The Gardens

Barbara Pressler

I owe all of my creative talents to my mother. While I may be the acorn, she is the golden oak. She is so right-brained, she walks with a tilt. Barbara (or ‘Mimi’ as she is best known), is responsible for all the unusual trees and beautiful landscaping.

An artist by both study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and a 60+ year career in landscape design, her artistic talent has manifested on any canvas from watercolor paper to the earth. Her garden and landscape design is nationally renown as she has been a featured artist in magazines such as Country Living Gardening, Organic Gardening, and Sunset Magazine as well as published books and TV!

I love seeing her hand on this property and am reminded of her every time a hummingbird lands on one of her deliberately planted hummingbird flowers. At over 81 years old, she is still an active, hippy-child. A 15-year Burning Man veteran, she still toils and pulls weeds, digs holes, shops nurseries, and waves her ‘Magic Mimi Hands’ to direct interns of the dos and don’ts of planting and pruning.

She delights in making sure all the bees and hummers are fed all summer, so be sure to check out her special gardens planted specifically for them on the south side of the house. Catch one if you can.