There are times in a gardener’s life when what we want to do and what we can do are at odds. Our knees and backs may be complaining, our energy isn’t what it was – yet our desire to get our hands in the dirt is as strong as ever. Or maybe we’ve downsized to a much smaller outdoor space that doesn’t look promising at all. What to do? In Late Bloomer, garden designer Jan Coppola Bills shows us how to successfully rethink our approach to gardening as we age. The author is a second-half-of-life gardener who helps her many friends and clients achieve easy care, low cost, eco-friendly, simple and beautiful gardens. It’s all about maintaining a joyful, healthful connection with the soil – but without the toil. Late Bloomer is part garden philosophy and part on-the-ground strategies and tips from the author and expert gardeners across the U.S. With color photos on almost every page, this inviting and practical book is organized around the four tenets of the Late Bloomer philosophy: Simplicity. Beauty and Harmony. Comfort and Ease. Relaxation and Letting Go.

The lecture and book signing will take place Sunday, February 5 from 1 – 2 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. Free with admission to the garden.

Jan Coppola Bills is a certified landscape designer, advanced master gardener, entrepreneur, and contributing writer for State-by-State Gardening magazine. She holds a masters degree in Organizational Management. After a successful career in the corporate world, she made a major life reassessment and followed her heart: She traded in her heels for Wellies and started the Detroit-area landscape design company Two Women and a Hoe® (twowomenandahoe.com). Jan shares her gardening philosophy of comfort, ease and simplicity with her clients, in her speaking engagements, and with her large online community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.