Brett Gilman

As a passionate environmental thinker and creator, I am motivated by a strong persuasion that our everyday spaces and the way that we think are connected.

Follow me on Instagram for more content: .moments

Studies Landscape Architecture, Conservation Biology and Fine Art & Design
Middlebury College | Oxford | DIS Copenhagen I pursue studies of landscape architecture at the intersection of environmental policy, conservation biology, fine art, and philosophy. Follow along with me as I explore the world of forward-thinking garden and landscape design!

14/02/2026

I’ve long dreamed about a landscape of fall blue/violet. Here it is come to life at Beethovenplein in Amsterdam.

This past October, I had the opportunity to bike around the Dutch capital with the skilled and inventive city landscape architect- Ton Muller. We talked about the importance and challenges of bringing the Dutch New Wave style into public landscapes. Naturalistic gardening requires adaptations for urban environments under extra stress from high user traffic, declining budgets, and imprecise management. Here, I think he’s done it quite successfully- by sticking to a few species, repeating for impact, and selecting species for resilience. Many of the plants Ton has used here are perennials native to the eastern U.S.

Thanks for welcoming me to your city,

09/02/2026

“A garden is a habitat for people and animals.” This is the guiding philosophy of Dutch garden designer Arjan Boekel. Such an elegant statement is emblematic of an entire portfolio across the Netherlands, and I was lucky to accompany Arjan on site visits throughout this past fall. To me, it’s Arjan’s approach of bringing the Dutch New Wave from big park landscapes into intimate residential spaces that is truly stunning. This rural canalside garden, featuring places to cook and eat and relax defined by wild-style plants, is so different from the expansive lawns of American neighborhoods. It is in these naturalistic landscapes of home where I see a transformative vision for our everyday contact with wildness unfolding.

So grateful to .boekel for autumn weeks crisscrossing the Netherlands in the work van, tagging along to garden talks and nurseries, and for the chance to follow in your footsteps.

30/01/2026

A momentous occasion from this past fall when I got to meet my longtime garden hero Piet Oudolf!

On a late September day, I woke up before dawn and ventured across the Netherlands for the rare chance to step into the private garden, Hummelo, of the superstar Dutch master. It was a once-in-lifetime chance made possible by the inspirational Arjan Boekel, a day that brought together three generations of garden professionals.

Oudolf has been the guiding figure in my passion for naturalistic garden design, reinforced every time I visited NYC’s Highline since a young age. Not only did I get to explore his world-famous garden at Hummelo, I was also witness to the filming of a new documentary. And then to be included in the publication of an article summing it all up!

Many thanks to for his welcome, .boekel for his guidance and mentorship, and for his incredible writing!

16/12/2025

What is the role of wild gardening in a nation reinventing itself—while resisting a renewed threat of occupation?

Lithuania is not a country most people have heard of, but it is one I have long been interested in, particularly for the fantastic projects that blend landscape architecture and gardening. And this year, it gains wider recognition as Europe’s Green Capital 2025! In this former Soviet republic, landscape blends traditions of folklore and resistance with modern wild planting styles and reinvention through lively public space. While once again under threat from neighboring Russia, transforming landscape is one way Lithuanians are reimagining their identity and celebrating their democracy.

1. A business garden centered on active lifestyle infrastructure
2. A traditional rural homestead planted wild with perennials
3. A former Soviet military base transformed into an urban leisure zone
4. Planting at a sustainable, green office tower
5. A modern public space at an art museum
6. A municipal public space rejuvenating a historic spring
7. A memorial garden at a new museum remembering historic oppression
8. The urban renewal of a small city at their central square
9. A modern, rural holiday village in the forest
10. Naturalistic planting in the streets of the capital

26/10/2025

What does gardening look like in one of the most biodiverse places for plants on Earth?

South Africa is home to about 24,000 plant species- that’s 10% of the world’s plants. The Cape Floral Region, one of the six floral kingdoms, has an estimated 6,500 species that are found nowhere else on Earth. While Cape Town is considered a biodiversity hotspot, it also has a high rate of species loss, mainly due to urban development. South Africa is also a highly divided, unequal country with a democracy just 30 years old and one of the highest unemployment rates worldwide. I started my Watson year exploring this unique environment, tagging along with landscape architects, ecological restorationists, and conservation botanists to understand- what is the place of gardening in regenerating ecology and grappling with socio-economic difference?

