Edwina von Gal on Gardening as an Antidote

To the landscape designer Edwina von Gal, gardening is much more than just seeding, planting, weeding, and watering; it’s her life calling. Since starting her namesake firm in 1984 in East Hampton, on New York’s Long Island, she has worked with, for, and/or alongside the likes of Calvin Klein, Larry Gagosian, Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, Annabelle Selldorf, Richard Serra, and Cindy Sherman, creating gardens that center on native species and engage in other nature-based land-care solutions. In 2008, von Gal founded the Azuero Earth Project in Panama to promote chemical-free reforestation with native trees on the Azuero Peninsula. Stemming out of this initiative, in 2013, she then founded the Perfect Earth Project to promote chemical-free, non-agricultural land management in the U.S. Her most recent effort, Two Thirds for the Birds, is a call-to-action to plant more native plants and eliminate pesticides, thus creating a greater food supply for birds.

On the episode, she discusses the meditative qualities of gardening; reframing landscaping as “land care”; and why she sees herself not as a steward of land, but rather as a collaborator with it.

Special thanks to our Season 9 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Edwina von Gal

[15:32] William Cronon

[15:32] Changes in the Land

[15:32] Tiokasin Ghosthorse

[24:04] Carl Sagan

[24:04] The Demon-Haunted World

[26:07] Perfect Earth Project

[40:37] Two Thirds for the Birds

[42:41] John Fitzpatrick

[42:41] Cornell Lab of Ornithology

[42:41] Merlin Bird ID

[47:01] Garden Club of America

[50:21] Diana Vreeland

[51:09] Peter Sharp

[51:09] Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center

[54:46] Frank Gehry

[54:46] Biomuseo

[54:46] Bruce Mau

[56:32] Azuero Earth Project

[1:00:37] Doug Tallamy

[1:02:01] Nature’s Best Hope

[1:05:12] The High Line

[1:05:12] Brooklyn