Preserving, sharing, and celebrating america’s gardensThe Garden Conservancy
Louise Wrinkle Garden
The documentation of Louise Wrinkle’s southern woodland garden in Mountain Brook, Alabama presents a distinct opportunity to explore the nexus of preservation and conservation. This is also the Garden Conservancy's first opportunity to interview the creator of the garden we are documenting.
Wrinkle was a founding member and board member of the Garden Conservancy and a distinguished member of the Garden Club of America for over 40 years. Her approach to garden design and plant care and penchant for communicating with wide-ranging audiences has contributed to an increase in appreciation of native landscaping practices across the country. Wrinkle’s self-published book Listen to the Land: Creating a Southern Woodland Garden chronicles the evolution of her garden practices and philosophy at her family home and garden.
The Suzanne and Frederic Rheinstein Garden Documentation Program at the Garden Conservancy seeks to capture and to share the essence of something that is largely experiential—the beauty and stories of a garden. This presents unique challenges and requires an innovative and layered approach to create a multi-dimensional portrait of a garden, a living work of art. Our documentation program is using words and pictures, letters and notebooks, drawings and plant lists, along with stories, sounds, and experiences that have inspired garden creators. The goal is to build, over time, an online resource that brings gardens to life in a new way in an educational tool that will continue to provide important insights for years to come.