About Us

Owner and Head Gardener

Meet our founder, and head gardener, Kate Wharton.

You may recognize Kate from her other Glen Ellyn based businesses, Jewelsies and Kate Wharton Desgins.

Previously she even graced the cover of Glen Ellyn Living (now Stroll Magazine). You will probably never see Kate looking this glamorous unless you bump into her at Fire and Wine.

Coming soon a photo with a shovel - instead of her hammer!

Kate has an equal passion for flowers and gardening as she does for jewelry and metal stamping.

She views your garden as the adornment you enhance your home with, much the way a special piece of jewelry can be the finishing touch to your ensemble. It tells the world who you are before they even meet you or speak with you.

Kate’s passion for gardening means she has lovingly tended to her own garden for the last 12 years.

Learning and growing her skills has been a joy. She knows what will work in our soil and climate.

A core value of Glen Ellyn Gardens is to incorporate the use of native plants, noninvasive species, and

environmentally friendly gardening practices to create pollinator rich, and biodiverse, areas.

Kate’s love of gardening runs deep. She first fell in love with hortuiculture when she visited Ireland as a young girl.

Her Grandmother tended the most splendid and colorful cottage garden - just teeming with all sorts of varieties. Ireland’s flowers are truly magical….foxgloves and fuschias grow wild on the side of the road and the lushness from the rain is unparalleled. Trips to Muckross House inspired her love of a more structured garden and both aesthetics are treasures in her mind!

Kate’s father is also an avid gardener, and growing up Kate remember’s he was always propagating flowers and planting flower beds and vegetable gardens. Today he keeps bees and harvests honey!

He appreciates the little things in life, and the beauty of nature, and has instilled that in Kate.

When she visits Ireland today her Uncle Tom also has the family green thumb and she loves exploring his greenhouse and seeing what he has added - whether it be his grapevines, new plumb trees or moss fountain (it’s a thing!).

Kate’s cousin, John, also owns a 27 acre strawberry farm in Somerset England.

It’s no wonder that Kate feels most at home in a garden - it’s just in her blood.

When Kate isn’t stamping metal with a hammer, or digging in the mud, she enjoys spending time with her children, her husband Kevin, and their Labrador retrievers…and of course working on her own garden and vegetable plot.

Meet Monty

One of Kate’s labrador retrievers is even named after the beloved British gardener, Monty Don.

He does like to dig in the mud.

Albeit, not as skillfully as his namesake.

Muckross House, Killarney Ireland

Uncle Tom’s Greenhouse, Newcastle West Ireland

The Real Monty Don

British Horticulturist and Gardening Rock Star and my Monty’s namesake. Monty Don also founded a jewelry business prior to focusing exclusively on gardening - so not too far fetched for Kate to do it too!

Buttercups. My Grandmother’s favorite -growing wild in Ireland.

Kate’s Dad, John.

One of my favorite photos of my Dad watering our garden in 1995. When I took this picture, my Dad was the same age I am now. So grateful for his love of gardening.