Trellises, archways and arbors…oh my! The day I decided to grow up (literally), was the day my garden changed. Adding a few trellises to my landscape, instantly transformed my garden from a veggie producing patch to a wondrous new world. Aside from allowing me to live out my Secret Garden fantasy, vertical gardening also allows me to produce a lot more vegetables, flowers, and herbs without having to add in more growing space. The material you choose to use for your trellises really sets the mood for your garden. I love to use branches, not only because I live in the woods and they’re plenti ..read more

If you build it, they will come…A little over a decade ago, I started transitioning my garden from a place where I grew things, into my own field of dreams. I wanted my gardens to be the place to bee (wink wink). So I began to create an environment that beckoned to birds, bees, butterflies, frogs, snakes and every other critter and creature about our woods. Slowly, one-by-one, they began to come. With each passing year, as my gardens grew in size and lure, more and more visitors came. Today, our woods are so alive and vibrant with so much activity from all our creatures great and small, that ..read more

Save time, money and seeds this new growing season!     January 3rd…the holiday season is officially over and the seed starting extravaganza has officially begun! Has anyone else noticed that much like everything else as of late, seed packet prices have skyrocketed? So much so, that I’ve had to excerpt much more will power than I usually do on my annual purchases. But that’s more than okay because I have plenty of seed stock carried over from previous years. And because the cost of electricity, potting soil and all the other seed starting support items have also seen increases, I’m ..read more

Happy New Year!! I’m so thrilled to welcome in 2023. Sending out all the best wishes for a brilliant, prosperous, joyous year ahead. Over the past year, I made an effort to study and research more and more about how different cultures welcome the changing months and seasons, especially those which place Nature as their focus. So without any further ado, I happily kick off this new year, new month, with some of my favorite lore that celebrates everything January.     • January’s is named after Janu, who was the Roman god of beginnings and protector of entryways. • January’s birthston ..read more

How it all began. The first impromptu (hence my stylish ensemble) fire pit and sit from back in February. What began on a whim one brisk February day, quickly became a most cherished activity that changed my year in all the best of ways. My husband had lugged one of our chicken coops down the hill, and in its wake, left a cluster of boulders whose original purpose was to be moved elsewhere on our property. That is until I walked out of my studio one January day and saw that that cluster of boulders would make the ideal fire pit. Anyways, how much easier it would be to be able to keep them whe ..read more

You know all those seeds that have written on their packet to be “directly sown in early spring as soon as soil can be worked”…well, those have always been pretty tricky ones for me here in my garden to swing. In Maine, early spring still means snow, and usually still a good amount. Then there’s the whole waiting for the soil to be able to be worked, well some years that’s not until mid-May. And if I wait until then, many of these kind of seeds (which are primarily flowers), will not fair well as they don’t want to go from newly sown to summer temps as many of these seeds require a period of ..read more

In order to figure out when to begin to start your seeds, you’ll need to know your last frost date. In a nutshell, your last frost date is not a green light to go outside and plant your entire garden. All it simply is, is an estimated date that predicts the winding down of nighttime temperatures dipping below freezing level. And it is only an estimate. So that means that it can very well be extremely cold or even snow after that date (it snowed here in Maine as late as Mother’s Day one spring). Last frost usually signals that it is now safe to transplant out those hardened off cool weather cr ..read more

A nook and a book is all it took to kick the doldrums right out of January. Even I don’t quite believe that I’m about to type this sentence, but, I kind of look forward to January and February these days. If you’ve experienced Maine weather during these months, you’d absolutely think I’ve lost it, but after so many years of whining about how long these months take to pass by, I’ve now come to savor the quiet and slowness of each and every day.  These cold, dark winter months have now become my season of dreaming green. After 25 years of gardening, I do have to confess that it’s in this ..read more

I’ve written around five different versions of this post over the past two weeks, only to toss them all aside in favor for just sitting down here in my studio, with a good cup of tea, some quality tunes, lavender wafting through the air, and my pal Cobbs sleeping by my side…the setting is perfect for what my focus for 2022 will be…NOURISH. The world has been through a very long past two years and the huge life struggles of so many people are ones that I have shared, though not during the pandemic. Rather, I am on the other side (fingers crossed!) of what was a 15-year-straight period of great ..read more

This Homemade Cleaning Solution smells bright and outdoorsy, making the chore of cleaning a bit more enjoyable. Nothing brings me more joy than heading outside with an empty basket and coming back with a trove of Nature’s treasures, and come winter, that can be some slim pickings around here. That’s why I love making a big batch of this natural cleaner to ring in the new year. And if you don’t have a good forage area by you, but you do still have your live Christmas tree or wreath kicking around, snip a few sprigs off of that and you’ll be good to go! Any pine or conifer will pretty much work ..read more