MEG TURNER
Surrounded by some of the most beautiful and historic gardens in the country while practicing law in New Orleans and Charleston, Meg’s passion for classical garden design was born. Strolling under the Live Oaks in New Orleans’s Audubon Park, she was entranced by the lush plantings framing the elegant terraces of the magnificent houses bordering the park. In Charleston, she walked to work down historic Meeting Street on sidewalks of weathered bluestone, past aged brick walls draped in Wisteria.
Meg and her husband Banks later moved to Richmond, Virginia, bought their first home and planted their first garden together. Although she cringes when she thinks of the monotonous layout of her first planting beds, she will never forget the exhilaration of tending that first garden — burrowing below the mulch on the first warm February day to see how close the Solomon’s Seal was to breaking ground, ripping out English Ivy for hours at a time, nurturing the Boxwood lovingly rooted by her father-in law.
Although she still loved the law, Meg threw herself into landscape design. Mentored by the brilliant landscape architect Anna Galusha Aquino, she acquired an appreciation for the classical principles of design, the necessity of proper scale, proportion and balance and the paramount importance of quality materials and workmanship and attention to detail.
Meg recently developed her own line of garden ornament and furniture. The planters, chairs, tables and tuteurs she designs are custom-made by classically trained artisans who labor over every detail to produce enduring pieces for well-loved gardens.
Meg writes about design, horticulture, significant private and public gardens, and developments in urban greening initiatives at her blog, The Well Dressed Garden.
Meg graduated from the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia School of Law. She received her certificate in landscape design at George Washington University. Meg lives and gardens in Richmond, Virginia.