About

As long as she can remember, Holly Graves’s parents had lush gardens in the backyard of their Delray Beach, Florida home. There were roses, orange and key lime trees and plenty of veggies. Her parents spent hours in the yard tending to their plants. But by the age of 6, Holly had had enough of just watching her parents.

“I’m making a garden too!” she remembers declaring.

So she grabbed a hoe and dug, planting a vegetable garden of her own, complete with carrots, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce and more.

These days, Holly’s approach to gardening is a little more sophisticated. Armed with a degree in architecture from Clemson University, where she graduated cum laude, Holly began gardening in Jackson Hole in 2004 and started Flower Girl Gardening in 2005. With fifteen years of professional experience, Holly has mastered her craft. She prides herself on providing excellent customer service and is sure to tailor every garden she designs and installs to meet her clients’ particular needs.

She has grown her business slowly, from the days when she dug every hole in the ground by herself, to employing a staff of ten, and managing about 75 homes.

“It’s taken all these years because I didn’t want the quality or service to suffer,” Holly said of building Flower Girl Gardening. “I don’t want any clients to feel like they are neglected. So now we are at the point where we can handle more because of time and experience.”

That care and attention to detail comes through in her elegant, colorful garden designs which are inspired by the natural environment and made to complement Jackson’s mountainous surroundings. Holly’s designs are precisely laid out, but not rigidly so. They are whimsical and chic with just the right note of wild. She seamlessly mixes rocks, shrubs, small trees and flowers of just about every color: golden yellows, reds that pop, purples, pinks, blues, whites, and more. Each garden brims with variety in color, texture, and height.

Given the inherent challenges that Wyoming’s high desert climate presents, Holly approaches her designs like puzzles. She lays out the pieces, carefully considering how much water each garden she tends has or needs, how much light there is versus how much shade, what wildlife might encroach to munch her flowers and plants and what she needs to grow so that the garden is in bloom throughout the summer. Then she plants her vibrant solutions in Jackson’s cool, dry, earth and delights as the results flourish.

“It’s instant gratification,” she says of seeing her work pop from the ground. “Gardening is a natural outlet and it’s great to be outside everyday,” she says.