FOR THE LOVE OF GARDENING

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Ondra's Garden

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For a Milford Township Horticultural Author Gardening Is a Perennial Affair

Town and Country newspaper (Published Edition 2/21/08; Volume 108, No. 17)

By Sergei Blair-Town and Country Correspondent

While some find falling and decaying leaves a nuisance, one local gardener and author sees the foliage in a decorative way.           

Nancy Ondra, sitting in a wooden rocker in her alluring log house on Fels Road in Milford Township, says she finds the idea of gardening and writing about it as a passion and a life’s dream. “It doesn’t pay a lot but it’s a nice thing to do,” she said.

The amiable gardener says she did not develop interest in gardening until later in life when her brother, an estate gardener, introduced her to his job. Ondra decided to work along side with him where she quickly adapted to the new part-time summer job and was now on her way to earn money for college as well as study a skill she would benefit from in the future.  

Growing up in Lansdale, Ondra would come on weekends to her father’s family farm in Milford Township and later moved into the area after graduating from high school. The father’s family side settled in the area in early 1930’s to farm but weren’t successful after all. The family managed to hang on to the farmstead through the vulnerable Depression period. Today, Ondra and her parents continue reside on the same property.

Soon after earning B.S. degree in Agronomy and Environmental Science from Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA in which she became specialized in study of soils, machinery and field crop, Ondra decided to curve her interest toward gardening. Eventually, she decided to put her knowledge of gardening onto pages, when she got a job at Rodale Press Garden Books, based in Emmaus. After five years, she left Rodale Press in 1995 to work as a freelance garden book writer and editor. She has already published eleven books and recently submitted her latest to be released in January 2009 by Storey Publishing.   

Ondra said she had no formal training how to write but with the help of her mentor and managing editor at Rodale Press she soon grasped the concept fairly quickly. Soon, other agencies and publishers began to approach the writer with new requests to write books on other topic related to gardening. “Once you have an in like that, people just kept asking for more.” “It just kind of happened,” she added, “I never expected making living as an author.”

Today, according to Ondra, Grasses: Versatile Partners For Uncommon garden Design (February 2001) which she co-authored it with author Saxon Holt, has become her best selling garden guide to date with phenomenal 95,000 copies sold on national and international levels. It has now been translated and published in French, British and Japanese languages. She said she wrote the book in span of three months while she lived in her old bedroom of her parent’s house.    

Out of all the work she has done over thirteen years of writing, Ondra proudly confesses that Foliage (April 2007) is the most successful books to date. According to the horticulturist, when she couldn’t envision what she wanted to say all she had to do was to step outside in her own garden to look at the plant, measure it and photograph it. “I know a lot of things but I don’t need to memorize it because I have it right here,” she said as she pointed outside toward her snow-covered garden. The Foliage is filled with stunning range of photographs of plants’ color and texture. The photos were taken by her long-time friend and photographer, Rob Cardillo of Ambler. “She's an amazingly accomplished and creative gardener with oodles of organizational skills.  And she writes like the Dickens!” said Cardillo. “I feel incredibly fortunate to make a living walking around and photographing other people's gardens.  It's a wonderful job even on the worst of days.” 

Ever since she was young, Ondra wanted to live in a log house. Her dream became a reality when her parents agreed to give her a 4 acre land on which she used to build her log house. Because Ondra grows a collection of unusual mix of native and exotic plants, she certified her property with the National Wildlife Federation as a backyard wildlife habitat. Today, the farm on which she resides across the street from her parents’ house is permanently protected from further subdivision and housing development.

“Her home is surrounded by one of the most innovative hand-made gardens in the region.  It's a seamless tapestry of color, shape and texture which makes shooting there a dream.”  Cardillo reflected.   

As an obsessed gardener for over 20 years, Ondra says she spends 8-10 hours on a given day during spring time. Her two male Alpacas Duncan and Daniel whom she often refers as “the boys” keep a vigilant eye. “I would not have been without them,” she said.   

To some, gardening is a simple hobby but for Ondra there’s more to it then meets the eye. “My favorite aspect of gardening is creating news gardens by figuring out where to put them, getting rid of the sod and planting afterwards.” “That’s the fun part that I like to do,” she added with a grin.

“It’s pretty amazing to be able to garden and write about it as the same time…it’s my whole life.”

To read Nancy Ondra’s latest blog entry about her favorite subject click here