The Garden | Studio Shop Goes Live & Notes From The Field
'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful' - William Morris.
Magnolia and blossom in a Pin Frog.
The Pin Frog helps to elevate even the simplest of ingredients by allowing you to place them in a way that celebrates their form and beauty.
Using a Pin Frog - Roll a little florist’s clay around the base of the frog before pressing the frog down into your vessel of choice. Allow it to set for an hour before creating your arrangement. The frog can stay there indefinitely or gently prise it away to use it in other favoured vases and bowls.
Over the past few years I’ve been collating a list of the most treasured and helpful items to use in the Garden and Studio; it’s become a list of beautiful and useful tools, ones that are delightfully comfortable and utterly pleasurable to use.
As Autumn curls up around our feet and those, dare I say it, Christmas lights begin to twinkle in the distance, there seems no better time than now to share the list with you.
I hope this is just the beginning of bringing you collections of very beautiful and very useful things.
Happy Shopping & Happy Growing!
This is the tool I’m most excited about- it’s nearly impossible to get hold of in the UK. The Hairpin Frog. A real game-changer for arrangements when using heavier stems and branches. Dahlia, crabapple and blossom seasons just got a whole lot better for designing in. The Hairpin Frog gives you just a touch more flexibility than a Pin Frog when working with thinner, lighter stems too. If you want your flowers to feel like they’re dancing out of the vessel then this is a tool for you.
Notes From The Field
As the evenings begin to dim, the mornings are still syrupy with the low glow of Autumn sun. The leaves float down in spirals now that the slow unpicking of the canopy has started. There are seed trays full of brave new life, seed packets have been opened, folded, and some stored away until spring. All the while each and every flower still holding on becomes more and more precious each passing day.
There’s a relief that comes with this time of year, a relief that the longest days are done for a while. And yet, before the rest can fully take hold, there comes a flood of hope and excitement about the next growing season. Whether it’s doing it smaller, bigger, smarter or wilder, I love that we get to try, and try again when it comes to working with the land.
Life here in Sussex has been a blur this Autumn. A juggle of building new ventures from scratch, organising old ones, and learning how to be a mother amongst it all. I can’t wait to tell you about all the plans being created for next year- I’m feeling stretched, filled with equal parts joy and trepidation, and that, I think, is a very good place to be.
Phlox "‘Creme Brulee’
Handful of Rudbeckia
Since we last spoke, the final fresh bouquet has been sent out from the plot, the baby has grown a good few inches, and now that apple season is well underway I’ve lost my partner under a pile of fruit while he gets busy in his business of making cider… Not only has plenty been happening in all of our small worlds, but in the country at large too. Now more than ever, finding things to anchor and ground ourselves feels like life’s only constant, and for so many of us, that solace is to be found in the tender act of sowing seeds.
If you grow or you’re planning on growing cut flowers next year there’s still time to sow some hardy annuals to have earlier flowering next year. My favourites to start at this time of year are-
Sweet peas
Larkspur
Nigella
Scabiosa
Poppies
Ammi
Phacelia
Campion
Poppy ‘Pandora’
So if you have a moment this weekend, join me in taking 15 minutes to prepare a little patch of soil, be that in the ground or in a pot (even an old Tupperware will do), tear open that packet of seeds, and sprinkle the future beauty on top, lightly cover with soil and gently water. I know we won’t regret it.
