Quick Takes With: Rebecca McMackin

Rebecca McMackin is an “ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer” (her description) and an incredibly engaging, deeply knowledgeable plant nerd (ours). (Just check out her Ted Talk entitled “Let Your Garden Grow Wild” from earlier this year.) As Arboretum Curator for Woodlawn Cemetery, she manages one of the best tree collections in New York State. And as a garden designer, she creates inspired landscapes that make both people and pollinators happy. In fact, her garden for the Brooklyn Museum, a collaboration with Quick Takes alum Brook Klausing, just won the Perennial Plant Association’s Award of Excellence, in part because of its use of native plants to create habitats for the birds and bees.

We’ve interviewed Rebecca before (see 9 Radical Ways to Face Climate Change), and today, we’re thrilled to be able to share her perspective again. Below, the biodiversity crusader talks about her love for spying on bugs (“so much drama”), her admiration for dead wood (“so hip, so helpful”), and her disdain for orange Rudbeckia (agreed!). 

Photography courtesy of Rebecca McMackin.

Your first garden memory:

I had my first garden when I was 6. I grew up on a small farm in Connecticut, where we gardened as a way of life. I grew carrots and Celosia. I remember how sweet the carrots were. You just can’t buy carrots as good as you can grow them.

Garden-related book you return to time and again:

Carol Gracie was a mentor to me. I had read Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, had my mind completely blown, and promptly began a respectful stalking mission that resulted in years of friendship. Carol was a marvelous observer and her books taught me to see flowers differently. They weren’t about plants in the traditional sense. They were written from the plant’s perspective. Carol explored what flowers were doing with their lives. She shared not only how they were shaped but why, who they were trying to attract, and how the plants communicated. I’ve read her books countless times and use them as references often. Truly the best ever.

Instagram account that inspires you:

I love Adrian Smith’s account: @dradriansmith. He does the simplest thing—taking slow-motion videos of insects taking off from a table—and it’s just glorious. There’s so much drama. The clumsiness of beetles, the leap of a moth, the absolute miracle that something like an oak treehopper can actually get airborne after spinning around three times. It’s hilariously entertaining, but also helps people understand that these animals live full lives, with struggles and victories.

Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.

Wild. Beautiful. Butterflies.

Plant that makes you swoon:

Southern magnolia. Nobody does it better.

Plant that makes you want to run the other way:

Euonymus alatus. Why is it legal to sell this plant? How broken is horticulture that we can’t phase out plants causing actual harm. Get this guy out of the trade already.

Favorite go-to plant:

Aquilegia canadensis. Adorable. functional. Adaptable. and charismatic.

Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:

Less is more. I hate this one. I want all the plants in every garden. But they really speak to people much more when there are only a few flowers blooming at a time.

Unpopular gardening opinion:

We can all have a little lawn as a treat. Lots of people like lawns. It’s like they’re habitat. Lawns can be nice, organic, bidiverse, and small.

Gardening or design trend that needs to go:

Every species in every color. Do you really need an orange Rudbeckia? Does anyone? Sometimes I think breeders are just trying to impress each other.

Favorite gardening hack:

Tip a wheelbarrow up on its front wheel, and swing it back and forth to empty it all the way.

Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.

Honestly…. let my husband care for his houseplants. I used to have a massive begonia collection but then I had a kid and … plants have to take care of themselves.

Every garden needs a…

Snag. Dead wood is so hip. So helpful. So biodiverse. Figure out how to fit, sculpt, or hide deadwood on land everywhere.

Favorite hardscaping material:

Bluestone! I am from New England. But also cobblestones because I am also from New York City.

Tool you can’t live without:

ARS pruners.

Go-to gardening outfit:

Carhartt overalls forever.

Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:

Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca. Best garden ever made.

The REAL reason you garden:

I’m a slave to beauty. How could you not want to hang out with flowers and butterflies? It’s the best thing ever.

Thank you so much, Rebecca! (Follow her @oroeoboeococoao)