Bunny Williams (an AD Hall of Fame member and winner of a House Beautiful Giants of Design Award) is known globally as a creative force in both interior and garden design. She’s the author of Bunny Williams on Garden Style, An Affair with a House, and more; her newest is Bunny Williams: Life in the Garden. She talks with LJ about making gardens, some of her most beloved sites, and books not to miss.

You became a gardener after you became a designer. What do you think are common skills between designers and gardeners?

Simply put, the common skill between interior designers and gardeners is design. As a gardener, you might have an extensive knowledge of plants, but without knowing how to apply that in a format of good design, you will never have a great garden. Gardens, like rooms, need to connect to one another, so you also need an understanding of pathways and how one room flows into another. In a garden, all these things need to be created from the ground up in the space that you have.

How do you think about the philosophy of a garden? What elements, features, moods do you think are essential?

The main question is: What is your personality? There are formal, clipped gardens and natural, loose gardens. For me, I like to have a bit of both. The kind of garden you have is a personal choice that represents the owner’s design philosophy.

Place is an important element of your interiors and exteriors. What places have you traveled to and what gardens have you seen that inspire your work today?

I have been lucky to travel and see gardens all over the world. Some of the ones I was most inspired by are Sissinghurst Castle, Hidcote, Villa Gamberaia, Gardens by the Wirtz family, Russell Page gardens, [and] Gravetye Manor.

You have mentioned that Russell Page’s The Education of a Gardener is an important book for you. Since you’re talking to librarians here, what other books, beyond your own catalogue of lovely titles, do you recommend to those responsible for building garden and interior design collections?

Some of my favorite authors…are Vita Sackville-West, Page Dickey—love her latest book, Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again—Gertrude Jekyll, [and] Piet Oudolf. One of my favorite new releases is The Tulip Garden: Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties by Polly Nicholson.