As most of you know our beloved Debby Ruskin died March 28, 2020. Debby, founder of Ruskin Garden Design, for over 35 years created beautiful residential landscape designs in the Palo Alto area of California. Over time she partnered with her daughter Amy Palmer.
Debby was an integral leader in the formation of our California Chapter. Initially the early stages of APLD did not think formation of chapters was a good idea. However California kept pushing and knew that the time was right. We had a dedicated, active design group and we had successfully put on the Winter 1999 APLD conference, centered in San Francisco—with over 100 people attending not only from California but other states as well. California became an official chapter in 2001.
After our separate regional districts were incorporated into a single statewide California Chapter, Debby became our first official APLD CA president, serving from 2001 to 2004. We had moved from meeting in living rooms to a church hall, and with her presidency we moved our meetings to Palo Alto’s Gamble Garden and our numbers mushroomed. It was Debby’s spirit that infused our group: her inclusiveness, her mentoring us younger designers, her enthusiasm for her work and her way of collaborating with others was contagious and spread throughout the local landscape design community. APLD, in the SF Bay Area grew and grew and we all credit Debby for that growth.
She also contributed to APLD on a national level when, for four years, she served as Secretary and Treasurer on the APLD national board, in mid 2000’s. She also attended as many conferences as she could. People felt an immediate connection with her and she established and maintained friendships with many thought out the whole design community.
I asked Connie Lefkowits, FAPLD ( and mother of Brad Lefkowits, of San Diego APLD) and Peggy Calhoun, FAPLD, for their experiences, spanning over 30 years with Debby, to give us all a fuller picture of her life and her impact on them and on other landscape designers and design.
Connie remembers her first meetings with Debby. After admiring a garden Debby had designed for her neighbor, Connie hired her to design her garden (in the 80’s). Connie remembers it as being a very collaborative experience, and when finished Debby encouraged her to take classes to become a landscape designer. For the next 30 plus years, they met for breakfast every Thursday morning at Joanie’s Restaurant, going over planting plans and other issues that would come up as they continued to designing gardens.
Connie noticed, over time, an endearing pattern of Debby’s. Connie termed it ‘Debby Time’. Debby would get so engrossed with whatever she had thrown herself into, she would need to run to whatever was next. Debbie was always excited about her work and relationships—she would wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and sit up in bed with her current planting plan, or call to the contractor about a detail of an installation, or a chat with a friend—she totally gave herself to whatever she was doing, or the person she was talking to. She had ability to be completely present with each person or task and her enthusiasm infected all of us.
After battling cancer for two and a half years, Debby was still designing gardens with that engrossing attention, and one was even being installed as she was close to death. When asked what Connie wanted most for us know about Debby she said,
“Debby had a spirit of giving totally, of sharing, of cooperation and always encouraging others.”
Peggy Calhoun, when asked to share her experiences with Debby wrote:
“APLD’s unique ability to bring designers together began in living rooms and continued in unexpected ways. We, Debby Ruskin & the ’two Peggys’ (Hinman & Calhoun), had been sharing office space in Palo Alto for four years & made the decision in 1994 to each create a home office. Our bond was so strong, and we missed the daily camaraderie that we shared, so we started ‘Thursday Design Group’ at Debby’s home. Every Thursday we met for 2-3 hours, each brought a project, divided our time together with a timer, and helped one another move our projects along. We each had different strengths so working together we were able to help each other over the hurdles we encountered.
We cherished our time together so dearly and it was rare to miss our Thursdays. Our arrangement, and cherished friendships, continued through 2019. APLD offers help in numerous ways for new designers just starting their careers through designers who have been creating gardens for many years. The support, education & companionship is invaluable in a field where many of us work independently.”
—Patricia St. John, FAPLD
