I’ve been growing salad burnet for years in California, ever since first introduced me to this quietly wonderful Mediterranean herb. It even made its way into my second book, Harvest: Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants. Still, I wish more people here grew it.

This is my love letter to salad burnet.

Salad burnet tastes like spring. I use it in spring herb and edible-flower salads, including this one, an easy favorite homegrown preparation. Salad burnet is a member of the rose family (Rosaceae). Its early, lacy foliage bridges the gap between winter and summer leafy herbs, offering the taste of cucumber well before the actual cucumber harvest season arrives.

IN THE GARDEN

I plant salad burnet along pathways for easy access, because I love to snack on it while we work. Don’t be fooled by its delicate appearance—this is a hard-working plant. Perennial in USDA zones 4 to 8, it can be harvested until the first snowfall. Plants grow 15 to 35 inches (38 to 90 cm) tall and spread to about 12 inches (30 cm). These drought- dolerant plants will grow in most soils, though they prefer moist soils and sunny conditions.They tolerate partial shade but not full shade, making them a great planting under a fruit tree.

Salad burnet is easy to grow from seed, or you can transplant plants as seedlings, though it is a bit more complicated when it comes to reproduction. The plants are hermaphrodites that produce male and female flowers. The flowers are not self- pollinating and pollen must be distributed by wind, bees, or other insects for the plants to reproduce. When they’re successful, watch out! Salad burnet will reseed and freely produce new plants.

HARVEST

As with any leafy plant harvest, do not harvest salad burnet in the high heat of the day or you’ll be left with a handful of wilted greens. Harvest in the cool of the morning or evening instead. Rinse the leaves in cold water and use a salad spinner to dry them. Use the greens immediately or store them wrapped in a clean towel or storage bag in the crisper section of your refrigerator. Salad burnet typically lasts a week or two in the fridge.

Salad burnet is the basis for spring herb salads and makes a great vinegar infusion. Try adding a bunch of finely chopped leaves to crème fraîche–based dips for a delicious cucumber flavor kick. Add a few leaves to your mixed garden salads, enjoy with sliced melon, or use it instead of mint in sparkling water and cocktails.

Spring Herb Salad

This salad is a simple celebration of the spring garden. It is not fancy and too delicate to be covered in lots of dressing. You want to taste each of the newly sprouted herbs. It will also not keep, so harvest only the amount of salad burnet and herbs that you need. Here’s a good rule of thumb: A handful of herbs equals one serving, so if you’re serving four people, you will need at least four handfuls for your salad.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

4 handfuls of garden herbs, such as salad burnet, chervil, flat-leaf parsley, French sorrel, mint, nasturtium leaves, and peppermint candy flower leaves

Olive oil

Kosher or sea salt

1 lemon

5 to 10 stems of freshly harvested edible flowers, such as bachelor’s buttons, borage, viola, calendula, and nasturtiums.

Rinse the herbs in a bowl filled halfway with cold (not warm) water. Gently swish the herbs in the water to loosen any dirt or lingering insects, lift the herbs out, and place them in salad spinner. Give the herbs a gentle spin, and then lay them on a clean cloth. Herbs must be sufficiently dry because the olive oil will not adhere to wet leaves.

Gently chop the herbs and place them in a salad bowl. Drizzle olive oil over the herbs, sprinkle with salt, and gently mix. Add a squeeze of lemon and mix again.

Remove the petals from the edible flowers and add them to the salad bowl after the greens are dressed. Alternatively, the flower petals can be added to individual plates before serving.

Serve immediately & Enjoy.

2026 Classes

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop. Lafayette, Ca. Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

May 9, 2026 - Tea Garden Workshop at UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley, Ca.

How do we know when a hive is going to swarm? There are signs we can read and predict that a hive will swarm. Early spring inspection of the hives is important to gauge how the population is growing after winter. Here is an example of too many bees in not enough space.

You can see them spilling out of the hive. When we inspected this hive we also saw these peanut shaped structures on the combs. These are new queen cells ready to hatch. Remember there can only be one queen in a hive! The colony starts growing at a rapid rate and will start preparing to swarm. Scout bees will start looking for their new home and will report back to the hive when they have found a location to swarm.

The queen and workers will create many queen cells to leave behind after they swarm. The bees will take roughly two thirds of the hive and leave behind a small population of bees and the new queen cells. The hive swarms and the new queens will start to hatch. The first queen to emerge will go around and kill all the remaining queens in their cells. If two queens hatch at the same time they will battle until there is only one queen standing and the winner of the battle is the new queen. I call it nature’s version of Game Of Thrones.

