The original straw hat gardener was Jill Costello’s grandmother. Baba left Dubrovnik as a young girl in 1906 and headed to California. She married, raised nine children and established a family farm in the fertile Central Valley. As she approached 103 years old, you could still find her outside picking peaches, shelling walnuts, and growing flowers for the nursery trade IN HER STRAW HAT.
Ah, God damn you kids!
Baba
Jill is genetically a gardener but has also developed her natural design eye over the years. She has:
- Designed more than 500 gardens in her work as a Landscape Designer at Mahoney’s Garden Centers.
- Passed the Massachusetts Certified Horticulturalist exam on her first attempt.
- Completed her certification as a Master Gardener in Massachusetts and in Oregon.
- Managed humanitarian projects extensively in East Africa over a period of 10 years.
