden.
Side note: TikTok users may recognize Jill and her can-do husband, Bob, from a funny video that went viral last spring. Watch it here on TikTok or Instagram. Thanks to that video, they’ve even been recognized in airports while traveling, much to Jill’s bemusement.
Bedrock Gardens
The Evolution of a Magical, Mysterious Artist’s Garden (Complete with Dark Woods, All You Need Is Balls, and Wiggle Waggle)
This is the improbable and humorous story of Bedrock Gardens and the creative couple, Jill Nooney and Bob Munger, who dreamed it up, built it by hand, and filled it with obsessively collected plants and handmade art on the site of an old dairy farm in southern New Hampshire. Over 40 years, they expanded their one-of-a-kind garden across 30 acres behind their 1600s farmhouse, and then they managed, against all odds, to turn it into a public garden. It’s a story of passion, perseverance, and foolhardiness. Most of all, it’s a love story about the land, their garden, and each other.
Speaker Bio
Jill Nooney is a problem maker. She found the perfect partner in husband Bob Munger, her undaunted problem solver. Together over 40 years they created the magnificently quirky Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire. What started out as their joyful personal garden filled with Jill’s exuberant plantings and sculptures (found-art metal bugs, carved and welded totems, tiny folk made of old farm tools, a spiral garden) and Bob’s monumental constructions (a wiggly stream, skylight-roofed gazebo, suspended horse skeleton galloping through the trees) has morphed into a treasured public garden. Jill’s new book, Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden, tells its story with humor, passion, an appreciation for serendipity, a tolerance for screwing things up, and evident love of the process of gardening and creation.
Jill grew up in rural New Jersey and graduated from Bennington College, Smith College School of Social Work, and the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design. She has had a lifelong interest in plants, making things, and healing the human spirit. She lives with her exceptional husband, Bob, in southern New Hampshire, where they raised their three kids.
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I first visited Bedrock on a midsummer afternoon when no one but me and my family was in the garden — not even the owners. I could hardly tear myself away. I later interviewed Jill for an article in Garden Design, and I contributed photos to her new book, Bedrock, which I’ve written about here.
Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of Jill and Bob and the garden they magicked into existence — well, ok, obsessively worked on for decades. I’m delighted that they’re making the trip to Austin specifically to come speak to us!
Be sure to visit their garden if you’re ever in the vicinity of Lee, New Hampshire.
In the meantime, come to Jill’s talk, right here in Austin, and let’s see if some of that Bedrock magic will rub off on us. Jill will be signing her book after the talk too.
Tickets available here — seating is limited, so snag your spot today.
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Digging Deeper
My new book, Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State, comes out October 14! It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon and other online book sellers. If you’d like to read it or give it as a holiday gift, please consider pre-ordering. (I’m happy to sign pre-ordered copies at my book events!) Early orders make a big difference in helping new books get noticed. More info about Gardens of Texas here — and thank you for your support!
Come see me on tour! I’m speaking in cities across Texas to celebrate the release of Gardens of Texas. Talks in October include: Planta Nativa in McAllen on 10/16; The Natural Gardener in Austin on 10/18; SFA State University’s Fall Plant Fair in Nacogdoches on 10/23; Houston Botanic Garden on 10/25; and The Arbor Gate in Tomball on 10/26. Join me to learn, be inspired, and get a signed copy of the book!
Tour 5 Austin gardens on Saturday, November 8, on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day tour for Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance, and some gardens limit attendance, so reserve your spot early. Find full details here.
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events, so join the Garden Spark email list for notification when tickets go on sale: click this link and ask to SUBSCRIBE. Read all about the Season 9 lineup here!
All material © 2025 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