There is a lot of science into what the bees do to seek a new home and how they vote if they should swarm to that location. Thomas Seeley is a scientist with Cornell University and he studied the science behind swarming. If you have a desire to read more into this topic, this book is a great resource that is filled with science, but written for everyone to enjoy.

We are on the hunt for some bees this spring. We have used Thomas Seeley’s science of what bees are looking for in a new home. Here is a short summary of what bees are looking for in their ideal new hive hunting.

Here are key swarm-box recommendations from Seeley’s research:

• Cavity volume: about 40 liters

• Entrance size: around 1–1.5 inch diameter hole).

• Single entrance: bees prefer one small opening rather than multiple holes.

• Entrance location: near the bottom of the cavity.

• Height above ground: ideally 4–6 meters (13–20 ft), though lower traps can still work.

• Orientation: entrance facing south or southeast is preferred.

• Interior darkness: the box should be completely dark inside (no light leaks).

• Dry interior: must be weatherproof and protected from rain.

• Wall thickness: about 2 cm (¾ inch) thick, similar to natural tree cavities.

• Odor: boxes that smell like bees (wax, propolis, or old comb) are much more attractive.

  

  Here you can see our swarm box mounted. The inside is coated with wax and inside are some frames. Some frames have comb already and some are empty. Now we sit back and check the swarm trap to see if we are lucky enough to catch a swarm in the wild.

If you see a swarm in your yard, please do not harm the bees. If you have a local bee club, you can contact them to organize someone to pick them up if they are in an accessible location. The club will ask for a nominal donation for this service. A swarm is looking for a new home usually in a hollow tree. If they are hanging from a branch, they are most likely in transit and resting until they carry on their journey to find a new home. If they are not bothering you, let them rest and they will be gone by the following day. Thank you for being kind to the bees!

2026 Classes

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop. Lafayette, Ca. Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

May 9, 2026 - Tea Garden Workshop at UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley, Ca.

Citrus boasts glossy oval shaped leaves year round that have a fragrance all to themselves. Often overshadowed by its powerfully scented flowers and fruit, when the plant has neither, it can still provide garden fragrance. However, the most impactful fragrance experience occurs in spring when citrus blooms. You will know when the time has arrived as you can smell citrus blossoms throughout the garden. Bees will be happily zooming by as they visit the trees. Citrus’s flowers typically are white with five petals. Once pollinated, citrus’s fragrant fruit emerges from its blooms.

Citrus is quite versatile in terms of growing requirements. Although the larger fruiting varieties need full sun, smaller fruitted, less sweet varieties such as lemons, limes, kumquats and mukrut will happily grow in partial shade, producing a bit less fruit than when located in full sun. Frost protection is key. If your temps regularly dip below freezing, keep citrus in pots so that they can be more easily moved inside and protected from freezing temperatures. If frost is an occasional issue where you live, frost blankets are typically adequate to keep citrus happy during the winter. Be aware that many varieties have thorns and need to be placed in the middle of a planting bed or large container where they have space and are not directly in a high traffic pathway where they may reach out and poke you. All citrus varieties have amazingly scented leaves, flowers and fruit, so you can not go wrong. Chose a tree that is best suited for your garden, here are a few of my favorites:

‘Meyer’ lemon. Medium sized flowers on this citron/mandarin/pomelo hybrid. Best for baking & cocktails.

‘Eureka’ lemon. Large flowers in the spring on the classic lemon that is favorite for culinary uses.

‘Chinotto’ sour orange myrtle leaf. The chinotto fruit is a key ingredient in amaro (Italian bitters), bitter orange Italian sodas, and the Italian apéritif, Campari.

‘Bergamot’ and ‘Seville’ sour oranges. The classics for marmalade and tea making.

‘Makrut’ lime. Grown for its fragrant foliage, a key component in many Asian cuisines. Also great for cocktail and ice cream infusions.

‘Oroblanco’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Rio Red’ all grapefruit and pomelo varieties have large incredibly fragrant flowers & fruit. These trees need space and full sun.

‘Cara Cara’ orange, ‘Kishu’ mandarin, all of the blood orange varieties … there are so many citrus to love!

Vin D’Orange

This is one of those slow, quiet projects that asks very little of you—other than time—and gives back more than it should.

