The Magic Garden

08/29/2026

But I can see us lost in the memory | August slipped away into a moment in time | 'Cause it was never mine

08/05/2026

I've lost all control. And yet, somehow, the garden keeps on. An unrelenting work schedule and its accompanying stress has kept me from tending to my garden this year. The garden has decided to match that energy and has reverted to its own version of a chaos garden.

The potager yesterday (image on left) is the slightly drunk, ungovernable version of the potager in May (image on right), with all her plans and rules.

I'm here for it.

06/16/2026

The garden has always been my refuge.

This year, work has taken so much from me that I barely have the time or energy to tend it. Jobs that were necessary in early spring are still waiting as the clock ticks toward summer. The deer continue their relentless campaign, despite every effort to stop them. The current damage hurt more than usual because, for a little while, I had allowed myself to hope.

Someone recently said that you can't have a garden unless you are a gardener.

Life has decided that this year, I am not a gardener.

05/10/2026

On this beautiful Sunday, we install the latest oversized mosaic stepping stone. I've been waiting for the perfect project to use the "You are Here" piece from Sager Mosaics.

One of my visions for the garden is to create a wellness walk.

A path of mosaic stepping stones will guide you through various moments of reflection, awareness, movement, and play centered on grounding, presence, gratitude, sensory exploration, proprioception/interoception moments, perspective shifting (wide views, looking up, close observation), and maybe even the much-dreamed-about garden teleidoscope.

This first step is for presence, accepting the moment as it is.

I'm looking for inspiration. Have you ever visited a garden with an experience like this? What moments resonated with you?

05/03/2026

I wonder if there will ever be a year when the potager is fully planted at the very moment the climbing roses come into bloom.

Instead, we’re still dipping into the 30s overnight (in May!), and I’m caught in that familiar rhythm: cover and uncover, carry in and carry out, long past when it usually ends in our zone.

The garden keeps her own time.

And she is ruthless in her lessons on patience… and adaptability.

05/01/2026

🌷Friends, The Market at Grelen has published a free guide to public gardens within 250 miles of their beautiful shop in Somerset, Virginia. May the field trips commence!

https://www.themarketatgrelen.com/grelengardenguide

04/26/2026

It’s been a strange April in the Piedmont. We’re still dipping into the 30s at night, yet we’ve also had record heat and stretches of dry days. Yesterday, a slow-moving thunderstorm finally rolled through, giving the land a long drink and settling the pollen for a moment.

The annuals I’ve already brought home are making their daily trips in and out of the greenhouse. Not quite ready for their summer homes, but close. I’m more than ready to have them settled in, brightening up the everyday spaces.

We did our first real plant shopping of the season yesterday, and it always brings me back to my hometown garden center, Magic Gardens (it was in California and, sadly, closed its gates a few years ago). That’s where this little space gets its name. It’s where my love of all things green and growing really took root.

Back then, I often went just to browse. Budget and space didn’t always allow for bringing plants home, but it didn’t matter. I learned from plant tags, from overheard conversations, from simply being in a place where things were alive and tended. Even in lean seasons, it offered knowledge, inspiration, and a kind of peace I didn’t yet have words for.

These days, I find myself drawn almost exclusively to local garden centers. Over the years—traveling across Virginia for work—I’ve collected favorite spots along the way. The smaller shops often carry the healthiest plants, but more than that, they carry a kind of care you can feel.

I’m not strictly “no big box,” but if you have a local place nearby, it’s worth wandering through. Not just to shop, but to remember that gardening is as much about connection as it is about what we grow.

Tagging a few of my favorite shops in and near Virginia's Piedmont here if you're nearby and want to show them some love. Maybe we'll see each other there.

Lynchburg:
Rainfrost Nursery
Poplar Forest Nursery
Wipledale Farm Greenhouse, Inc

Charlottesville:
Forrest Green Farm
Ivy Creek Garden Center
Blue Ridge Farmers Coop

Roanoke:
TOWNSIDE GARDENS

Richmond:
Sneed's Nursery

04/23/2026

The garden is fully committed to spring.

Me, well, I'm still negotiating and, frankly, buried in "inside" work.

Things are waking up out there...buds, blooms, all the usual magic. And with that magic comes the projects and the work.

Meanwhile, I’ve been a little slower to emerge this year. Less posting, more lingering, a bit more in the spirit of “we’ll get there when we get there.”

It's April 23rd, and I'm still working on my "winter" garden mosaic project.😑 (In truth, it's a bit farther along than in the image, and I'll post when it's completed.)

The garden rushes and doesn't rush at the same time, and I’m taking the hint.

I am here.

04/13/2026

Piedmont (Virginia) gardeners, Foxie's plant sale never disappoints.

It’s that time of year! Join us for our annual plant sale April 23rd-26th 🪴 See you there!