1. The desert super bloom
2. Fynbos vegetation at a mountain pass
3. An experiential education garden at an urban park
4. A ‘landscape of hope,’ community center in the township with the highest murder rate nationally
5. A new housing development where ecological connectivity means everyone using a landscaping palette comprised of local vegetation
6. A restored rare local vegetation type- renosterveld
7. A nature play garden; An indigenous renosterveld landscape tapestry at a destination winery
8. The garden of a prominent sculptor exploring the paradox of inner wildness
9. A school dedicated to sustainability education
10. A cabin garden at the nature reserve and heritage museum of the San People
11. The home garden of an ecological restorationist
12. A home garden where functional areas like a firepit and pool are interwoven among indigenous plantings

08/07/2025

Thinking today about my visit to Domino Park last summer. One of Brooklyn’s newest parks, this green space is bringing the Williamstown waterfront to life. This urban transformation of the Domino Sugar Factory reconnects the neighborhood with the East River for the first time in 160 years. Featuring recovered historic site pieces, including the incredible facade, activity spaces, and native plantings- it’s another great achievement from Field Operations.

29/05/2025

A glimpse into a landscape of fire- really pleased with how this series turned out!

Two weeks ago I visited The Desert Natural Area, a wildland actively being managed by prescribed burns. This 900-acre ecosystem complex hosts a unique habitat that requires fire to thrive- pitch pine scrub-oak barrens. As part of the ecological management plan to rejuvenate this forest, foresters have brought fire back into the landscape to propel vegetative succession.

This was my first time checking out a fire-managed landscape, and I visited just a few months after a burn took place. While much of the midstory was charred, new growth was emerging from the ashen soil. Pink lady slippers (Cypripedium acaule) were loving the nutrient-filled ground and making use of the lack of competition to bloom plentifully. Often thought to be rare in the native plant world, pink lady slippers actually really benefit from fire to emerge.

I also saw some incredible Birdfoot Violets (Viola pedata) thriving in the driest, sandiest soil. Blooming April into May, violets are critical early season blooms for pollinators in grassland habitats and are among the top larval hosts for native caterpillars- hosting 30 species!

20/05/2025

May has been a cascade of blooms here at Native Plant Trust! Come walk with me through the beautiful Curtis Woodland, a naturalistic garden featuring a selection of native species from across Eastern North America. Flowering here are the Appalachian endemic Pinkshell Azalea, which was quite the show for Mother’s Day. Also popping up are lovely Christmas Ferns, Cinnamon Ferns, and Eastern Rebuds. Look closely for Heartleaf Foamflower, Trillium, and Virginia Bluebells!

28/04/2025

Spotlight on Sanguinaria!

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is one of the first woodland ephemerals to mark the beginning of spring. Here at Garden in the Woods, they were blooming in force during the third week of April. In the wild pine grove of Ridge Trail, these stunning white blooms opened each morning and closed each night with the warm sun and cool evening. I often liken this flower to an egg because of their yellow centers and ovoid side profile.

Blooming for just about a week, Bloodroot are essential early season flowers for wild pollinators, like the solitary bee I saw, which could be a Mason Bee. Interestingly, Bloodroot is sometimes called the ‘trickster flower’ because its attractive center contains no nectar. Bloodroot is also an excellent example of a species that relies on Myrmecochory, seed dispersal by ants. Bloodroot seeds have a tasty elaiosome attachment that ants drag back to their nest along with the seed, helping Bloodroot to spread throughout the forest.

24/04/2025

First garden images of the 2025 season- and there’s snow!
Just about four weeks ago, I started as a horticulture intern at the Native Plant Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting New England flora. At their botanic garden in Massachusetts, called Garden in the Woods, I’ve been hard at work helping to get the garden ready for spring. Surprisingly, a beautiful late snow arrived on the morning of opening day two weeks ago. The dusting surely made for an enchanting start!

11/03/2025

In awe, this week, of how many different garden atmospheres and awesome design strategies Lodewijk Baljon and his team were able to create at the City Garden Kempkensberg. At the base of a 90-meter office building in Groningen, NLD, Baljon Landscape Architects crafted a beautiful, dynamic landscape that brings together an adjacent urban forest park with this human-dominated site. Incorporating over 200 species of perennials totaling over 55,000 plants, the project integrates landscape architecture with gardening in truly inspiring ways. And you wouldn’t even know the entire garden sits on top of a parking structure! Additional design considerations channel high winds, retain and purify rainwater, and foster urban ecology.

In their own words, Baljon Landschapsarchitecten writes of the project, “Two worlds are brought together here: that of the special ecology of the adjacent historical Sterrebos and the human world of employees and residents. The city garden thus combines the calm, private and sheltered atmosphere of a garden with the vital publicity of urban life.”

… a most visionary project indeed.

Images from August 2023.

Adres

Amsterdam

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