I learned it from my mom, who almost always has a jar of vin d’orange tucked into a corner of her bar or fridge, mid-infusion. It’s a practice as much as a recipe. You start it, forget about it, and then—months later—remember you’ve made something extraordinary.

Vin d’orange is a traditional infusion of wine and bitter citrus that only improves with age. Truly. It can go for years. I rarely make it that long. By summer, I’ve usually given in—pouring it over ice on a warm evening, maybe with a wedge of orange, maybe just as it is. It’s one of the simplest and most satisfying things to have on hand.

It also slips easily into cocktails, standing in for Lillet or sweet vermouth, adding a depth that feels both bright and grounded in the garden.

Traditionally, it’s made with Seville oranges. I use what I have. Chinotto oranges from the garden work beautifully—deeply bitter, intensely aromatic. When in fruit, citrus tends to be quite generous and if you are lucky you may know someone who has ample harvest to share. My friend over at Morningsun Herb Farm has the most extraordinary grapefruit tree—heavy with fruit, year after year—so I’ve made versions with grapefruit and lemon that are just as good. I still call it vin d’orange. “Vin d’ mixed citrus” doesn’t quite sound the same.

The only real requirement is bitterness and good fruit. Organic, if it’s not from your own garden. Beyond that, it’s flexible. Any white wine or rosé will do, but I tend to keep it French—something clean and dry, like a Sancerre or a crisp rosé.

Then you wait. And somewhere along the way, it becomes something worth sharing.

MAKES ABOUT 1 1/2 QUARTS

1 cup organic sugar

1 cup vodka

15 chinotto oranges or 8 seville oranges, another larger bitter orange variety. If you don’t have access to bitter oranges, you can use combination of 4 grapefruit and 4 Eureka lemons.

1 vanilla bean pod, sliced in half

2 to 3 whole star anise pods

2 (750-ml) bottles Sancerre or Rose wine

Pour the sugar and vodka into a 2-quart jug. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Slice the oranges and add to the jar, including the seeds, stirring again. Add the vanilla bean, star anise, and wine. Cover the infusion with a lid and store in a cool, dark place.

Stir the mixture occasionally, this time with a metal spoon to avoid potential cantonments, but otherwise let it sit for 30 days.

Then taste to check the flavor. It should taste like orange with a slight bitter tang. If you prefer a stronger bite, continue to infuse for 10 days more.

Strain the vin d’orange through a strainer lined with a few layers of cheesecloth. For a clearer infusion, strain it again. Decant the strained vin d’orange into bottles or large canning jars. Store it in the refrigerator. It will keep longer than you can resist drinking it.

Classes & Events

Spring officially arrived last week—though, if you’re here in the Bay Area, it’s felt like spring since mid-January. This has been one of those strangely warm late winters that makes questioning your own gardening rules.

I’ve been hovering right at the edge of breaking one of mine: when to plant tomatoes.

Years ago, the late Fred Hempel—a brilliant tomato breeder here in the Bay—shared a simple guideline that’s stuck with me: don’t plant tomatoes before tax day. Tomatoes are, at heart, tropical plants. They may show up in nurseries as early as February, but our cool spring nights don’t do them any favors. Mid-April planting almost always wins.

And yet… we hit ninety degrees last week. On the first day of spring.

So here I am, bending my own rule, fingers crossed that Mother Nature doesn’t decide to laugh at us with a late cold snap. (She has a sense of humor about these things.)

Our first tomatoes of the season will go into the ground in Napa next week, at a new culinary garden we’ve been working on for the Robert Mondavi Winery. A cornerstone of the Napa Valley, the winery has been closed for the past couple of years for a major renovation and is set to reopen on April 20. We’re so excited to be designing and tending the culinary garden there—and I can’t wait to share more as it comes into its own.

If you find yourself in the Bay Area, or are planning a visit, it’s worth putting Mondavi on your list. The new space is beautiful, and we’ll share photos once everything opens.

In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying citrus season and finding your way into a garden.

Until next time,
Stefani

2026 Classes - Lafayette, Ca

April 16, 2026 — The Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

May 9, 2026 - Tea Garden Workshop at UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley, Ca.

