Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgia Parkinson Hill
Hi Georgia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a British horticulturist, gardener, and garden designer, focusing on indigenous flora and sustainable gardens.
My company, Beautyberry Gardens, offers comprehensive services for native landscaping. We design, grow for design, build, and maintain native gardens throughout Atlanta.
Trained in graphic art and horticulture, I completed Royal Horticulture Society exams in garden design and horticulture, and have obtained Georgia Certified Landscape Professional, Association of Professional Landscape Design, and LEED GA certifications. I’m currently working on the sustainable horticulture master’s degree, at the Royal Horticultural Society.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I first started incorporating native plants into my designs, I encountered the challenge of limited plant availability, where I had to repeatedly use the same plants in my designs, which as a designer, gets very old, very fast, because I want every garden to be completely unique. Drawing on my expertise as a professional horticulturist with training in propagation, I made the strategic decision to establish an in-house nursery. This initiative now allows me to access a diverse plant library, enabling me to craft truly distinctive gardens for my clients.
I would say the other significant obstacle I have discovered in this area is that the landscape industry in America is a cowboy industry; largely unregulated and unskilled. People just decide they are garden designers, garden install companies, or horticulturists, without proper training, leading to very poor work. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough qualified horticulturists out there, and there certainly aren’t enough qualified native focused horticulturists. The demand from homeowners and businesses who need native plant care is vast and growing all the time. It was this need for more native focused horticulturists which prompted me to initiate the development of a nonprofit educational center, and teaching plant nursery, the Swallowtail Center (www.swallowtailcenter.org), which opens in Decatur in 2025.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Great gardens are possible but they do require extensive front end and back end work. Specifically detailed site research, good design, quality plant material, proper installation, and finally regular, knowledgeable maintenance. Unfortunately, most native gardens look a mess within a couple of years and people tend to re-lawn those areas because they have become so unsightly that the neighbors are complaining. We provide our clients with ecological function they are looking for, whilst still creating the wow factor that they and their neighbors will enjoy for years to come.
Our approach is simple; we want these gardens to be beautiful, of course, but they also must last. People spend tens of thousands on landscaping and that money ought to be well spent. The average homeowner in Atlanta is redoing their landscape every 5-10 years. That’s a lot of money and a lot of wasted resources, from a sustainability standpoint. We want our clients to buy well and buy once. That’s why we properly research their site, make sure their site is correctly cleared and installed, and guarantee the plants for the first year, as well as offer maintenance services afterwards.
As the plant provider we house a vast selection of high-quality plants from our 1000+ native plant library. We prioritize ethical plant sourcing and hold a rare plant license, while also providing sustainable material options and solutions for pest control, noise reduction, privacy, safety, and drainage. For design plans we offer concept, master, planting, setting out, 3D renders, and construction docs, with real plant vectors incorporated into designs so our clients can experience genuine plant combinations. Around half of our clients are young homeowners on a budget, who are enthusiastic would-be native gardeners, that need design-only services. We support them by offering DIY consultations for implementation, as well as sourcing and plant supply services. We are fully licensed and insured, and our dedication to providing five-star service is evident in our reviews.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I got into this particular field of horticulture after a chance meeting with a very inspirational woman named Ellen Honeycutt, who is heavily involved with the Georgia Native Plant Society, and does great work with her blog ‘Using Georgia Native Plants.’ (https://usinggeorgianativeplants.blogspot.com/)
Pricing:
- Consults start at $250
- Designs start at $2500
- Monthly maintenance starts at $400
- L:andscape installations start at $20,000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beautyberrygardens.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beautyberrygardens
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beautyberrygardens
