The full library · 40 entries · 2021–2026
A small library of the house, the garden, and the seasons. Search a remembered phrase, or browse by what's in flower.
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Showing all 40 entries.
By August, the garden has settled into that full, slightly unruly stage of summer. The tomatoes are coming in faster now, warm from the sun and usually eaten not long after they are picked.
We’ve moved many times, and our plants never move with us. Instead, they are gifted to friends, family, and neighbors. Once we arrive at our new home, the process of adding plants to the space starts all over again.
Years ago we were walking through a big box store and noticed a shelf full of plants living inside, under fluorescent lights. We assumed the plants were artificial.
It’s Friday afternoon, and time for our family to head over the hill to Bloomsbury Farm.
On a December afternoon before Christmas, our grandmotherly neighbor, Miss Norma, invited us into her home to make nature-inspired, dried floral bauble ornaments.
We were living in Minnesota and it was late, late fall. My mother had recently offered a few of her flower plants as she was reconfiguring her garden.
Do you want to know the easiest crop to grow? Potatoes! At this point, we can’t even stop growing them. Let me tell you our story.One spring, we were cleaning out our pantry and found a small bag of forgotten potatoes.
London in the nineteenth century was plagued with deplorable air conditions.
We headed out to the Mill City Farmers Market in late winter in Minnesota. It’s essential to embrace the cold, snowy, dark season with realistic expectations and a hearty dose of enthusiasm.
Our friends had recently bought ten acres of land outside of Nashville and invited us over for a fall hike.
Driving around Tennessee, we noticed a profusion of native pink roses blooming from a wild bush growing along the country roads—stunningly beautiful and thriving with no attention from anyone.
When we began building our garden beds for our Tennessee farm, we wanted it to feel like an intimate garden setting, even though it was being constructed in the middle of a five-acre plot.
We had moved into our 5-acre homestead in February—trees, plants, and grass were still very much in hibernation mode, but I was anxious to start planning our garden.
February in Minnesota is cold and dark, and finding ways to feel cozy and warm is imperative: candles, fires, twinkly lights, warm drinks, and gatherings with friends helps.
Many months ago, we were walking along the paths on our property to gather wildflowers— sage, guara, primroses, and daisies.
We tend to adopt “neighbor grandmas” wherever we live, and our time in New Mexico was no exception.
Thinking about pumpkins in the summer? Probably not. But you should. Growing your own pumpkin patch is so fun and easy, but pumpkins take 100 to 120 days to mature.
Our front yard in Minnesota received the most sun, so it only made sense to create my garden there. I would head out in the spring mornings and work towards ripping the lawn up.
I have now built six gardens from scratch and I am about to start my seventh garden this spring. I would like to stop these shenanigans and stay put with this next garden I create!
A few months ago, our neighbor was over for tea and cookies. “I was approved to host honey bees on my property, and my payment will be free honey,” she said.
We were living in New York City in a studio apartment and I was hankering to get my hands in a bit of soil after moving from Minnesota where we had a large yard and garden.
March winds and April showerscan blow your plants away.So start your seeds inside the houseand plant outside in May.Hollie HobbieWhen we first started gardening, we were so excited to start from scratch with seeds grown indoors.
I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea: and she gave a dose of it to Peter!
As we were driving home in November, I spotted a brilliant, beautiful red-berried shrub alongside the road. It was growing on an abandoned lot, so I took a mental note of its location.
One of our favorite traditions during every Christmas season is to bring a bit of the garden indoors during a time when most of our plants are resting.
We were living on a greenbelt in Texas and we had invited friends over for an outdoor fall picnic.
When I was ten my grandmother gifted us tulip bulbs to plant alongside our home. She had brought them back from a trip to Holland and waited for the fall to present them to us.
“All that summer Miss Rumphius, her pockets full of seeds, wandered over fields and headlands, sowing lupines.”-Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney Fields of wildflowers, along the highways of Texas in the spring, are a glorious sight.
Mornings at home are for “school,” but after that, it is outside time. The fairies are usually the first destination. It seems to be a good transition space from indoors to outdoors.
Plant propagation: The process of growing a new plant from a mother plant by seeds, cuttings, or other plant parts.It was a few days before Christmas when we heard a knock at our door—our sweet neighbors bearing gifts and Christmas greetings!
Years ago I heard a story from our pastor, Dr. Timothy Keller, that completely astonished me. When his wife Kathy was 12 years old, she wrote to C.S.
We had moved to a new town in a new state. We left our home, friends, and family for work opportunities. I was hoping it would be temporary - Texas was so foreign compared to our cozy, familiar place in Minnesota.
We inherited our homestead garden at the end of winter. It was a mess—weeds run amok, pathways deteriorated, and nary an edible vegetable in sight.
How Sarah Frémont’s Scandinavian Roots Inspire Her Pattern-Filled Home (and Her Tips for Filling Your Home With Pattern, Too!) Sarah Frémont isn’t afraid of pattern.
Sitting on our porch one summer afternoon, my friend glanced at our garden and cried out, “Ooooh! That is one of my favorite things to eat.
When we first moved into our fixer upper, the outside of the home looked like a haunted house—the limestone in front had blackened, the front door had rotting wood, and weeds had run amok in the yard.
I was eleven years old and it was a glorious early spring day in the southern, rolling hills of Indiana.
Greetings from the mountains of New Mexico! In our new mountain garden we are busy restoring the long ago abandoned garden beds: weeding, building borders, and adding my favorite compost.
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