Category: Lessons from the Garden

  Hello, my name is Lacey, and I am addicted to roses. I know this, and I do not actually want help. I just want all the roses.     Seriously though, a few years ago I discovered that I am obsessed with growing roses. I’ve always liked them, but this preoccupation turned a corner… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Plant the Roses

  Flowers were my first love in the garden. They always have been.   Growing up in the Midwest, my absolute favorite flower was the lilac. It had everything I adored. It was purple, it was my favorite scent, and it arrived with spring. Long before I ever saw the blooms, I could smell them… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Permission to Plant Flowers

  I recently picked up a book on winter gardens. Apparently, good gardeners don’t just plan for spring. They plan for winter too.   The concept is simple. We have four seasons, and for a large part of the year, our gardens will likely be enveloped in winter. So we should plan for it. Choose… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Planting Evergreens for Winter

  The very first roses I bought absolutely took my breath away. They were so beautiful to me.   I smelled them before I even saw them sitting on a shelf at a big orange box store.   They were a completely irresponsible purchase at the time. I had no idea how to actually grow… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Why I Stopped Buying Purple Roses

  When I was in college, my grandma would send me letters that included pictures of birds from her back porch. An avid gardener herself, she eventually retired into dedicated bird watching when her body no longer allowed her to garden.   In her letters were honest-to-goodness developed-at-the-local-photo-lab pictures of birds. “Blue jay” would be… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Birds

  I have an iron problem with my soil. It’s super annoying.   The leaves of my plants take on a neon-green, veiny quality that looks out of place.   The only solution is to amend my soil.   When I started gardening, I knew none of this, thankfully, or I think I would have… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Little by Little

  Seeds are amazing.   I’m not a science girl. I’ve never pretended to like science, nor do I have a great deal of knowledge regarding the scientific makeup of seeds. But even with my limited understanding, I do know this: if I properly plant a seed, it will grow into something that looks nothing… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Faith Like A Seed

  One of the hardest truths about gardening is that there is no magical cure for weeds.   The gardening world debates endlessly — landscaping fabric versus chemicals versus cardboard, pesticides versus organic solutions. But at the end of the day, weeds will continue to grow.   “A weed is just an undesired plant” is… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Uprooting what Doesn’t Belong

  What do you do when the thing you once loved begins to feel impossible to maintain?   For me, Lacey, my garden is too big for my current capacity. There are too many weeds, too many unfinished projects, too many ideas waiting to be brought to life. But the Texas heat is relentless, and… Continue reading Lessons from the Garden: Making Peace with Imperfection