My Substack Publishing Plan for 2026

Two Garden Making Tips or Ideas a Week- For Garden Lovers and Designers!

In the hot summer sun, deep orange daylilies are exuberantly happy. They live here in a rock garden along with Sedum acre and All Gold Japanese Forest Grass. I would also suggest adding Prairie Dropseed grass to the mix.

“I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic...” - Luis Barragan

Garden lovers revel in being in an outdoor space filled with flowers, trees, and artful accents used in imaginative ways. Here, we feel a sense of wellbeing that is hard to match. As the great 19th century park designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, described, “Gradually and silently the charm comes over us; we know not exactly where or how.”

So how can you transform your backyard (or if you are a designer, someone else’s backyard) into a place where charm descends upon you? I wrote Gardentopia - Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces to share landscape design tips that you can use to transform any outdoor space into what I call a ‘gardentopia’, an outdoor space of delight and well-being.

‘Gardentopia’ is my term for an outdoor space that provides a sense of delight and well-being.

Wedgewood Blue Salvia (Salvia splendens) and yellow lantana are both deer resistant annual flowers. Wedgwood Blue (also Wedgewood Blend) is a bi-color bloom that adds so much to other flowers.

I have spent 50+ years (Yikes!) as a professional landscape designer and horticulturist transforming tough sites into appealing landscapes. I have worked in different regions and countries. I have learned a lot along the way and I want to share that knowledge with you. So every week I will share 2 illustrated tips that originated in Gardentopia. The difference from the book text is that I will elaborate on each tip and add different photos.

Each of the illustrated suggestions describes a design idea, gardening pointer, or selected plant that you can use to improve your landscape, no matter its size. My aim is to inspire you to say, ‘That’s a good idea—I can do that!”

Two kinds of outdoor steps are shown here - one rustic set that we fashioned from leftover rocks (foreground) and the other is a curved set of formal steps with bluestone treads and fieldstone risers.

The suggestions I share are not complicated and span many aspects of landscape design, from configuring an outdoor space to drainage to choosing a theme for your garden to selecting the perfect plant. These tips will improve the appearance of your outdoor space, increase its value and most of all, make it a vibrant, eco-friendly place you want to spend time in. In summary, a gardentopia.

Many of the photos I share (not all) are from landscapes that I created with my firm, Johnsen Landscapes & Pools, based in Westchester County, NY. Although the landscapes shown are primarily in the Northeast United States, the garden tips I describe can be applied anywhere. Additionally, the captions accompanying the photographs include the story behind the image or describe some interesting details.

This is meant for my paying subscribers (thank you for being one of the tribe).

I hope you enjoy them. Let me know. I will start on Jan 1, 2026 with Tip #1!