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Labor of Love
Southern Living
|April 2025
As a surprise for his wife, Erin-and to instill a passion for gardening in his two daughters-Ben Napier crafted a thoughtful outdoor oasis
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THE NAPIERS are no strangers to tackling a project, but the greenhouse and garden Ben built for his wife, Erin, and their young daughters, Helen and Mae, was especially personal. "We both want our kids to grow up with a love of gardening," he says. "We want them to know how to do all the stuff our parents and the generations before them did. It was a big part of growing up and feels like something that has been lost in the last couple of decades."
The inspiration for the structure (which was revealed as a Mother's Day surprise on the Napiers' HGTV show Home Town last spring) first struck when the couple renovated the property's barn a few years ago. "We had to replace the doors, so suddenly I had these pieces of wood that I didn't want to just throw out," says Ben, who incorporated them into the greenhouse's siding.


This story is from the April 2025 edition of Southern Living.
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