Hello Plant Lovers!
I love sharing my expertise with homeowners to help them create or beautify their gardens. I’ve worked closely with clients on properties that are large, small, and everything in between! I am passionate and creative with superb knowledge of plants that thrive in the Piedmont and Sandshills of North Carolina.
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I am a highly trained Garden Designer educated and experienced in Fine Gardening and Landscape and Garden Design. Building on work designing gardens for homeowners, I earned an Associate of Science degree in Landscape Gardening from Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, NC in 2022.
My Fine Gardening experience includes months as a Garden Intern at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in the Spring of 2022, working in the esteemed gardens of the renowned Bunny Mellon. My years working sales in a family-owned local plant nursery, Gulley’s Garden Center, in the Tree and Shrub department means you will find me a very hands-on expert in trees and shrubs for the home landscape.
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I stay current on the ever-changing availability of new perennials and have knowledge around which thrive in our area. I have taken training in bird friendly landscapes and native plants as well.
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Why plants? Why gardening? Why designing?
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I have had a life-long interest in plants and nature. I denied myself my love of plants and gardening until I couldn’t anymore.
Perhaps it started side by side with my mother in her greenhouse in my childhood home. Where my pet anoles would eat the garden pests and I learned how to snip, water, and dote on plants. Indoors, there was the Audubon Nature Encyclopedias that I read with friends and assigned us reports to write about different creatures. Time in nature and the outdoors was always available where I grew up in a small town outside of NYC. At this young age I basked in the life-affirming energy of plants, nature and living things. You could barely get me indoors.
As an adult the desire to connect with plants and gardening nagged at me. I remember standing in front of massive glass plate windows at my corporate job craving to be outdoors in all the greenery. The stress reducer for this craving was the myriad plants covering all surfaces in my office cubicle. In between ‘real’ jobs I worked at a florist in NYC. I took a class at the botanical garden.
Fast forward to the Sandhills of NC when my role of nearly two years as the first Sustainable Agriculture Agent in NC lit the fire again. I was well into raising my kids amidst their young lives that my gardening started to morph into something more like art. Years with a garden club gave me a monthly dose of botanical connection. But that wasn’t enough. With the encouragement of friends, I started working at a retail gardening center and took a Master Gardening Class from the State University.
From there I enrolled in the community college landscape gardening degree program and soon thereafter, Melissa Hall Garden Designs came forth.
Today I revel in the delight every plant gives me. Sometimes comfort, solace, or peace. Sometimes awe in the mere creation and the ever-changing nature of plants. I am a playful gardener and bold with color. I honor traditional methods while bringing a bit of unexpectedness at times.
I am pleased to bring this joy to my clients. Whether a quick re-do of a front yard to make it stand out for resale or the gradual plant by plant addition to a garden that evolves over time, each project gives me a great sense of pride with each completion. Whether a large flagstone patio that connects a family on a swing in front of a firepit, or a line of vibrant planted containers along a porch that bring brilliant color and life to an elderly couple. I love how a new design challenge gives me the chance to give something new to every person, no matter the space, occasion, and need.
Best of all, there is always more to learn!