Ordering Information

$50.00, 9 x 10, hardcover, 224 pages, 290 full color images
ISBN: 978-1-942155-81-2

Publication date: March 11, 2025

To order copies, please visit Casemate IPM.

Library Journal Review, April 1, 2025
VERDICT An engaging look at the creation of an extensive garden by two highly motivated gardeners that will appeal to readers who enjoy whimsy, innovation, and following the construction of a garden.

Nooney (Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design) and her husband Bob Munger have spent over 40 years creating Bedrock Gardens, a set of New Hampshire gardens of innovative design using hardscape, plants, and artwork. After brief biographical information, Nooney describes the 28 gardens they created on their property with such whimsical names as Baxis, Spiral Garden, Funnel Gardens, Garish Garden, Wiggle Waggle, Conetown, Grassacre, and Shrubaria. She covers the inception of each garden, often beginning with a great deal of heavy machinery infrastructure work, design considerations, and how each garden has evolved and matured over the years. Color photos showing their development and the finished gardens complement the text. The grounds are peppered and enhanced with Nooney’s interesting sculptures, which were created using old machine parts. In order to share the peace and calm of the garden with visitors and preserve it in perpetuity, Nooney and Munger consulted experts and researched the steps to become a public garden, ultimately gifting the garden to the Friends of Bedrock Gardens in 2023.

Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden

by Jill Nooney
Foreword by Lee Buttala, preservationist for The Garden Conservancy

Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden is a love letter from a woman to the 30 acre garden she spent 40 years creating in Lee, NH. Featuring over 300 photographs of the garden, sculptures, water features, and built structures, the book takes us from the garden’s private origin to a public garden. The author is a graduate of Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design.

Readers’ Comments

“I have had the good fortune to visit many public gardens in North America and abroad. However, until spending time with Jill and Bob in the wonderful space that they brought to life, I had never experienced the visceral, electric energy of creation in action. I am humbled by their work and more important, their steadfast desire to share it with the world. Bedrock Gardens is as unique and magical as its creators—a truly remarkable story of inspiration, whimsy and beauty that will bring a smile to your soul!”

—Bill Cullina, executive director of the Morris Arboretum and author of four books

“More than a tale of building an artist’s garden, this is a love story of two people creating a haven of joy and solace. This book not only documents the development of the garden, but it also conveys Jill’s thinking and philosophy.”

—Bill Thomas, executive director of Chanticleer Garden and author of The Art of Gardening

“Anyone who’s ever met Jill Nooney knows in seconds that she walks on the wild side. She turns an unexpected, crazy idea into a fun, funny and joyful reality on her land. Bedrock Gardens invites visitors to inhabit one artist’s vision of the world—to explore it at their own pace and to laugh in delight at what they discover.

—Julie Moir Messervy, principal of Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio and author of nine books.

About the Author

Jill Nooney grew up in rural New Jersey. She attended Bennington College, Smith College School of Social Work, and the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design. She has had a lifelong interest in plants, art, and healing the human spirit. She lives with her husband, Bob Munger, in an old farmhouse in New Hampshire. Together, over the span of forty years, they created Bedrock Gardens and in 2023, they gifted the garden to the Friends of Bedrock Gardens to be enjoyed by all.

Visit: www.bedrockgardens.org