Sometime last year I started hearing about a place in Chapel Hill called Honeysuckle Tea House. All I knew about it was that they served loose leaf tea, which has long been my beverage of choice. So on a hot summer day last year I decided to make the trek. From my house in Raleigh it is about 45 . . .
Bonsai, the Japanese art of growing miniature trees in containers fascinates me. It is such a beautiful craft, and many of the tiny ornamental trees are cultivated over long periods of time. I have killed approximately two of them. And though I thought I had learned my lesson, I would like to try my . . .
In the spring of last year my husband, daughter and I took a 3-day weekend trip up to the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, about four hours from where we live in Raleigh. It was a trip we'd been talking about making for years but hadn't realized that time had slipped away from us and the last . . .
A few blocks away from Gather is a charming, well maintained and very well stocked herb garden, that you really wouldn't happen upon unless you knew it was there. It is tucked away behind the railroad tracks, near, but sort of behind the town offices and next to an old historic building that used to . . .
This is a sweet valentine gift, perfect for a friend who loves plants and a great way to bring the garden indoors in the middle of winter. There are two routes you can take with this present: 1. You can force the bulbs yourself: Forced bulbs are a nice way to bring blooms indoors in the middle . . .
For as long as I remember I've had a thing for herbs; their history, flavor and symbolism. In my parent's backyard I had a sunny little triangular plot of dirt beside the woodpile which was mine and mine alone, and dedicated exclusively to herbs. Inevitably, I started looking for non culinary . . .
Peter Fasano makes hand-silkscreened, hand-painted fabrics and wallcoverings in western Massachusetts. All aspects of his production work take place in his environmentally-friendly studio. . . .
I wrote a blog post for SavorNC about Raleigh compost pickup company, CompostNow - a very cool service that I've subscribed to for my own home. You can read the blog post here and help support CompostNow here. . . .
Another of my friends, Paige, has organized & created a school/community garden for one of Raleigh's local elementary schools. I love the idea of a school garden and teaching children about growing their own foods. We get our vegetables from our garden, my parent's garden, our CSA and the . . .
I love whipping up homemade face masks from the garden, and though it has been a while, I have fond memories of lining all my girlfriends (ahem, Allison, Caitlin and Lisa!) up on the floor and slathering their faces with strawberry and egg yolk concoctions and pureeing mud masks out of 100% clay . . .
My feet would be very happy (and stylish) in these eco-friendly, custom made leather shoes from Extraseed. Found via the recently engaged Jena @ Modish - congrats! . . .
One thing that I love about gardening is how you can tailor your plantings to match your ambition and space. I like idea of greenery poking out from less conventional objects like the concrete and crates above. I've been keen on adding crates to my fence ever since I laid eyes on that image above. . . .