Celebrities

P. Allen Smith | Sep. 7

P. Allen Smith, often described as one of America’s most talented landscape designers, is the product of five generations of southern nurserymen. His foundational childhood experiences in planting naturally led to an appreciation for horticulture, genetic diversity, plant pairing and an orderly, holistic approach to work.  Later as a graduate student in England he traced--200 years to the day--Thomas Jefferson and John Adams’s famous tour of important English country homes.  Historical precedent and context being ever prominent in his mind, Mr. Smith sidelines fashion and identifies and then sensitively accentuates the natural gifts of the landscape, imparting balance, harmony and beauty in the classic tradition of Palladio, Brown, Repton and Soane.  His designs are an expression of his client’s lifestyle, melding site with living material and improvements to create environments that mature and improve with the seasons while framing arresting viewsheds.

Mr. Smith’s esoteric interests provide for a broad diversity of inclusions in his designs such as poultry houses, sheep pastures, walled gardens rooms, fruit orchards, herb gardens, container gardens, stumperies, rare rose collections, wildflower fields, pollinator drifts, apiaries, ponds, and follies.  Many of these devices are on display at his Ferme Orneé, Moss Mountain Farm--a 600 acre estate on the Arkansas River.

Known for his television work on Good Morning America, the Today Show, his PBS programming, and his six book publications, Allen is also deeply passionate and involved with preservation and conservation efforts.He is a trustee of Winterthur House, a former board member of the Royal Oak Society (the British National Trust), a certified fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, an honorary member of the Garden Club of America, the honorary President of the Herb Society of America, and a life member of the Livestock Conservancy, the Rare Breeds Trust (UK) and the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities.He is a TEDx speaker and the founder of the Heritage Poultry Conservancy.

Good Bones | Sep. 8

When mother-daughter duo Karen E Laine and Mina Starsiak flipped their first house in the late 2000s under their banner Two Chicks and a Hammer, neither expected to eventually find themselves on an HGTV house-flipping show. But the self-proclaimed Midwestern girls are the stars of the hit show "Good Bones", now in its fourth season. Racking up to the tune of 13 million viewers, the show has proven to be one of the network's breakout hits. In Good Bones, the pair hunt down battered homes in bleaker Indianapolis neighborhoods, transforming them with an average budget of $180,000 — with help from some rough-and-ready demo teams. The show has an odd couple appeal, contrasting Karen’s "hippie personality" (to quote Mina) who has more of a no-nonsense, methodical style. The ladies are currently working on a few other shows for the network including a reboot of While You Were Out which airs in March on both HGTV and TLC and the Brady Bunch House renovation series due to air later this year. 

The ladies are currently working on their first book and Mina welcomed a beautiful baby boy in August.