Support My Work

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we had a beloved nursery called Annie’s Annuals. Annie has since retired, and the nursery has been sold & is now known as Curious Flora, but my love of marigolds began at Annie’s Annuals. At the nursery, rows of tables overflowing with seedlings would end in the most extraordinary container plantings — explosions of color, clearly thriving on generous feedings of fertilizer, growing in simple, oversized nursery pots. This is where I first met the Villandry marigold.

It was nothing like the orange pom-pom blooms I associated with marigolds. Instead, it was tall and long-stemmed, with single-petaled burgundy flowers — elegant, dramatic, and entirely unexpected. I had to have it for my cut flower gardens. That was twelve years ago, and the love was instant. Villandry lived up to every bit of the hype.

Naturally, the following year I searched for seed online so I could start my own plants — only to discover that Villandry marigold was nowhere to be found. The search for this seed became my white whale - I even bought seed from a guy in the midwest that claimed he had the hard to find Villandry but when the seeds arrived in a simple envelope (seeds from his own garden) - I knew immediately they were cosmos, not marigolds.

It is common practice for seed companies to rename varieties of non-trademarked seeds. For example, Lemon squash from one seed company is also sold as Little Lemon at another. But this hunt was getting frustrating. So, I bought plants the following year from Annie’s Annuals and then saved my own seed for the following year and have been doing so ever since. I have asked many folks at the nursery where this marigold came from and many guessed that Annie found it herself in France and simply renamed it. Annie’s Annuals website states ‘This heirloom Marigold was collected from a garden near Villandry in France and created a lot of excitement at the nursery when it first bloomed.’

Marigolds are covered in fragrant blooms from late spring to fall. Their earthy scented foliage can be pungent and some find it to be bitter. Do not let this discourage you from planting this garden staple. It is a fantastic plant for attracting beneficial insects and repelling unwanted mosquitos in the garden.

Marigolds are full-sun annual blooms that can be grown in every garden. Easy going, heat tolerant, deer resistant and a constant source of flowers until first frost—it is easy to understand why marigolds are so loved. Direct sow in the spring after the last chance of frost. Plants typically germinate quickly (4 to 7 days), but watch out for snails and slugs. They will devour seedlings in the spring. Deadhead spent blooms to keep the plant blooming all summer and fall.

Harvest flowers for garlands and arrangements, as blooms offer both summer and fall colors. Marigolds can also be used in natural dye projects and have medicinal antiseptic and skin healing qualities making them a good choice to include in fragrant hand balms and salves; which we appreciate as gardeners & florists. Its bitter earthy scent is a welcome addition to our medicinal scented projects as well. Snip individual flower heads to garnish cocktails or simply add a few petals to a drink. The edible flowers can be used whole to infuse bitters (where their bitter centers are appreciated and needed), or separate the petals to sprinkle over a dish for an aromatic, colorful lift.

If you’d like to try growing Villandry marigolds in your garden this year, I have seed to share. Simply email me at hello@hdcgardens.com with your mailing address, and I’ll send seeds in an envelope (as long as you are in the continental United States). Please don’t share your address in the comments — Substack is a gentle place, but it’s still the internet. Email is best.

I would love nothing more than to see this beautiful flower in more gardeners’ hands. All I ask is that after you grow Villandry this year, you save some seed and share it forward.

Until next time,
Stefani

2026 Classes - Lafayette, Ca

April 16, 2026 — The Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

May 9, 2026 - Tea Garden Workshop at UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley, Ca.

Support My Work

From late February through April, we plant our spring gardens. We focus on crops that enjoy milder temperatures and occasional rains (fingers crossed), and also those that require longer growing periods to reach maturity. Successional plantings will provide continued harvest during the spring months, and will phase out just in time to open up space for summer plantings from April through June.

If you haven’t already started your seeds or perusing your favorite nursery, I am sharing an inside look at what we are excited to be growing this year, alongside tried and true varieties like Sungolds & Sweet 100s. Here are some of my favorite varieties to plant - including links to many of the seed companies that sell these seeds so that you can learn more.

February/March

Starting in late February and all of March, we begin our spring plantings with salad & braising greens, radishes, peas, beets, beans, and onions. Now is the time to grow sweet lettuces in the bibb & butter family, spinach, cool season radicchios and fresh plantings of swiss chard, spigarello, kales and cabbages. It is also the time to plan your space for your summer plantings - especially tomatoes. Tomatoes take up a lot of space in the edible garden, so know where you will be planting them in April and plant a quick spring crop (like a 30 day radish) in these spaces so that when the time is right (after Tax Day) you do not have to forfeit a spring crop that has yet to come into its own.

