Julie Moir Messervy
Messervy was the landscape designer of the award-winning Toronto Music Garden, a collaboration with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the City of Toronto to create a three-acre public park based on the “First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello” by J.S. Bach. In 2005, the Toronto Music Garden received a Leonardo Da Vinci Award for innovation and creativity.
Messervy’s most recent book is New Landscaping Ideas That Work (The Taunton Press, January 2018). Her book Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love received the Garden Writers Association 2010 Gold Medal for Best Book Writing. Messervy co-authored Outside the Not So Big House with architect Sarah Susanka in 2006. Her other books include Landscaping Ideas That Work, The Toronto Music Garden: Inspired by Bach, The Magic Land, The Inward Garden, and Contemplative Gardens, named one of the ten best garden books of 1990 by The New York Times.
Messervy studied landscape design with eminent Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane in Kyoto, Japan, first as a Henry Luce Scholar, and then as a Japan Foundation Fellow. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture and Master in City Planning degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Messervy’s vision for composing landscapes of beauty and meaning is furthering the evolution of landscape design and changing the way people create and enjoy their outdoor surroundings. She launched the Home Outside® landscape design app and award-winning Home Outside online design service to bring good landscape design to homeowners everywhere.
Honors
Profiled as one of the 100 Stories of Deluxe’s 2015 Small Business Revolution
Garden Writers Association of America, Gold Medal for Best Book Writing, 2010, for Home Outside
Thomas College, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, 2010
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, 2007
City of Toronto, 2005, Leonardo Da Vinci Award for the Toronto Music Garden
Garden Writers Association of America, Gold Medal, 1996, for The Inward Garden
The New York Times named Contemplative Gardens “One of the Ten Best Garden Books of the Year,” 1990
Japan Foundation Fellow
Henry Luce Scholar
In the Studio
Erica Bowman - Licensed Landscape Architect
Erica came to JMMDS in 2007 with an MLA from Cornell and a specialization in Ecological Design. A fully-licensed landscape architect and surveyor, Erica is a horticulturalist at heart; her favorite projects are plant-centric designs. She also writes for Horticulture Magazine. Erica manages JMMDS projects in the New England area and beyond.
Jana Bryan - Licensed Landscape Architect
Jana works at JMMDS as a landscape architect and team designer on many projects. She holds degrees in Fine Arts and Landscape Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design. She finds creative inspiration from patterns and colors in nature, gardens, weaving and other fiber arts.
Samantha Anderson - Consulting Landscape Architect
Samantha is a licensed landscape architect, focusing on residential and institutional projects. With a background in the arts as well as science, Samantha brings both creativity and technical expertise to her landscape design projects. Samantha holds an MLA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as a certificate in Advanced Permaculture design.
Bethany Gracia - Project Manager / Landscape Designer / Graphics
A landscape designer and New England gardener, Bethany applies her Art/Architecture degree from Smith College to eco-sensitive landscape designs. She extends her sense of design to website development, photo selection and layout of JMMDS books including the Landscaping Ideas That Work series, and the Home Outside mobile/desktop app graphic illustration and app development management.
Jennifer Silver - Director of Operations & Communications
Jennifer has a degree in English from Dartmouth College and has held a variety of teaching, writing, and editing positions. She loves gardens and permaculture. The only JMMDS employee who does not design landscapes, she looks after everything else.