About the Blog:
Are Substacks technically blogs? Because I want this to be a blog, so if this feels more like an old-school blog than a newsletter, that’s probably why. It’s going to be more personal than professional (especially since I’m not a professional—there are lots of good how-tos out there already but I will definitely share any tips!). I just want to write about gardening, about starting a new garden from scratch and learning along the way. I want to write about the gardens I’ve had in the past, the ones I’ve visited and the ones I want to visit.
But if there’s one focus, I’d like for it to be growing an aesthetically pleasing garden in a small and/or temporary space. Particularly flowers. Growing flowers is hugely popular right now, but most people I see on social media are growing on a professional flower farming scale. It can be hard to figure out which annual cut flowers can thrive in pots or in small and temporary raised beds, but I want to learn, because I know it can be done.
Other things I’ll cover: my garden inspirations (have already listed a few here), including books, Instagrams, YouTube channels, shows (mainly Gardener’s World), actual gardens. Garden successes and failures (are everyone’s dahlias getting viruses or just mine?). Garden hacks, too—one of my favorite parts about fashion blogging was figuring out how to put together a designer-inspired look with clothes from the thrift store (kind of straight to the source, to be honest, since a lot of the times the designers were “inspired” by the vintage looks in the first place), so likewise I want to focus on making a beautiful garden without having to spend a lot. I don’t think you have to, and in any case I’m way too Midwestern frugal to do so.
If any of this sounds appealing to you, please do subscribe. It’s all free for now—that might change one day, but for now I like the idea of the blog being 2010s-style accessible. If you’re enjoying what you read and would like to support my work, I do offer a paid subscription, with much appreciation!
Most photos are taken by me. If any of them look particularly good, they were probably taken by Drew Tyndell, who also drew the flowery illustrations. Thanks, Drew!
About Me:
I used to fashion blog under the name of Liebemarlene—a quick and lazy choice, as it had been my AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, for you young people) screen name back when I was 19 and absolutely obsessed with Marlene Dietrich (and, let’s be honest, I still am). If that doesn’t show you how old-school blog this will be then I don’t know what will. Anyhow, I blogged and sold vintage clothing years and years ago, and just about when my love for the fashion world began to wane I got pulled into garden land, thanks mainly to finding old BBC Monty Don and Alys Fowler shows on Youtube. Gardening had everything that had appealed to me about fashion once upon a time (particularly vintage/thrift store fashion): creativity, resourcefulness, individuality. Even when I was only growing vegetables the magic of it all was exciting—every time I planted a seed I doubted it would come up and was shocked when it appeared and became a plant that could feed us all summer.
But growing flowers was the real magic for me. For a few years the only flower I could get to grow successfully was a nasturtium, but eventually I got some grow lights and figured out how to baby little flower seedlings indoors in the spring so that I’d have more flowers than I could cut by mid-summer. Arranging flowers for the table felt like putting together an outfit. And choosing plants and deciding where they should go in the garden was even more exciting, especially since I’m never really sure how it will turn out. Mixing plants based on color and texture and height. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.
I’m originally from Illinois, but didn’t start gardening until I lived in Tennessee. My husband Drew and I lived in Portland, Oregon for eight years and had a garden that kept eating away at the lawn by the year. Now we’re in an apartment in Brooklyn, with a small terrace that I’m hoping will look like an overgrown English front garden by the end of the summer. A very different kind of garden, but I’m excited for the challenge of it.
A little more about me: I’ve worked for the last nine years as a writer/producer for Computer Team, an animation studio my husband started, but I’m currently looking for a bit of a career change. We’ve just moved to Brooklyn with our little poodle named Peep, and so far what I like most about living here is the history (it’s all so much older than Portland), the running (especially to the wonderfully Victorian-named Vale of Cashmere in Prospect Park to see a little white squirrel named Bumble), and going to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, like Cher in Moonstruck (should have seen La Bohème like she did but saw a weird adaptation of Carmen instead). I also like the free things left on stoops. So many good pots!
