Nature's Nurture: In The Garden With Deborah Needleman

Written by Shawn Gauthier | Photographed by Patrick Cline | Styled by Rita Konig and Deborah Needleman | Illustration by Caitlin McGauley

From Our Archives

Former domino magazine Editor in Chief, Deborah Needleman, unearths her passion.

Gardeners are no strangers to the seasons: the potential of spring, the lush vibrancy of summer, the peaceful, winding down of fall. And one can’t ignore winter: the break, the rest, the planning of the upcoming year and what to do differently. In a way, the cyclical nature of the gardens is reflective of everyday life with the ups and downs, the anticipation, surprises, and change. In the garden, not everything always goes as planned; like life, there is the unavoidable certainty of the unexpected.

For a gardener, this is simply the way life moves.

“I had this sudden break, this change, imposed on me when domino was shuttered,” says Deborah Needleman, former Editor in Chief of the instantly popular shelter magazine, and most innately, an avid gardener. “The closing [of domino] was a shock, and the break-up of the group was terrible; it was such a magical collection of people. But for me, it was a mix; even though I had no choice in the change, I found the break to be liberating. It’s not unlike the seasons.”

For Needleman, the past eight months since the closing of domino could be called the winter of her professional life, a sudden freedom from years of successful, ambitious career devotion, a break in what Needleman does not necessarily define as a career “path,” but more the following of her many personal interests. Although she genuinely loved domino, felt inspired by its mission and greatly humbled and appreciative of its success, she began to long for the things that satisfied her most deeply, and felt herself drifting from the “urbanite” she had, for years, thought she was. For a woman who is made happiest by a meadow, who would rather spend money on plants than clothes, she knew this sudden change of events, and the free time it allowed, meant only one thing: an opportunity to immerse herself in her garden.

“Every plant person has their thing,” says Needleman. “I love roses and peonies, bearded irises and old fashioned flowers, but I’m not a big fan of black-eyed Susans.”

Growing up in a New Jersey suburb, Needleman found herself surrounded by lawns and landscaping, not gardens; she discovered them through literature. Late nights absorbed in the beautiful, fantastical images in books, and somewhere instinctively, she knew she wanted to create those images herself. Gardening had never been something she learned from her mother or grandmother; rather, the infatuation grew inherently, emotionally, a naturally born desire of which she calls the most "all-consuming passion" she has ever had. Interestingly enough, it was not until her late 20s that she actually got her hands dirty when she finally could not ignore the need to garden any longer.

"I told a friend of mine that all I wanted to do was be a gardener, and he literally gave me his garden in Westchester," she says. Shortly after she had moved to New York from Washington and was taking classes at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. "I was spending all my time reading and thinking and fantasizing about gardens, yet I had never actually done it."

As fate would have it, her friend's ex-wife worked at House & Garden, and soon Needleman found herself at the publication working as a photography editor (she had previously held the same position at the Washington Post directly out of school). Though she left after a year to design gardens, House & Garden knew they had a talent on their hands and quickly offered her a subsequent position as a garden writer. She spent the next eight years traveling the world, visiting gardens, learning all she could consume, and describing the experience as "amazing."

Meanwhile, she began depositing all her learnings into her own garden, watching it blossom at her upstate home in Garrison, New York, which she shares with her husband and two children. A product of her growing knowledge as well as the much appreciated advice of expert friends and colleagues (her "gardening girlfriends"), it has become a lush, fragrant expanse of greens, vegetables, and flowers; an oasis and composite of nature's wonders, loved and coaxed by Needleman's passion. She calls herself a "messy person but meticulous gardener," very much like her own personality. "I like things wild but within structure, I can't stand things too perfect," she says. "I'm laid back about my garden, but can become admittedly obsessed. I'm sure my children think I garden too much."

The children, however, have proved an inspiration for certain aspects of the garden; Needleman began growing vegetables to help teach them where food comes from. Now, the kids often help pick food for supper; Needleman lets the garden and season inspire what she and her husband cook each night. Besides vegetables, Needleman's garden is filled with a wide variety of flowers depending on the season and year; currently, she has blue cornflowers, white love-in-a-mist, chamomile, sunflowers, and zinnias, to name a few, which she often cuts and places in arrangements for display throughout her home.

