Getting to Know Marianne Partridge-Poett’s Garden

Editor-in-Chief Marianne Partridge-Poett’s garden is well-known and loved by the Indy staff. For our Home & Garden issue, we asked her to share a bit more about it.

Tell us how long you’ve been gardening for. What made you decide to start?  I first began thinking about gardening as a child when I read The Secret Garden. Then later, my college dormitory was a converted Hudson Valley mansion with an abandoned formal garden. Rows of peonies and banks of irises and bluebells had survived, disheveled but beautiful. It seemed to me a miracle of determination. When I moved to my husband’s family ranch in Santa Barbara County decades ago, a neighbor brought me a purple primrose. That was the beginning of my garden. I bought a copy of Sunset’s Western Garden book, talked with neighbors and friends, and learned about native plants at the Botanic Garden. It’s been years of trial and error. I try to help, but really, the plants have a life of their own — they’re a very determined group. 

What is your favorite thing you grow in your garden? Is there something you wish you were growing but haven’t before?  A peony my friend gave me. I wish I could grow bougainvillea.

What advice do you have for someone looking to start a garden?  Just start and don’t give up.