John W. Holden has been designing landscapes and providing landscape contracting services in Fairfield County, Connecticut, for over 26 years.
John started his career while attending Trumbull High School, mowing lawns in the Long Hill section of Trumbull. At Trumbull High, John studied in the Vocational Agriculture Program, where he learned about horticulture and farming while raising pigs, turkeys and chickens.
In 1992, John graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ornamental Horticulture.
John is an accredited Connecticut Nursery Professional through the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association and completed the rigorous course in Organic Land Care by the Connecticut Northeast Organic Farming Association.
John’s work was featured in Fine Gardening Magazine. The article shows how John hid an ugly concrete wall in a Trumbull, Connecticut, landscape design.
This project was for one of our first clients and is a reminder of why people need landscaping. Landscape design is not about plants and materials; it’s about the people who will enjoy the landscape.
John’s work has also been featured in Total Landscape Care Magazine, featuring a landscape design for a backyard retreat in Trumbull, Connecticut.
John lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, with his wife and inspiration, Karyn, son Matthew and daughter Allison. His interests include restoring the family’s vintage 1820s farmhouse, converting the property into an arboretum, gathering wood for and stoking the wood stove through the winter, and walking with his faithful companions Ellie and Theo.
John has maintained the family property chemical-free since the birth of his son Matthew in 2006. Yes, it can be done.
Many of the landscape designs in Newtown, Connecticut, featured on this website are within walking distance of John’s house.
All landscape and plant photographs in this website are from John’s personal collection.
Please view the video below for your personal tour of John’s Gardens in September of 2011.