Mark Kane

Harland Hand [1922-1998], inspired by the principles of fine art and rock formations in the High Sierra, designed this hillside garden with breathtaking views of San Francisco Bay.

Using concrete, curving lines and dramatic color combinations, Hand created an emotionally evocative space that houses an extraordinary plant collection.

Mark A. Kane's visit with Harland Hand

Mark A. Kane is a writer, editor, and photographer. He was a cofounder and Editor of Fine Gardening magazine, founder and Editor of Garden Gate magazine, and Executive Garden Editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, where he designed and built the BH&G Test Garden, a source of firsthand information about plants and ideas.

Mark has visited and photographed hundreds of gardens, private and public, and written about many of them. His photographs have appeared in Organic Gardening, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, Better Homes and Gardens, Pacific Horticulture, Taunton Books, and Time-Life books. He has won the Photography Award of the Garden Writer's Association and the magazine award of the Magazine Publishers Association.

Mark has written one book, The Beckoning Path, edited others, and contributed to the Taylor's Guides to Gardening. He was a pioneer of garden content on the Net, and his net writing was noted by Sunset magazine with this introduction, "Shades of Katharine White!" Mark also gives garden talks. His most recent, "There is No Such Thing as a Zen Garden," was sponsored by Strybing Arboretum.

Mark sells garden photographs for publication, does photography by assignment, and makes art prints of garden subjects, which he sells through the Net. He also teaches garden photography, mainly at major botanic gardens such as Strybing, Longwood, Chicago, and New York.

Mark lives in Des Moines, where he designs gardens and is gradually transforming his Jekyll-like garden into a Japanesque evocation of the Iowa prairie. He says, "Come back in five years."

Courtesy Mark A. Kane