The more that I see photographs of gravel gardens, and the more that I learn about this gardening style,  which besides its distinctive aesthetic appeal promises to be water-wise and weed-suppressing, the more I want to give it a try.

So I was happy to get an early copy of “The Gravel Garden,” due out in June, and be treated to virtual walks through 20 such landscapes in a range of all sizes and styles. The book’s co-author, Jeff Epping, who has been making gravel gardens for clients since 2008 and converted his own Wisconsin front yard from lawn to gravel in 2017, is here to talk about what kinds of plants work in these resilient gardens, and provide us with some design inspiration, too. 

Jeff Epping is a longtime horticulturist and garden designer, who for 28 years was director of horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. “The Gravel Garden: Visionary, Drought-Defying Naturalistic Designs” is written in collaboration with Teresa Woodard, and it takes us around the country and to the U.K. and Germany, too, to look at how various garden-makers have interpreted the technique of gravel gardening.

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