Neil Hensley

About me

I have always loved flowers.

One of my first childhood memories was shopping for Easter flowers with my Aunt Amanda. She tasked me with choosing the pansies and encouraged me to select those with the prettiest “faces”. To this day, I still look forward each March to starting the planting season with these pretty faced harbingers of Spring. My parents, who were avid gardeners, also encouraged my horticultural passion. While they spent most of their time tending an enormous vegetable garden, my father carved out a small section of the space for me to plant flowers.

My passion continued into adulthood.

I was blessed to have a career in international economic development, during which I led more than 100 overseas business missions. The trips provided me opportunities to spend evenings and weekends visiting the great gardens of England, France, Italy, Japan and China. Those experiences shaped me as a gardener and their cultural influences are still evident in the gardens I design today. One of my favorite spots in our garden is a small moss garden, inspired by a visit to Kokedera, the awe-inspiring moss temple in Kyoto which has been tended by the same order of monks for nearly 1,000 years.

Gaining and sharing experise

While I was learning about horticulture and garden design by visiting the great gardens, I decided to expand my understanding of the gardening world with more formal education. My first step was to pursue a Master Gardener certificate from the State of Kentucky Horticultural Extension service. My appetite whetted, I then completed several horticulture and landscape design courses at my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. Armed with a strong horticulture and garden design foundation, I began to think about ways to use that knowledge to improve people’s lives. Gardening has always provided me with solace and inspiration, in good times and bad, and I wanted to share that with others. That’s when I discovered horticultural therapy and began pursuing a certificate in the field. I spent several years traveling to Colorado to complete the program created jointly by the Horticultural Therapy Institute in Denver and Colorado State University in Ft. Collins.

Engaging children, parents, and the community

I’m now pursuing my gardening passion full-time, designing gardens and container gardens, primarily in the neighborhoods surrounding my home in the East Row Historic District of Newport, Kentucky. My big project at the moment is to create a pollinator friendly garden at the parish center of our church. The garden is adjacent to a day care and pre-school. My goal is to engage the children, as well as their parents and parishioners, in an effort to reverse the decline in the number of bees and butterflies. I grew up surrounded by forests and fields and understand the benefits of connecting to the natural world, so I hope this garden creates in some measure a life affirming connection for the residents of this dense urban site.