It’s amazing to have things that are alive in your house... It keeps the house from feeling static; it says ‘someone was here, someone cares.’

“It’s amazing to have things that are alive in your house,” says Needleman, who sees the potential for beauty in everything and is not above adding weeds or vegetables to her arrangements. “It keeps [the house] from feeling static; it says ‘someone was here, someone cares.’”

In fact, her arrangements are about the only accessory that can be found in both Needleman’s Garrison home as well as her apartment in Tribeca, two completely different spaces in terms of decoration and feel. Whereas Tribeca acts as more of a respite away from the noise and uproar of the city, calming in muted tones of grey and cream, Needleman had an entirely different idea for Garrison, craving patterns and colors, a “kooky feeling English country feel,” as she puts it. In order to achieve it, she enlisted the help of a close friend, and another former domino editor, decorator Rita Konig. “[Konig] has such an amazing sensibility,” gushes Needleman. “She is so wonderful to work with. She just gets it.”

A one-room inn in its past life, Needleman and her husband instantly fell in love with the 18th-century “tiny, rickety, and weird” home (as she affectionately describes it) when they moved in 14 years ago, despite the plastic shower stalls, cork ceilings, and avocado-green appliances. Located on the Hudson Highlands on the Hudson River, the couple loved the history of the home and the fact that they could cross-country ski right out the backdoor. Although the plastic stalls and shades of avocado were a part of the original character, they only had so much love for the dated décor – and after living with it for years, decided it was about time to update the interior.

Konig stepped in, putting her sensibility, creativity, and talented expertise to work, transforming the home by utilizing layered, colorful fabrics and creating the English-inspired home Needleman desired. The space is comfortable and relaxed, but in a very thought-out manner; the type of home where the kids are often found at the dining room table doing art projects, and the adults on the back screened-in porch with cocktails, watching as the sun sets through the leaves and the light falls through the flowers, highlighting perfectly the evening’s garden.

“Don’t just pick flowers for arrangements,” suggests Needleman, “instead, look in unusual places for materials – trees, shrubs, weeds, etc. There is no reason a bunch of dandelions wouldn’t look perfectly charming clustered in a vase.”

Scent is an essential part of decorating; utilize potpourri and fresh, fragrant flowers throughout your home, or simply throw open the windows!

Not afraid to take risks, Konig went as far as to mix a deep slate for the walls of Needleman’s study, so dark it almost appears black. A tiny room, Needleman did not want the sense of trying to work against the size; so instead, Konig embraced it and created a space that feels cozy, intimate, and warm. As with any area that Needleman spends a lot of time in, on the desk she has a fragrant arrangement of honeysuckle, creating an aromatic, calming office space. “It’s so nice to be working and get a whiff of something fragrant,” she says. By her bed, she often keeps sweet peas.

Deep slate for a wall color is slightly unusual, but it gives the room personality, much like the fabrics, patterns and colors throughout her home. A classic base with a bit of personality is something Needleman seeks in décor and accepts as part of her style, which she continuously works to define. In fact, the yearning to understand her own style is what drove her to start domino; with so many available styles out there, how does one choose, and where does one go for help? Needleman knew she had good taste but had trouble deciding on how to express it; the wheels began turning and domino was born.

“I wanted to make a magazine to help people, like myself, who wanted knowledge, understanding, and access to great style,” explains Needleman, who adds that in the general scheme of publishing, she was an outsider, and unconventional choice as an editor. “I was not on an editor career track. I was a garden writer who loved interiors and style. But people responded to the magazine; I think because we spoke to our readers like the real, smart, individual people that they were.”

As the seasons begin to turn and nature's real winter approaches, sending her garden into hibernation, Needleman will surely not be bored. Reinvigorated and ready to launch her next move, she has several things up her sleeve, including a new online business venture. Eager to embark on the next chapter, it will bring together everything she's learned at domino, as well as her love for style, interiors, and gardens. Knowing the energy, passion, and dedication she exhibited while leading domino, it's safe to say Needleman is teetering on the edge of the next exciting adventure.

In life, like gardening, there is always potential and prospect, room for something new. Spring always follows winter, and the earth appears again, ready for bloom. And for a gardener like Needleman, even when life throws the unexpected, at the end of the day, it's rare that anything happens that can't be made better by a simple vase full of fragrant peonies.