September 15, 2025
Last week, Indigenous plant expert Andrea Deron Amaya gave an informative presentation on my Garden Spark Speaker Series design with Texas Natives. I would like to thank everyone who came out to learn, and to Andrea for sharing her knowledge.
The next Garden Spark Talk is on sale now
The next lecture will be held on Thursday, October 9th. Tickets are available here. You don’t want to miss it!
This lecture is for those who love magic on a whim and whim in their gardens and want to know how artistic gardeners created completely unique landscapes. Jill Noony from Bedrock Gardens teaches us how she and her husband Bob transformed an old dairy farm into a garden wonderland.
Side note: Tiktok users may recognize Jill and her capable husband Bob from the funny video that went viral last spring. Please view it on Tiktok or Instagram. Thanks to that video, they are recognized at the airport while they travel.
Rock garden
Magically mystical artist’s garden evolution (with a dark forest, all you need is a ball and a wiggle)
This is the creative and humorous story of Bendrock Garden and the creative couple, Jill Noony and Bob Munger, who dreamed of it, made it by hand, and filled it with plants and handmade art compulsively collected on the grounds of an old dairy farm in southern New Hampshire. For over 40 years, they expanded a unique garden into a 30-acre garden behind a farmhouse in the 1600s, then, against all possibilities, turned it into a public garden. It is a story of passion, perseverance and stupidity. Above all, it’s a love story about the land, their gardens, and each other.
Speaker Bio
Jill Noony is the problem maker. She found the perfect partner in her sleazy problem-solver, her husband Bob Munger. For over 40 years, they have created a spectacular, quirky bedrock garden in Lee, New Hampshire. There are Jill’s enthusiastic planting and sculptures (find metal bugs, sculptures and welding totems, small forks made with old farm tools, spiral gardens, spiral gardens), Bob’s monumental structures (wavy streams, skylight roof gazebos, and horse-driving carriages with trees running around. Jill’s new book, Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden tells the story with humor, passion, appreciation for serendipity, a tolerance to ruin things, and an obvious love for the process of gardening and creation.
Jill grew up in rural New Jersey and graduated from the Radcliffe Seminar program at Bennington University, Smith College Social School and Landscape Design. She had a lifelong interest in plants, created things and healed the human spirit. She lives with her exceptional husband Bob in southern New Hampshire, where she raises three children.
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On a midsummer afternoon when no one else was in the garden except me and my family, I first visited the bedrock. I could hardly tear myself. I later interviewed Jill about Garden Design articles and donated a photo to her new book, Bedrock, which I wrote here.
Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of Jill and Bob, and the garden that made the spell come true. We are delighted that they are traveling to Austin to talk to us in particular!
If you are near Lee, New Hampshire, make sure you visit the garden.
In the meantime, let’s come to Jill’s talk here in Austin and see if some of that rock magic rubs us off. Jill will also sign her book after the lecture.
Tickets available here – seating is limited, so get your place today.
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Dig deeper
My new book, Gardens in Texas: A vision of resilience from Lone Star State, is coming on October 14th! You can now pre-order on Amazon and other online book sellers. If you read it or want to give it as a holiday gift, consider pre-ordering. (I’m glad I signed a pre-order copy at my book event!) Early ordering makes a huge difference in helping new books get attention. For more information about Texas Gardens, click here – Thank you for your support.
Come and see me on the tour! I’m talking to a city in Texas to celebrate the release of Texas Gardens. The October talks include Planta Nativa in McAllen on 16th October. Austin’s natural gardener on 10/18. SFA State University Fall Factory Fair was held at Naco Doches on October 23rd. Houston Botanical Gardens on 10/25. Tomball Arbor Gate on 10/26. Join me, learn, inspire and touch on signed copies of books!
Tour 5 Austin Garden on Saturday, November 8th, on an open day tour of the Garden Conservancy in Travis County. Tickets must be purchased online in advance, and some gardens will restrict attendance, so book spots early. For more information, please click here.
Learn about gardening and design at Garden Sparks! I organize face-to-face talks in Austin several times a year, inspire designers, landscape architects, authors and gardeners to inspire and inspire designers, landscape architects. These are limited attendance events, so join the Garden Spark Meailas list for notifications when tickets are sold. Click this link to ask you to subscribe. Click here to see the lineup for Season 9!
All Materials ©2025 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
