Gardens of the Pros

Have you ever wondered how landscape architects, plant breeders and native plant specialists garden at their own homes to create their own patch of paradise? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at elegant English-style gardens, prairie and native woodland gardens, small urban gardens, a nurseryman’s tropical garden and much more.

Nina Kozial is a horticulturist and educator who tends plants on a deer-infested acre about 40 miles from Chicago. She has taught horticulture, design and residential landscape design history at the Chicago Botanic Garden and The Morton Arboretum since 1998. She also wrote garden articles for the Chicago Tribune for 22 years as well as for Chicagoland Gardening, Old-House Journal, Organic Gardening and the American Gardener. Nina writes for the Illinois Contractors magazine The Landscape Contractor’s magazine and for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s web site. Her book, White Gardens: Creating Magnificent Moonlit Spaces” was released in February 2024 and is available on Amazon and at booksellers.