AHS LIVE: Eschewing Perfection for Natural Beauty
with Melissa Ozawa, director of content & communications, Perfect Earth Project
Thursday, May 28, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members
Through the nature-embracing lens of Perfect Earth Project, renowned garden writer and editor Melissa Ozawa will reflect on how her career has shifted her perspective on the purposes of landscape cultivation. Part presentation and part conversation, this contemplative program will serve as a catalyst to reconsider what and why beauty can mean in the garden.
Melissa Ozawa is the director of content & communications for Perfect Earth Project. Her love for gardens and nature began when she was a small child in Tokyo, playing among the cherry blossoms in Aoyama cemetery and irises at the Nezu museum garden. She has been writing and editing stories about gardening and sustainability for more than two decades and was recently the features and garden editor at Martha Stewart Living, where she traveled around the country to create and write stories for more than 10 years. She has also held editorial roles at House & Garden and Country Living magazines, and worked at the Garden Conservancy, planning garden tours and national lecture series. She got her start at the Academy of American Poets, where she was editor of the journal American Poet and helped to promote a slate of national literary programs. She lives in New York City and works in her garden in New York’s Columbia County every chance she can.