David Meeker and Porthole Design

In one form or another, David Meeker has been designing and thinking about gardens most of his life. After completing his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Poetry in 1995, David took his first position at an influential landscape design firm and nursery in San Francisco’s Marina District. Due to San Francisco’s small space constraints, the gardens he was to design were very often small rooftop gardens or private backyard spaces invisible to the people walking the streets nearby. “Each home permitted entry into a magical and expanding universe. That’s what I saw in those old-world gardens and what I strive to create in mine today.”

In 1999, David moved to Austin, TX, a notably challenging environment for gardening. For the next 13 years, David would manage two of Austin’s top nurseries, The Great Outdoors and Gardens, as well as become a landscape designer for Mark Word Design. “What I learned quickly was that the best gardens, the gardens which jumped up and shouted at me, were the ones where the caretakers took an active interest in the stories their particular garden had to offer. Money has little to do with it. Plants have their own lives. And, if we carefully plan for it, we can be a part of a garden’s rich story and vitality, as much as we can our own. All it takes is an involvement: getting your hands in the dirt, taking risks, being attentive to the garden’s various needs and wants, which can be few or many depending on the intended design and your level of participation. “Even the most limited outdoor space, I learned, has great potential and can create a sense of awe and wonder.”

In 2010, David Meeker created Porthole Design, a garden design and construction company that sees gardens as not only beautiful thriving places to relax and spend time with friends and family, but political, ethical choices that reflect and hopefully sustain the environment around us. “I like that idea. I want to see what our best gardens will become in the future and how those gardens will shape me, in turn, as they evolve.”