winter greens

Point of departure: this "quick winter spruce-up" from Sunset Magazine

I had high hopes for gardening when I moved to my bucolic new abode late this summer. But what with a new handbag line coming out, seven jewelry designs just finished, ten more in the final stages, eight more new designs in the works, plus photographing them, working with an illustrator, redesigning two web sites (in progress as I type), not to mention an entire new line of product (shhh, it's still a secret)...well, gardening hasn't been a priority. That is, until I came across this spread in Sunset, a house and garden magazine devoted to people living in the western portion of the U.S. It haunted me (mainly because I thought wow, I could do this) until I had to return to the market and buy it off the stand. I even kept it in my car for the past week, a reference guide in case the urge to stop at a garden center struck.


My version features a rare appearance by Lady Jane--see her head peeking out?

This Sunday I decided to start the project and quickly found the Red Star and Cyclamen but there was no White Nancy, Nandina, or Hellebore to be found at my local Home Depot. I subbed a couple different versions of Fiber Optics plants, a pretty flowering Foxglove, and picked up lots of lush white Candy Tuff, which I used to fill in any holes in the pots.



I got carried away and made an extra pot with a strawberry plant and extra Fiber Optic plants (see the little one on the left) and I couldn't resist nabbing a large potted fir tree and a lovely cone shaped rosemary bush, both of which I'll plant after Christmas.


Love the way these bouquets of greens make the house smell.

Home Depot was (and still is at least in my neck of the woods) giving away free clippings from their Christmas tree lot--as much as you want to haul away. Inspired once again by another layout in Sunset, I brought home a bunch of branches and mixed it with pretty foliage growing in my front yard. I like the fact that the berries are blue, a more subtle take on the traditional red, and of course it all smells heavenly!


Simple fir and holly next to a little painting by my dear friend Abbye Silva Smith

I seem to remember my mom subscribing to Sunset Magazine growing up and I sort of associate it with Christmas time, fudge-making, and a bunch of grown up decorating stuff I was never much interested in. But the more I pour through the pages, the more it has grown on me. It's filled with fabulous recipes and lots of DIY stuff that is more up my alley than the usual because it isn't too crafty-looking and it all seems pretty doable except for a few recipes which are downright daunting. This magazine is definitely not as showy as some other of my favorite home magazines, but what with so many folding recently, there's something reassuring about this old-timer--it's been around since May 1898(!) and turns out Jack London, President Herbert Hoover, John Muir, and Joaquin Miller were all contributors. Fingers crossed that Sunset will stay around a lot longer.