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Best-selling author Susan Branch built the garden of her dreams in her backyard, complete with tomato plants, roses, manicured pathways, birdbaths, and milkweed for the monarchs.
Susan Branch and I sat down in her kitchen, counters and windowsills displaying ceramic baubles and appliances older than I am. The smell of tea wafted through the air, and beams of sunlight peeked through the windows, illuminating her overflowing studio desk stacked high with journals and watercolors.
In this home about an hour up the coast from Santa Barbara, the best-selling author and self-taught artist handwrote and illustrated her Heart of the Home series. Many of her books share recipes, depict travels, and present diagrams of her garden.
Susan’s love for gardens started on a garden-to-garden trip through England. “We fell in love with it … and we came out to California and laid the foundation for an English garden. And over the years, it grew.”
I was about to discover just how much it had grown. Around the side of her quaint cottage, we stepped from her dirt driveway into the meticulously planned and maintained plot that was clearly another canvas for Susan.
“I thought gardening was petunias, carrots, and tomatoes,” she cheerfully explained. “But there’s just much, much more to it. It’s an art all by itself.”
We walked on grass pathways threaded through hedge-lined corridors, every corner a new patch of beauty. Water splashed and bubbled in granite bird baths, and the scent of roses hung in the air. Susan pointed out the milkweed plants, rest stops for the seasonal monarch butterflies on their journey south. Simon, a friendly, handsome cat, proudly pranced through the flowers.
In Susan’s “kitchen garden,” plump, ruby-red tomatoes hung heavy on their vines, while rosemary bushes sweetened the air. Flower buds grew on nasturtium vines, preparing to reveal their brilliant red and orange petals. Nearby, abundant green onions sprouted.
“Everything that you want in your salad is the first thing I would plant in spring,” she said. “So I would plant lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, and definitely nasturtiums.”
Every day, Susan and her husband, Joe, stroll through the garden and on the outskirts of their property. They walk along the creek, through the long grasses, and listen to water running and birds singing their good-morning song. Susan finds meaning in the small moments: a hummingbird at the birdfeeder, dewdrops in a spider web, the sharp aroma of ceanothus, the California lilac.
After our garden stroll, we sat down again. Between sips of afternoon tea, Susan explained why she put so much time and effort into her garden.
“It’s just a joy surrounding yourself [with beauty] and growing things,” she said. “It’s paradise out here. I wake up happy every day.”
