"She reminds me so much of you," my lover said, as he proudly handed me a book with on its cover a matronly Victorian lady, staring at me sternly through her coke-bottle glasses. Hmm, was this his idea of a romantic gesture? As soon as I started reading the book - a biography of British gardening legend Gertrude Jekyll - I realized it was a very romantic compliment indeed! Like Gertrude, I sculpt my vision through color, shape and texture; but where I work with fabric, she used flowers, plants and soil to create her magical gardens.

For the first time, I could see gardening as a way to express yourself. Guided by the awesome female gardeners I was reading about - I jokingly called them my 'gardening angels' - I started turning my backyard into my own private paradise.Vita Sackville-West, the best-selling bisexual baroness with a passion for gardening (her love affair with Virginia Woolf inspired the book 'Orlando') motivated me to just dig in and learn by trial and error: “The only thing is to be bold; try the experiment; and find out.” Through Maxi’diwiac, the Native American woman behind gardening bible 'Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden', I became obsessed with organic soil and heirloom seeds. And dressed in a flirty, flowery dress that gardenista and Queen of France Marie Antoinette would have loved, I drove a hired van to my favorite nursery to fill it up with organic compost and other horticultural delights. Forget fancy spas; this was now my idea of a romantic daytrip.

- Marlies Dekkers