On Walnut Hill: The Evolution of a Garden - Tapa dura

This is the story of a garden and the story of family in the garden. The narrative chronicles the 46-year history a two-acre, Maryland hillside as transformed by the late plantsman Kurt Bluemel. Photographs by the award-winning landscape photographer and seasonal essays similar to prose poems showcase the garden over one year’s time. A separate section includes garden advice, favorite tools, and horticultural resources.

For more than four decades, passionate gardeners, A.C. and Penney Hubbard, collaborated with the renowned plantsman, the late Kurt Bluemel, to transform a hillside near Baltimore, Maryland, into a horticultural masterpiece. In On Walnut Hill: The Evolution of a Garden, writer Kathy Hudson chronicles the story of the garden and the Hubbard family in their garden. Award-winning landscape photographer Roger Foley brings to life the elegant garden as it changes over the course of a year — from a still and stately winter garden to its spring profusion, strong summer color, and final autumnal splendor. Foley’s exquisite photographs showcase the artistry, nuance, and horticultural diversity in the Hubbard garden. Guided by Bluemel’s genius for bringing life and movement to the landscape with his trademark grasses and perennials, the Hubbards transformed the two acres surrounding their 1937 Colonial Revival house into a world-class Eden. On Walnut Hill invites readers to accompany the Hubbards as they grow from weekend gardeners to respected horticulturalists amassing outstanding collections of conifers, acers, perennials, rare and unusual trees, and sculpture. Listed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens, the Hubbard garden has been featured in Baltimore Style, Baltimore magazine, The Baltimore Sun, Professional Builder & Remodeler, Better Homes and Gardens, and Southern Living. It has been included on numerous local and national tours of the Horticultural Society of Maryland, Ladew Topiary Gardens, The Garden Conservancy, The Garden Club of America, and the Perennial Plant Association. On Walnut Hill offers an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a world-class garden. It is a story of passion, artistry, and, above all, a family’s love for the land on which they live.As Anne Raver, former garden columnist of The New York Times, says: "Any great garden changes with the seasons, and every hour of the day, but this one has changed the Hubbards and become their world."