Beans. We focus on fresh eating bush and pole (vining) beans in our gardens. If you have the space (or are a farm) there is a whole world of dry beans that you can explore over at Uprising Seeds or get inspired by Rancho Gordo’s incredible selection of dried beans.

• Maxibel, our favorite classic green slender fillet bush bean

• Bamako, yellow fillet bush bean

• Royal Burgundy, purple bush bean

• Helda, romano type pole bean

• Caraminat, a beautiful purple pole bean

  

Onions & Shallots. We start the year with smaller spring onions for salads and our first of the year plantings of Cuisee de Poulet, an heirloom french shallot.

• Deep Purple bunching onion

• Purplette

• Red Long of Tropea

• Cuisse de Poulet

Herbs & Tea

• Chamomile

• Lemon verbena

• Dill

• Red Feather cut and come again celery

• Cilantro

  

April - June

In April we begin to plant our summer vegetables. Now let’s talk tomatoes, again. This year, we’ll be growing ten unique tomato varieties in our HDC greenhouse to add to our gardens along with old standards. These include extra-early producers, beautiful colors, and a range of flavors and sizes—plus two dwarf tomato varieties we’re especially excited about. Tomatoes take up a significant amount of space in the summer garden, which can make fall planting more challenging. These dwarf varieties have earlier harvest windows and will finish fruiting by August or September, opening up valuable space for planting your favorite fall vegetables for October and November harvests. Because let’s face it, no one wants to remove tomatoes while they are just hitting their stride in September. For this reason, if you want to grow 3 or more tomatoes this year, we suggest that one or more be a dwarf or determinate variety.

Tomatoes.

• Dwarf Saucy Mary

• Dwarf Audrey’s Love

• Manitoba

• Black Zebra

• Rose quartz

• Sebastopol

• Black Prince

• Zapotec Pleated

• Afgan

• Sheboygan

Summer Squash. Yes, they are prolific and if you have limited space - stick to bush varieties that stay compact. The first four varieties below are all bush and then there’s Trombetta di Albenga. Our favorite way to grow this vining Italian variety is to grow it over an arch or trellis. It is dramatic, prolific and if you don’t have an arch or have limited space, better to stick to the bush varieties.

• Sophy Hands down our favorite summer squash that we grew last year.

• Ystar

• Jeaune et vert

• Little Lemon If you have room for two summer squash, we love Little Lemon. As the name suggests, it grows a round, yellow fruit which has a hint of a citrus taste.

• Trombetta di Albenga

Winter squash. A common misconception is that winter squash grows in the winter months, due to its name. Instead it is consumed in the winter and grown in the summer alongside summer squash. Winter squash has a shelf life of up to a year, as long as you store the squash in a cool, dark place (like a pantry). I instead keep a bowl of winter squash front and center on my kitchen counter. Their beauty is better than any holiday decoration and their presence inspires me to roast one as a side dish or to look up a squash forward recipe. We love the single serving size of the Honeynut and Koginut varieties, perfect for making soup or risotto this time of year.

• Honeynut

• Wan fu

• Koginut

Peppers. If you love frying peppers like padrons and shishitos, make sure to plant multiple plants so that you always have enough on hand to fry up a summer plate of peppers. I typically plant five shishito plants in my garden. Throughout the week I harvest peppers as they are ready and store them in a colander in the fridge. By the weekend, I have enough to make a proper plate to share with friends & family.

• Habanada pepper

• Jimmy Nardello

• Shishito

Cucumbers. Shintokiwa & Cengelkoy, both offerings from Uprising Seeds, changed my cucumber game. Both highly productive, sweet & crisp. When you plant one of these varieties, there is enough for both fresh eating & pickling. Last year I grew both on a trellis along with Painted Serpent and I was regularly harvesting 6-9 pounds of cucumbers a week in August and September. Needless to say, a jar of pickles is my go to gift.

• Shintokiwa

• Çengelköy

• Painted Serpent

Salad greens. We switch to Heat resistant varieties for the summer garden. This includes all of the arugulas (especially Olive Leaf our favorite variety from Puglia), Little Gem and other romaines. We are also excited to try a new heat resistant variety of radish from Johnny’s Seeds called Pepito this year.

Summer herbs. Spring annual herbs continue to be planted in succession and once the temperatures rise, basils are added.

