the why behind the what

Before my husband and I started dating, I was already setting myself on the path to garden. I was quietly railing against the Great American Lawn™. Such wasted effort and time and resource. At the time, it was a slight murmer of an idea. I was renting and had little extra time to invest in […]

patience is a peony

The two of us are working to fill our garden with the memories of our lives, certainly of our childhoods. In this regard, peonies are my husband’s contribution as a memory of his father and the peonies he grew in the yard of my husband’s childhood home. That home was sold as part of settling […]

the cilantro learning curve

We have grown cilantro every year but the first that we have been in our wabi-sabi cottage. The first year, the only beds that got prepared were those needed for the plants we brought with us from the old house and the plants gifted to us from my in-laws. The second year, I sowed the […]

monday, tuesday, rainy day, all days

So much rain. So much. But I still manage to get plants into the ground. And the flowers thrive. So much. Like the rose bush that came with the house. Our severe winter killed more of it that the two prior years, so I cut it back, I thought, harshly. Almost to half its size. […]

the big beautiful mess

This past week’s garden project: advancing the side garden’s terracing. Three years ago, this was a grass/weed covered slope. Daylilies from the old house, surprise lilies and blackberry lilies and glacier rocks from my in-laws’ farm. Pavers and concrete border stones. Adding in perennial and annual herbs, a ReStore arbor, no-dig fencing. A perfect old […]

weed, water, repeat

Spring is full bore, and our wabi-sabi garden is set to explode with life. The hummingbird feeders are out, the bird bath is flipped and filled. The adjacent lot is more manicured and reclaimed than it has been since we’ve owned it, since we’ve owned our house even… The back most raised bed has been […]

catching up to spring

The close of April is hear, and it has been full of color here at our wabi-sabi cottage. Everything is waking up after a harsher-than-usual winter in the Kansas City Metro. The garden is going in, greening up, filling out. Garlic and parsnips, walking and green onions, clamored through the winter and are flourishing. Vegetable […]

“do you wanna build a snow-squid?”

What do you get when you combine a day off with streets too bad to drive anywhere with the most amazing playing-in-the-snow snow of a lifetime? A snow-squid, apparently. I did not go outside planning to release the snow-kraken, although I fully intended to play in the snow. It is after-all the *most* perfect playing-in-the-snow […]

end of harvest…?

I made sauce this evening, the same “end of harvest” roasted green tomato sauce I found last year, but with a broader range of ripeness in the tomatoes I used. That said, I am hoping it will not be the end of harvest. I spent the afternoon out in the garden, cutting back the massive-yet-under-producing […]

paving the way

Between full-time work, indoor projects, maintaining the established beds, and waiting for the budget to build back up, the gardens at our wabi-sabi cottage can be slow growing. Shopping places like Habitat ReStore encourages patience since resale and reused materials won’t show up in the correct clusters, so prioritizing projects can be dodgy, but I […]