On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the Boothbay Region Garden Club will welcome Bruce John Riddell, landscape architect, to share with members and guests his very special garden philosophy.

Riddell, a native of Ellsworth, earned a bachelor's degree in English before moving on to the University of Pennsylvania for a master's degree in landscape architecture.

After graduation he landed a job in Washington, D.C., with Oehme, van Sweden and Associates where, during his eight years of employment, he worked on many public projects, including Battery Park in New York City, Reagan National Airport, and the National Zoo. He also worked on private gardens for many celebrities across the country before starting his own business in Bar Harbor.

Riddell has been the recipient of numerous regional and national awards including the American Horticultural Society's 2010 Landscape Designer of the Year award, the Perennial Plant Association's National Honor Award for Garden Design and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects' Outstanding Residential Design Award. His work can be seen in many regional and national magazines as well as in many home and garden books.

Since 1994, Riddell has been creating beautiful gardens blending natural stone and native plants to bring about landscapes that appear to be carved right out of nature. He has been one of the key designers at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and also designed and created the Charlotte Rhodes Memorial Park and Butterfly Garden in Southwest Harbor, the Veteran's Park in Southwest Harbor, and the Cliffside Site at Fort William's Park and Arboretum in Cape Elizabeth and The Zorah Fountain in Bath.

His unique ability to work with stone and plant materials in an environmentally safe and pleasing way has won him great acclaim.

Join members of the Garden Club for this delightful presentation by Bruce John Riddell at 1 p.m. on Aug. 12 at St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Boothbay Harbor to get a glimpse of how he transforms landscapes.