• All the Basils - Genovese, Sweet Thai, Amethyst, Tuscany

• Tulsi basil - a true super food and the basis of all our summer & fall teas

We are growing some beautiful flowers for our cut flower gardens - including the highly sought after Floret Flower Farm zinnias and seed dahlias.

Edible Flowers. Adding edible flowers to your cooking and cocktails is a surprisingly easy way to use your harvest. They add fresh dabs of color and introduce unique flavors to your dishes. As always, use only edible flowers that have been grown organically and not sprayed with chemicals or pesticides. Pick the flowers in the coolest part of the day, usually the morning, keeping the flowers in a vase or cup with water like you would for an arrangement. Most edible flowers have bitter centers, so we usually only eat the petals.

• Butterfly Pea flower for all of our cocktail gardens!

• Bronze Beauty, Flashback Mix, Ivory Princess Calendula

• Ladybird Rose & Salmon Gleam nasturtium

• Bachelor Buttons

• Brushstrokes & Chianti Viola

• Sweet William

• Gem Marigolds

• Villandry marigolds

• Mountain Magic, African Blue, Wild Magic flowering basils

• Borage

• Sulphur cosmos

• Stock - all of the dusky colors. Pinching is the name of the game when it comes to cut flowers - except for stock.

• Chantilly & Avignon Apricot snapdragons

  

Spring & Summer Blooms. Most of the flowers below are annuals but I included scabiosa because they are my favorite ingredient for summer arrangements. Treat your summer cut flowers like a food crop when it comes to planting bed preparations and fertilization. These flowers give and give the more you harvest, so make sure to feed them as well.

• Misty Lavender larkspur

• Sweet peas - all of them!

• Merlot Red & Black Night scabiosa

• Sugar Stars & Creme Brulee phlox

• Apricot lemonade, Apricotta, Rosetta cosmos We love the easy abundance of cosmos. If your space is limited, try Apricot Lemonaide - a smaller apricot blushy toned flower, toppping off at 2- 2 1/2 feet vs the larger Apricotta variety which needs more space, topping out at 3 1/2 feet.

  

• Select Water Colors and Select Chocolate Chip tobacco

• Floret Flower zinnias: Dawn Creek pastels, Precious Metals & Unicorn Mix

• Additional zinnia varieties we are growing include: Linen, Zinderella Peach, Zinderella Lilac, and Queeny Red Lime

• Seed grown Floret dahlias ‘Petit Floret’

• Astra Rose sunflower

• Bar Bossa Champagne & Celway Terracotta celosia

• Mira amaranth

Whew—thank you for staying with me through this longer post. I hope it offers useful guidance and inspires you to seek out new or distinctive varieties for your own garden. If you have a favorite for the edible or cut flower garden that wasn’t mentioned here, I’d love for you to share it. Gardening is a collaborative and ever-evolving practice, shaped by what we learn from one another.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and interested in learning more in person, I’ll be teaching this spring both at my garden in the East Bay and at the UC Botanical Gardens in Berkeley (links include more information).

As always, I hope you find time to step outside and enjoy a garden. Thank you for reading—until next time.

-Stefani

Support my work

Support my work by buying a copy of The Fragrant Flower Garden. If you have already purchased a copy, thank you. You can gift a copy to a friend, your local library or used bookstore.

A garden can benefit and enrich your life in so many unexpected ways. As an extension of your living space, gardens can be a quiet place to relax with a book or to gather and celebrate with friends. They can provide solace, joy, beauty, and rejuvenation. Gardens can do more than just look pretty. By choosing scented plants, you add an entirely new dimension to the garden. Fragrance has the power to stir memory, lift the mood, calm the nervous system, and catch visitors off guard in the best possible way. It turns a garden from something simply beautiful into an experience—one that feels immersive, intimate, and quietly transporting.

Some scents pack a wallop like the exuberant burst of spring blooming lilac. Others need patience and up-close interactions, like the straw like scent of calendula. A fragrant garden needs both heady and subtle scents. Think of the subtle scented plants as the base of the fragrant garden. They are there for longer, steadier periods of time, like garden elders—consistent, not flashy. Fragrant foliage is generally more subtle and available throughout the growing season.

On the other hand, heady, short-lived fragrant plants are the rock stars. Blooming flowers tend to have a brief, glorious, scented moment that is all encompassing. They garner all of the attention and everyone wants a piece of them when they are in the spotlight. When they are in bloom, we fill our vases and harvest frequently to capture and preserve their scent.

