‘Conscious Gardening’: Why Your Garden Needs a Mission Statement

Nicole Juday, Rob Cardillo and I were most of the way through taping an episode of my podcast when the conversation veered toward a group confessional.

We had been talking about other people’s gardens: the 21 exceptional ones that Ms. Juday, a garden historian and writer, and Mr. Cardillo, a garden photographer, had included in their recent book, “Private Gardens of Philadelphia.” That city has one of the country’s richest, most longstanding legacies of horticultural excellence — and not just because of its wealth of public gardens.

As might be expected, the two had come away from their project with lists of new plants, cultural tips and design inspiration. But what made a bigger (and perhaps more unsettling) impression was their shared feeling that the gardeners they had met seemed to have something Ms. Juday and Mr. Cardillo did not: a mission statement.

This guiding principle — particular to each garden — was something the gardeners hewed to, and their gardens were the better for it.

And that set them (and me) to thinking: What are our gardens about?