I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Home Sweet Home

In an effort to delve a bit more deeply past the store inventory and our latest vintage finds, I thought I would share a bit about another passion of mine: gardening. It feels funny to say as, since my initial idea to open the store last November, I have barely seen my yard, much less worked in it. But there was a time, not so long ago, when I could spout Latin names of plants as easily as if they were names of friends...which they were, really.

My husband and I bought our first home, pictured above, nearly six years ago. We were newly married, I having abandoned my first career in editorial and merchandising work to follow my passion for interior design, going back to school to pursue a second degree.

Our budget was small by Seattle standards, so we looked at double digits-worth of homes--homes in good areas with holes in the ceiling, homes in bad areas with slightly smaller holes in the ceiling... I was emotionally exhausted and ready to hole up permanently in our apartment when I found what is now our house. And it was just like the story you wish you could tell about your significant other: I walked in the door, and I just KNEW. Charm oozed from every corner: 12' ceilings, original hardwood floors, open floor plan, attic-turned-whole top floor master bedroom, huge yard...

Oh, but the yard. Not so charming.

I grew up in the South, in a lovely historic home built in 1808, in the middle of 18 acres of rolling green fields. My mom was an avid gardener, and with 18 acres, she had plenty to do. As a child and teenager, I never got gardening--so much work, all the weeding, mulching, dividing, and for what? Just to do it over and over again. I was sure the bug would never strike me.

But within the confines of an apartment, I found myself planting and tending window boxes, shopping for plants I had nowhere to put. I found myself wanting a--gasp--garden.

Come closing day, we tackled the yard head-on, even convincing my mom to travel from Tennessee to pitch in. We planted upwards of 100 boxwoods in our front yard, dug up all the grass from our planting strip, threw up a fence, planted trees--and this was just the first week. We were on fire.

Our pace kept up pretty steadily over the next few years, with sketches passed back and forth between me and my husband, compromises on plant selections and materials to use for various projects....all of it made our yard more lovely, but it also was something we could do together, something that reminded us of all the reasons we liked each other to begin with (and some of the reasons we didn't!).

Since having a child, then starting a business, then having another child, our time working in the yard has decreased dramatically. But like an old friend, it's out there waiting for us to remember it's there. I just hope it won't hold a grudge.

"Before" and "After" shots of our front yard:

Before

After

Stay tuned for Part Two: The Backyard....