Last Spring we finally finished what we call the “Cottage Garden” here at Bramblewood. What that means is we transformed the section of lawn in front of our house into a winding gravel path lined with stones, surrounded by large garden beds. Eventually, I hope that those beds will fill in with a somewhat wild,…
If the streets of heaven aren’t lined with English roses, I’ll be genuinely shocked. Old-fashioned, cottage-style, English roses are just otherworldly. This explains why I fell head over heels for David Austin roses a while back when they were introduced to me. This post is…
Hi everyone! It’s been a minute. This winter was…not kind to me. Or should I say I was not kind to me this winter. I let myself sink deep into some combination of an existential crisis and discouragement. With a sprinkling of frustration and a…
Have you ever spent hours peeling, blanching, pitting, saucing, cooking and canning something from your garden, only to watch it collect dust on your shelves all year long? I sure have. Many, many times in fact. It’s so easy to be tempted by pretty recipes…
It’s that magical time of year, when the Internet explodes with LOOK OVER HERE! and BUY THIS! and MAJOR SALE! Well, much as I hate to contribute to all that noise, I thought it might be helpful to share a few gift ideas. But instead…
Years ago I fell in love with cottage style gardening. Through stacks of good books, a few favorite blogs and YouTube channels, I nurtured that love and learned a whole heck of a lot about the topic. Like any other garden anglophile, I developed a…
Do you ever find yourself pinning photo after photo of gorgeous, Dutch masters inspired flower arrangements, only to have your mind go absolutely blank once you actually have the shears in hand? Yeah, me too. For years I’ve admired the floral stylings of all-stars like…
It is easy and understandable to feel burnt out on gardening by this point in the year, which is unfortunate since it’s the ideal time to be out there harvesting. Whether it’s the hot sun, the pesky bugs, the endless weeding or too much summer…
One of my very favorite things to do is NOT go to the grocery store. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I hope to someday avoid the grocery store all together. I absolutely love heading out to my garden to pick fresh produce, grabbing things from…