Listen to the land

In the fall of 1938, when Louise Agee Wrinkle’s childhood house was first built, her grandmother sent a couple hundred bulbs for her family to plant. Her father happily agreed and headed out to their new property, saying, “Oh, there’s not that many.”

“He got to planting,” Wrinkle said with a smile, “and instead started asking, ‘Why are there so many?’”

This early memory of working on the land she would one day call her own is among dozens that Wrinkle kept close over the years. Eventually, she decided to document them in a book. 

Wrinkle’s first book, “Listen to the Land: Creating a Southern Woodland Garden,” was released in November 2017. In the book, Wrinkle said she wanted to give some of her own personal insights and philosophy to gardening, as well as history of her family’s two acres. The book also includes history on what she and the group she fondly dubs “The Committee” of local gardeners have done to naturally transform the garden and let the outdoor space evolve into a beauty of its own.

“Mountain Brook is unique in that natural development of beautiful land,” she said. “I deal with successes and unsuccesses in the garden, and that’s what I write about.”

Growing up, Wrinkle referred to her now nationally-known woodland garden home, located along Mountain Brook Parkway at 2 Beechwood Road, as “The Jungle,” because it was so overgrown and surrounded by woods, ivy and honeysuckle. Wrinkle described her father as a naturalist and her mother a gardener, which was where the seed for her own love of plants was first planted.

When her parents died in the ‘80s, she and her husband decided to move back to Mountain Book. 

Every year, Wrinkle said she gets more and more garden enthusiasts, botanists, outdoor designers, groups of classroom children and other locals that request an afternoon to tour her private garden. She said she enjoys sharing her land with people.

In many ways, Wrinkle said writing this book was a matter of “counting her blessings,” and of becoming more aware of the beauty and natural fortune that the land offers.

“People tell me [the book] has got a certain voice,” Wrinkle said, adding that people seem to relate to it.

Wrinkle’s favorite bit of gardening advice, “listen to the land,” earned the title for the book, and aims to encourage people to let the land speak and evolve, Wrinkle said. The book focuses on the struggles and joys of gardening through everything from unexpected Alabama weather to the necessity of having garden architects that share the same “minimalist”garden views.

“Any gardener can benefit from the experience of another gardener,” Wrinkle said, which is an important reason she decided to write the book.

Wrinkle has a section of the book called “Plant Profiles,” where she documented the growth of her dozens of plants, what methods worked and what didn’t. These plant profiles include pictures, advice from her personal journey and research she found along the way. 

So far, Wrinkle said she has gotten a positive response from readers.

“Some people said, ‘I’m not a plant person, but I enjoyed reading it — it’s very personal,’” Wrinkle said.

It was important to her to not make it impersonal, or too cold, she said. She wanted it to have “universal appeal” and for all kinds of people to have a takeaway.  

For the last two years, Wrinkle said the writing was a concentrated effort, with help from her editorial assistant, her two daughters and readers in the community. Before that, she spent five years “paving the timeline of the past.”

Wrinkle has acted as a board member for both Aldridge Gardens and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. She’s been an active member of The Garden Club of America (GCA), served as Chairman of its Horticulture Committee and received GCA’s National Achievement Medal in 2001.

“Listen to the Land” can be purchased in Mountain Brook at Bromberg’s, The Dande-Lion, Henhouse Antiques, Leaf & Petal at the Gardens, Little Hardware, Village Poodle and Smith’s Variety. 

Although she is still resting from writing her first book, Wrinkle said she plans to take up another writing project eventually. For more information, go to louisewrinkle.com.