11 Years of Hedgerow Rose: A Reflection on the Past 3 Gardens and My Favorite Posts
Well folks, here we go into another year, which if we’re being honest feels a lot like 2020: Part 3. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s been very difficult for so many of us. If you’re like me, gardening has been key to supporting mental health and I really am looking forward to spring and planning the new gardens.
With the new year, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my former gardens. What’s crazy for me to think about is that I’ve been sharing my gardening adventures on this blog for the past 11 years!! It got me to thinking that maybe it’s time to put together a collection of my favorite posts–not necessarily the ones that received the most traffic and comments but the ones I feel most connected to personally.
It took a while to sort through them–there are some good ones and also some real stinkers–but I hardly included any specific cultivar rose posts because there are just too many. I also excluded “shop updates” even if I was particularly proud of the work since those pieces have all since sold. Instead, I looked for posts that I recall putting a lot of thought into, was particularly meaningful at the time or still has value for today’s gardeners.
Here are my personal favorite blog posts from each gardening era. Enjoy!
2010-2015
There are literally HUNDREDS of posts from this time period when I was blogging the most I’ve ever done with many of these posts specific roses and lots of updates about my metalsmithed rings. These are the years I was completely immersed in learning all I could about rose culture and sharing it with others. During this period, Jesse was still finishing up his degree, I was making jewelry full-time and our daughter was still in High School. It seems like so long ago! If you’re curious to see more posts from this time, check out the “Archives” drop-down menu in the sidebar.
5 Tips for Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden
Some Suggestions for Growing Roses in Containers
Purchasing “Banded” Roses and Introducing Them to Your Garden
Louisa May Alcott’s ‘ruddy rose?”
Crafting: Handmade German Pine Cone Christmas Miniatures Advent Calendar
Enameled Copper Hand-Stamped Plant Labels
2015-2018
This is a time period that Jesse and I still reflect on with equal parts horror, trauma and unabashed pride. We worked our asses off on this house and garden and learned so much about ourselves and what we’re capable of in the process. The posts from this period reflect that as well as my time as a Permanent Jurist for the Biltmore International Rose Trials. A lot of crazy stuff went down while we were in North Carolina. Some wonderful (like our chickens, our bees and Albert) and some pretty terrible (like my car accident.) Even still, we had every intention of staying in the south indefinitely but life took a complete turn just a few years in and the decision to return to PA was inevitable. Here are some of my favorite posts from this magical, crazy, weird and wonderful time period. I still miss that garden!
The White Squirrels of Western North Carolina
How I Grow Roses in a No-Spray Garden
Tips for Starting a New Garden
Visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Growing Shiitake Mushrooms at Home
2018-2021
I think it’s fair to say that Jesse and I were pretty depressed during this time period. We had come back to PA, for which we were very grateful, but we were living in a house that we would never have chosen for ourselves if we could help it. We were killing ourselves, yet again, in renovations but this time we had lost all our enthusiasm because we had literally just done all these things on the last house. We also said goodbye to our cat Lucy, our hen Maple and our dog Eva (and my grandkitty Clementine) during these years which was (is) incredibly hard. And then, of course, there was all the stuff going on in the outside world like the attempted coup and the pandemic. I remember many a night where we would get into bed, shut off the lights and we’d both say with relief, “Ahh blessed darkness.”
Still, there were some jolly posts that came out during this time, not least of which my “January’s Celebration of Roses” in the winter of 2019 where I put up a rose-filled post daily. (Too many to list here but worth checking out via the archives drop-down list in sidebar!) Here are some of my other favorites:
Free Range Chickens in the Garden
My Fig-Leaf Hollyhock Experiment
Simple Beauty Rose Series-Volume 6
Growing Rosa Princesse Charlène de Monaco
Me in our garden at the very beginning….with ‘Soraya’ sunflowers Photo by Fresh Fish Pottery
Thanks for reading, Everyone! I’m wishing all of you so many blessings for a Happy New Year!
Coming up in future posts, I’ll talk about our new, forever home and the plans to create a very different (for me) kind of garden here and at the allotment. 🙂
Love this update and collection of so much wisdom and beauty over your years of blogging!! Wishing you much joy amid the work of your new home and garden, and hopefully the peace of planning for a longer time!
Thank you Claire! I really appreciate your support and kind words. That means a lot to me! Have a wonderful New Year! 🙂
Hi! I love this blog and have found answers to so many of my questions reading through old and current posts and through the comments section. I was wondering if roses in containers need to receive sunlight during the winter months if they are moved inside for winter protection. I am in zone 7A in New Jersey, and have a few in small pots now and plan to have more next winter. Also – with the new webpage design do you still have a roses101 link with a listing of old posts on basic rose growing? I didn’t see it today, but I’ve been looking at it alot recently and it’s very helpful! Many thanks for all of the information and beautiful photography you share!
Hi Courtney! That means so much to me that you are getting some use out of those old articles. 🙂 Yay!
To answer your question about the ROSES 101, yup, just scroll to the very bottom of this homepage and you’ll see a big beige square that has the name and the link. I’m glad it’s a helpful page!
I meant to mention that the pots are in our garage, which is not heated. Thanks!
OH! To answer your question about the pots in the garage–great question, btw–no, dormant roses technically don’t need any sunlight. (Imagine that in winter, they could be covered in several feet of snow and stay in darkness for weeks…) I’ve stored roses in both an unheated garage that just had a tiny window so there was some ambient light and also in a completely windowless shed and both worked fine. That being said, I liked the garage with a window better because it allowed the roses to come out of dormancy a bit more naturally. Let me know if I can help with anything else!
Thank you so much!