09/29/2026
Here’s a sample from my new book (coming at the end of October) “What My Garden Taught Me”. Send me a DM or email if you would like to reserve a copy at the discounted, introductory price.
‘In November of 2025, I downsized from my home and half-acre garden. I had spent the previous 10 years transforming what was mostly lawn and ivy-covered ground into something on the scale of a small botanical garden, featuring hundreds of plant varieties.
It was a working trial garden as well, teaching me what each specimen preferred. Being employed as a plant purchasing agent in the horticulture industry provided
me with affordable access to plants. Over time, my hobby grew into what friends would call a part-time obsession.
The move was the usual, all-consuming affair. That winter, I was distracted by organizing and interior decorating. Early the following spring, my focus movedoutdoors, with the first job being the removal of an oversized pond, which found a new home as a water waystation for bees and wildlife. Designing and replanting were all too quickly concluded. Warmer temperatures brought back fond memories of my former garden, like a movie you always want to watch again. I also missed
the routine of mornings in the yard, working on projects for the anticipated big season of growth.
What I kept coming back to was a desire to share the knowledge I had gained over the years as a gardener.
After several decades of designing, expanding, and maintaining various gardens, I felt compelled to tell the stories of what it all revealed to me. Writing a bookwas not on my “to-do list,” but it soon became apparent
that I had found a replacement obsession, and a new routine was established.
Somewhere over the decade I spent in my big, beautiful garden, the activity moved from a series of chores and goals, to a relationship. I cannot pinpoint when I realized that all the parts interconnected, but a few years in, it happened.
My hope is you will be encouraged by these stories. Open your eyes and your heart to the endeavor of gardening. It can take you by the hand to explore much more than just plants.
I still venture outside first thing nearly every day. With my love for nature, that is a habit that will never die.’
-Winter Lyn Cohen
Copyright 2026
