The story behind the garden
Hi, I'm Susan.
And I killed a lot of plants before I figured out how to actually grow them.
My first garden was a raised bed full of ambition and absolutely no plan. I bought seeds I liked the sound of, planted them too deep, watered them too much, and then watched them do almost nothing for six weeks before I gave up.
That should have been the end of the story. But something kept pulling me back. I started reading — a lot. I read the books that told me what zones I was in, what soil amendments I needed, what companion planting charts said. And I implemented every single recommendation I could find.
Some of it worked. Most of it didn't. Not because the advice was wrong, but because it was written for gardeners who already knew the basics — and I didn't know the basics.
So I kept notes. Season after season, I tracked what I tried, what happened, and why I thought it worked or failed. After years of doing this, I had something more useful than any book I'd found: real data from a real garden, explained in plain language.
There Was a Garden is those notes, organized into something you can actually use — starting on day one, even if you've never held a trowel.
What I believe about gardening
Failure is information, not defeat.
Every dead plant told me something. I've passed that information on so you don't have to repeat my mistakes.
Generic advice costs you a whole season.
"Plant after last frost" means nothing if you don't know your zone, your microclimate, or what last frost actually looks like in your yard. I give you the full picture.
Confidence comes from small wins.
I deliberately start new gardeners with plants that are hard to kill, so you get the feedback loop of success early. Your second season will be bolder than your first.
Want to garden the way I do?
Everything I've learned is in the book — including the embarrassing parts. Let's skip a few of your worst seasons.
Get the Book