Kerry Michaels is no stranger to publication. She’s overseen websites, written articles and scripts, and authored and photographed books, among them one on “creating a gorgeous garden,” another containing quotes from Maine women writers, and a third on the Prince Edward Island landscapes that inspired “Anne of Green Gables.” But more than any of these, her latest, “Art from the Garden: Create 25 Beautiful Botanical Projects,” with her dear friend and art and design consultant Liz Micheels, “was an incredibly joyful project to do.” We talked with Michaels about what made it so, her art studio and the intended audience for her latest book.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? Michaels, who lives on Casco Bay in Freeport, has created quite the gorgeous garden herself. Lately though, it’s the garden artwork that absorbs her, even obsesses her, like “a dog with a bone.” The projects in the book “Art from the Garden” range from cyanotype silk scarves and gilded weeds to hammered botanical prints. “I have much more mixed feelings about gardening because there’s a lot of it. I don’t like weeding. This year the voles got into my garden and killed my favorite plants. Oh god, it’s so overwhelming!”

PERSONAL VOICE. Yes, “Art from the Garden” is a blueprint for 25 DIY projects with step-by-step photographs, clear instructions, lists of supplies and inspiring photographs of completed projects. But it’s more than that. For one, it includes unexpected features like the reassuring “Letter to New Gardeners” in the introduction: “Like all good adventures, (gardening) is a journey where you begin in one place and sometimes end up where you expected, and sometimes you end up someplace very different than you thought you would. Starting a garden is an act of faith and joy, and, to be honest, a bit of an act of insanity.”

Also, and unusually for books in this category, you feel the presence of the writer throughout, as when Michaels writes about foraging for rocks in a strip mall parking lot or her pleasure in silk scarves. A narrative throughline was important to her, Michaels said. Impersonal books are “kind of boring to write,” she said. “I don’t embrace writing that’s not personal.”

JUST TRY IT. Michaels is adamant that your lack of gardening or art experience shouldn’t stop you from making a string orb or a floating bouquet from the botanicals around you. The projects in the book are “incredibly accessible,” she said, though not necessarily on a first try. “You’ve got to put in the time and the heart and the effort. It was really, really important … that people should not feel intimidated.”

ART STUDIO. You might guess Michaels made the artful lanterns, lovely botanical rocks and other projects described in “Art from the Garden” in a dedicated, well-equipped space. Not so. “I took over my living room. I just put my desk smack dab in the middle.”

EDITED OUT. One craft project that eluded her? Skeleton leaves, an idea she ran into on the internet that creates leaves with just a network of the delicate, lacy veins intact. She read antique manuscripts describing the process. She tried boiling, and marinating in Borax. She picked leaves at the right time of year and only those she’d read would work best. “I must have tried 50 times and I still couldn’t do it.” So maybe she’ll achieve mastery and this is her next book? “No. I’m never doing it again,” Michaels said with a laugh.

PEACE THROUGH ART. Where to find sanctuary in tumultuous times? For some, it’s yoga or avoiding the news. For Michaels, it’s making art with her hands from natural materials. “I’ve become an art evangelist. I truly believe — and it has been proven — that doing art is curative. In this time of incredible turmoil, it is an oasis for people. I don’t want to sound too hyperbolic about all this, but … it’s brought me such joy, and what’s happening in the world is just so alarming.”

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