Hi, everybody. It's Joe Lampal, the Joe behind Joe Gardner, and welcome to the Joe Gardner Show.

Today, I'm speaking with Kelly Norris, a leading American plant designer and author, and so much more.

He's become a regular on this podcast over the years. Kelly's a very talented writer.

So usually we're talking about his latest book, and that's what we're doing again today.

The title is Your Natural Garden, a practical guide to caring for an ecologically vibrant home garden.

And it's available for pre-order now and out very soon.

In addition to Kelly's gift for the written word, he's a master at designing beautiful gardens using native

perennial plants. His personal garden, known as the Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa, is spectacular.

It's his studio, his working laboratory, of course, his place to escape. And this book is filled

with beautiful pictures from that very garden, with jaw-dropping

examples for many of the topics that he writes about in this book. And Kelly, in his unique way,

really challenges you to think more critically about your garden, including your intentions for

what you want from it, your role in your garden success, from site preparation to making appropriate plant

choices, to thinking more about the connections between the plants and their ability to adapt

as complex systems that provide ecological function while having the potential to be part

of a breathtakingly beautiful design, thanks to the guidance that Kelly gives us

throughout this book. There's a lot one could say about Kelly's accomplishments in his very

successful career. His award-winning gardens have been featured in the New York Times,

Better Homes and Garden, Martha Stewart Living, garden design and fine gardening, and the list goes

on. He's also active in other entrepreneurial projects,

including the public horticulture company, his emerging ecological landscape firm, and the

New Naturalism Academy, a virtual school for enthusiastic designers and gardeners. And as we get into

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