A glimpse into my garden(s) ✿
A glimpse into my garden 🌱
Since we moved to our home in the Catskills in 2018, I've been teaching myself how to grow a range of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and perennials. Now our home is seasonally surrounded by blooms, bees, produce, and trees—and my vision keeps expanding.
The more energy I've poured into cultivation, the more enchanted I've felt by the simple act of growing. Gardening is a phenomenal way to feel interconnected with a landscape, and to develop symbiotic relationships with the more-than-human world of plants, fungi, insects, microbes, and (even) the many mammals who compete with me to harvest what I sow. It's also a way to enact a creative vision in collaboration with the planetary forces that tend to feel opaque until we begin to get to know them by working with them.
To me, growing flowers and food often feels like practicing magic; like an unbelievable discovery of what can be summoned with just a little dirt, compost, water, sunlight, and curiosity around what's possible. As we head towards the growing season of 2025, I'm expanding my vision once again, attempting to start a mini flower farm with a small-scale flower + herb CSA. Sign up for my newsletter, Dark Properties, to follow along with this wild little project. <3
Since I moved to the Catskills in 2018, I've been building my knowledge of how to grow and care for flowers, vegetables, herbs, and native perennials.
The more energy I've poured into cultivation, the more enchanted I've felt by the simple act of growing. Gardening is a phenomenol way to feel interconnected with a landscape, and to develop symbiotic relationships with the more-than-human world of plants, fungi, insects, microbes, and (even) the many mammals who compete with me to harvest what I sow. It's also a way to enact a creative vision in collaboration with the planetary forces that tend to feel opaque until we begin to get to know them by working with them.
To me, growing flowers and food often feels like practicing magic; like an unbelievable discovery of what can be summoned with just a little dirt, compost, water, sunlight, and curiosity around what's possible. As we head towards the growing season of 2025, I'm expanding my vision once again, attempting to start a mini flower farm with a small-scale flower + herb CSA. Sign up for my newsletter, Dark Properties, to follow along with this wild little project. <3
Photos from our ever-evolving grow zones...
Photos from our ever-evolving grow zones...
BEFORE: In the spring of 2024, we dug up a rocky, weedy zone in our yard to replant it with a pollinator garden of [mostly] herbs and native perennials. The ground was essentially solid river rocks, which we dug out with pick axes, and a few hours of help from our neighbor Frank Jr. and his excavator.
AFTER: In its first year planted, what we dubbed our "Rock Pit Bed" became a thriving meadow of calendula, milkweed, joe pye weed, California poppies, amaranth, black eyed susans, echinacea, feverfew, purple valerian, yarrow, bee balm, and much more!
I planted a big bed of daffodils and hyacinth by our driveway, as they're some of the first flowers to bloom in early spring. When they're in bloom, they're usually a much-needed reminder that we survived the darkness of winter :)
Later in the summer, the same bed transforms to feature stargazer lilies, nepeta, echinacea, and many other perennial blooms. Since this bed is by the entrance to our house, I always try to have something in bloom here.
Our vegetable garden in June, packed full of leafy greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, herbs, root veg, melons, pumpkins, and edible/beneficial flowers.
Making little bouquets from whatever's in bloom is my personal form of creative therapy. Just spending 15 minutes walking around the garden, noticing what's going on, and cutting a few gems to enjoy indoors—it makes my day, every time.
I've been seriously bitten by the dahlia bug. In 2024, I grew up ~25 seedlings from Floret Bee Balm seeds, plus a bunch of saved and purchased tubers. Dahlias are one of the most beautiful and rewarding flowers you can grow—even though they're non-native, they are a delight to savor and share with friends and neighbors.
A rainbow of flowers and food, all harvested in September, when everything in my garden is going full-tilt.
Me in the garden with our kiddo, Wiley :)
Attempting to grow native perennials on top of a chipumink den has been a challenge, but these plants seem fairly well adapted now.
Allium grown from a bucket of bulbs given to me by my aunt. If you ever want to trade plants/bulbs/seeds with me, I'm always game!
Can't resist a handful of Dutch springtime tulips.
My indoor seed-starting operation has outgrown the confines of our living room... whoopsie.
Magical beans (scarlet runners and Christmas limas) grown in 2024 :)
The amazing sunflowers I've been growing from saved seeds for the past ~5 years... they keep getting better as they adapt to our locale.
Subscribe to Dark Properties to keep up with my growth-related pursuits—and to read how everything unfolds from the garden, outwards. ✿
Hello, you've reached the bottom of this page. Maybe you'd like to connect 1:1 now? You can email me [willa dot koerner at gmail dot com] with inquiries, questions, opportunities, or just to say hello. 'Til then, bye! <3
