Principal of her eponymous landscape design firm since 1984, Edwina von Gal creates landscapes with a focus on simplicity and sustainability for private and public clients around the world. She has collaborated with noted architects such as Maya Lin (The Wave Field/Storm King, Smith College, Oberlin College) Frank Gehry (Biomuseo Panama), Annabelle Selldorf, and Toshiko Mori, on projects for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Richard Serra, Larry Gagosian, Robert De Niro, Jann Wenner and many others in the environmental, design and art communities. Her work has been published in most major publications. Her book "Fresh Cuts" won the Quill and Trowel award for garden writing.
In 2008, while designing the park for The Biomuseo Panama, Edwina founded the Azuero Earth Project, promoting native species reforestation on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, perhaps the first of its kind to work without synthetic chemicals. In 2013, Edwina went on to create the Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit organization based in the USA dedicated to raising consciousness about the dangers of toxic lawn and garden chemicals, and the importance of planting native species, to protect the health of people, their pets, and the planet. Perfect Earth Project educates homeowners and professionals in nature-based landscape management techniques. In addition to lecturing across the US, and advising individuals, organizations, and communities on chemical free practices. In March of 2021 she launched a new initiative, Two Thirds for the Birds, a call to action to landscape and environmental professionals to make all their projects habitat friendly. She is currently converting her own property, Marshouse, into a laboratory and teaching center for Whole and Healthy landscape practices.
Edwina has served on boards and committees for a number of horticultural and arts organizations, and is currently on the board of What Is Missing?, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, and the advisory board of The Philip Johnson Glass House. She received the New York Horticultural Society’s Award for Excellence in 2002, The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award in 2012, and is the 2017 recipient of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts. In 2018 she received the NY School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award and The Isamu Noguchi Award, as well as the Conservator Award from Quogue Wildlife Refuge in 2020. She lectures regularly around the country about nature-based landscape solutions.
