About

A Passion For Art Fused With Design

Tap Into a Lifetime of Passion For Garden & Landscape Design

Susie is a certified landscape and garden designer through the Royal British Academy of Garden Design. She is an artist who has worked
with nationwide clientele as well as in Vermont garden and nursery centers and conservatories since 1995.

Discovering a Lifelong Passion for Gardening: A Childhood Journey

Susie has lived in numerous parts of the world but grew up primarily in Africa. She spent her summers in Greensboro, VT. This perpetual exposure to diverse plant life from a young age seeded a profound respect and love for nature within her.

In her formative years, Susie would routinely spend her summers expressing their nascent artistic instincts through painting flowers and assembling floral displays. This passion took root early, already manifesting in her own garden designs.

Interestingly, as a testament to Susie's budding enthusiasm for landscaping, she took to crafting miniature moss gardens when she was just four years old. This undeniably creative and nature-centric childhood laid the foundation for her future journey as an artistic landscape designer.

A fusion of artistic flair and horticultural expertise. I possess a deep understanding of each plant's requirements and peculiarities, and I use their colors, textures, and shapes to "paint" a vivid picture.

What Sets Susie Apart?

Taking into account how each plant appears at various times of the day and throughout the seasons, I create gardens that are truly living works of art.

Services

My paternal grandmother, Frances Day Lukens, was a celebrated architect and artist who spent summers with her family in Greensboro, Vermont. She was prolific with her watercolor paintings of landscapes and designed and planted family and community perennial gardens. In Greensboro, I began planting moss gardens at the age of four. My connection to my grandmother manifests through my designs, care, and devotion to our family gardens, on the shores of Caspian Lake. To this day, Vermont remains a connectedness to nature and a constant source of inspiration for my garden design work.

Frances Day Lukens Painting In Greensboro

Frances Day Lukens (1897-1961). She was the first woman to graduate from MIT with a degree in Architecture.

Her work can be found in and around Philadelphia in homes and farms in Vermont. She was known for her garden designs, prolific watercolors, and architectural designs.

I combine my background in the history of art, and fine arts, my love for the natural world, and my aesthetic creativity to represent, in three-dimensional forms, gardens as my living picturesque scenes.

I am an artist and horticulturalist. Gardens are my canvasses; plants, shrubs, and trees are my subject matter; and garden styles are my tools. I design beautifully blended gardens or colors, shapes, and textures to create a dynamic visual feast.

Like generations of my family, I believe in service and giving back to the community. My motto is “painting with the beauty of plants.” My mission and passion is to instill that beauty in all people.

Artist’s Statement

Growing up all over the world and primarily in Africa, the daughter of a career diplomat and ambassador and a product of a line of artists and great-granddaughter of the eminent architect, Frank Miles Day, I believe that gardens “bestow not only beauty, but a sanctuary for those who engage in it, and for those who enjoy its fruits”. To me, landscape and garden design is art insofar as it creates, for people, experiences that lift their spirits, expand their vision, and invigorate their lives.

I have spent my life surrounded by and immersed in worldwide private and public gardens, botanical gardens, conservation parks, and UNESCO sites.

Living in Africa exposed me to diversified bioclimatic zones and, hence, an array of natural environments, climatic horticultural adaptations, and arresting visual displays of brilliant and unique plant life.

Client Reviews

A Living Masterpiece!

A dedicated and hard-working garden designer with a unique blend of education, certifications, knowledge, experience, and amazing artistic talent that can be enjoyed for generations!
James Mullen
"So Creative!"

Susie is incredibly talented and creative; we loved our gardens before, but she’s taken them to a whole new level. I always can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!
Phyllis P.
"Thank you!"

Susie, the gardens you have created strongly remind me of the public and private ones that I used to visit with my family, growing up in Wales. These are not just “backyards.” They are true “gardens.
John P.
I Have A Blue Garden!

I am a native and lifelong Vermonter, but my gardening background is limited to rows of vegetables and banks of daffodils. Susie is extremely knowledgeable about the habit of flowers. She has designed for me a blue perennial garden, something I never knew was possible. Truly beautiful, and I would recommend her heartily.
Elizabeth H.
"Gorgeous Work!"

I love Susie’s personality, energy, vision, and her passion for her gorgeous work.
D.D.