Gardeners on Nantucket are everywhere. They are so numerous, in fact, that they’ve become part of the island’s scenery, blending into car’s passing blur of trees and plants.  At Amy Pallenberg’s company, at first glance we are just another set of gardeners planting and pruning. Strangers who have dirt stains on their hands and cheeks as they arbitrarily water and plant.

But there is much more happening inside Amy’s Nantucket gardens, down to each specific task and each gardener who performs it.

I work with women who can name a flower by looking at its budding leaves, its fullest bloom and even once its shriveled and dead. They can look at a wild garden and know exactly what needs to be done to tame it, including each flowers’ individual and specific needs.

I work with women who, by the touch of soil to their fingers, will know exactly how much water each bed or pot will need for it to flourish. Too much water will drown the plants, and not enough will dry them out. They can alter the color of flower petals with their chosen amount of chemical compounds. Too much will turn them pink, but just the right amount will turn them blue.

Along with their knowledge of gardening, these women continue to bring their own growing desires and aspirations to each garden every day.

The Brazilian photographer, who can recite a flower’s Latin and English name upon request. The aspiring historian, who while pruning can recite you history lessons with a smile. The Balinese Princess from a mountain full of vanilla orchards. The yogi with her own jewelry business. The women’s advocate and talented ballet dancer. The soon-to-be PHD and mother-to-be who works until weeks of her due date. A boss who works meticulously with every single task. Whether she’s choosing flower arrangements, pondering asymmetrical planting designs, planting according to property’s weather patterns, or questioning pot designs, she is always working just as hard now as she was the first day of spring.

They aren’t just brilliant gardeners but artists, graduates, mothers, students, entrepreneurs and dreamers, the type of women I’d not only want in my gardens but in my home as friends.

- Ashley Bartolome