Garden to the Max: Joyful, Visionary, Maximalist Design - Hardcover

by Teresa Woodard (Author), Bob Stefko (Photographer)

Explore a maximalist approach to gardening with this vibrant photography book that features 20 aspirational gardens that prove "more" is better.

Having a maximalist garden is a bold aesthetic choice--yet it also brings vitality back to the earth, in an abundant expression of more. Garden to the Max celebrates gardens across the US that embrace maximalism through joy and wonder, nonstop blooms, and abundant layers. The book is a feast of gorgeous photography by Bob Stefko, showcasing individual quirkiness, wild collections, and bold, personality-packed plant combinations that amplify the grandeur of each garden's unique vision, packing in plants for their exuberant style and ecological benefits.

Featured gardeners include an amateur ornithologist seeking to attract more birds, an event planner's tropical paradise, a pair of city dwellers reducing their carbon footprint, an urban garden pioneer promoting pollinator gardens, and a life-long biophilic propagating endangered plants to nurture insects. Longtime garden writer Teresa Woodard shares stories of each garden and its fearless designers, the inspirations for their plant collections, and their hopes for our earth's future.

Information-packed sidebars full of standout plants and growing tips will inspire dreamers and gardeners to embrace their own passions. Garden to the Max gives everyone permission to bring the exuberant interior style into the garden and develop a spirited reverence for plants, celebrating joy and personality in the garden--to the max!

Author Biography

An award-winning garden writer, Teresa brings a background in magazine writing and gardening experience. She is author of Garden to the Max: Joyful, Visionary, Maximalist Design (Timber Press 2025) and co-author of American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens (Timber Press 2022). During her 16-year writing career, she has written and produced garden content for regional and national publications including Better Homes & Gardens and Country Gardens and currently serves as contributing garden editor at Midwest Living magazine and content creator for digital garden media. She has won Gold and Silver Media Awards from GardenComm. Outside of work, she gardens at her home near Columbus, Ohio, volunteers at an urban garden teaching youth about growing food and advises America in Bloom communities across the country.

The career of Chicago-based photographer Bob Stefko spans almost 25 years in both editorial and commercial work. During that time he has photographed a diverse range of subjects including many of this country's finest gardens, Fortune 500 CEOs, Olympic athletes, and some of the world's most remote landscapes. His work has appeared in hundreds of publications including Better Homes and Gardens, Forbes, Wine Spectator, and Midwest Living magazine, to name a few. When not snapping pictures you can usually find him living his secret life as a general contractor, being an urban gardener, wannabe chef, tinkering in his basement shop, hunting down mid-century modern treasures, or cycling the early mornings away on Lake Michigan. Bob and his wife Shelby live in their personally renovated two-flat building in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.