Like all things in life, fragrant gardens tend to be the most successful when they are balanced. A good combination of both heady and subtle scents combined with enough seasonal scents planted in succession will keep you returning back to the garden for more. This is a good overall consideration to keep in mind when planning your fragrant garden.

The Fragrant Cut Flower Garden

Annual flowers grown for cutting allow you to have favorite varieties on hand in one place and an opportunity to grow some of the harder to find varieties that you admire.

If your space allows for multiple dedicated annual beds, we love to take inspiration from the flower arrangement itself when designing cut flower gardens. The three unique parts of an arrangement—focal flowers (the stars that demand attention in a vase), secondary flowers (flowers that provide direction or movement in the vase and are often smaller headed than the focal flowers that help fill out the arrangement with additional color, texture and fragrance), and filler (also referred to as layered greenery) —are planted in their own separate beds. Planting your dedicated annual beds in these groupings is a great way to make sure that you are growing all of the components for your arrangements. As you explore the cutting garden visit the dedicated annual beds, you compose your arrangement in hand as you harvest groupings from each planting bed. Aesthetically the characteristics that make the flowers and plants focal, secondary and filler in arrangements also look good planted together in the individual beds.

Once you have this design in place, you can also explore your greater garden landscape and nearby perennial beds for additional arrangement material. For example, the leaves of your lilac can be an arrangement’s foliage filler or a branch of a lemon tree can be a focal. In addition, many focal flowers are perennials and will be grown in the landscape planting beds surrounding the dedicated annual beds. Roses, peonies, irises, and lilacs should not take up valued annual bed space. They will also not appreciate the turnover and disruption to their roots space that can happen as annuals come and go. But when it comes to annual flower ‘crops’ the three-bed system is a great way to think about and organize your cut flower garden.

If your garden has space for fewer dedicated annual beds or none at all, make sure to plant your annuals in dedicated spaces in the front of your perennial beds. Long living perennial plants do not like their roots to be disruptive from repetitive short term plantings, so give yourself some space to work with. Containers can also be a good place to plant your annuals.

The one place in the garden that we often deviate from a landscape color palette are the dedicated annual cut flower beds. If you want to plant a rainbow of color—this is the place to do it. That being said, if you gravitate towards a particular color palette in your arrangements, you can plant for that specific palette as well. If you’re looking for color palette ideas, three color palettes we often recommend are Dusky, Bright and Silver White. The Dusky palette includes muted color shades from apricot to rose to burgundy to brown/black. Bright is what its name implies, all of the brighter jewel toned shades and Silver/White, well, you get the picture.

We have included a few of our favorite fragrant cut flower varieties from the perennial and annual planting beds for your inspiration.

Dusky

Focal Flowers

‘Munstead Wood’, ‘Emily Bronte’, ‘Abraham Darby’ roses

‘Sarah Bernhard’, ‘Pink Hawaiian Coral’ peony

‘Sensation’, ‘Lavender Lady’ lilac

‘Gingersnap’ (smells like root beer!), ‘Funday Monday’, ‘Rum is the Reason’ bearded iris

‘Firebolt’, ‘Pink Perfection’, ‘Nymph’ lily

Secondary Flowers

‘Iron Apricot’, ‘Iron Rose’, ‘Antique Pink’ and ‘Antique Brown’ convallaria majalis (stock)

Cosmos atrosanguineus (Chocolate cosmo)

‘Raspberry Wine’ monarda didyma

‘Hot Chocolate’ nicotiana hybrid, ‘Bronze Queen’ nicotiana langsdorffi

‘Cherry Carmel’, ‘Creme Brulee’, ‘Sugar Stars’ phlox drummondii

‘Bronzed Beauty’ calendula

‘Nimbus’, ‘Castelwellen’, ‘Suzy Zee’ lathyrus odoratus (sweet pea)

‘Garden Mignotte’, reseda (mignotte)

‘Chantilly Light Salmon’ antirrhinum (snapdragon)

‘Terra Cotta’, ‘Apricot Delight’, ‘Summer Pastels’ achillea milllefolium (yarrow)

‘Sooty’, ‘Black Velvet and Lace’ dianthus

Filler

‘Wild Magic’ and ‘Magic Mountain’ basil

‘Chocolate Mint’, ‘Skeleton Rose’ pelargonium (scented geranium)

‘Salmon Sunset’ mirabilis jalapa (four o’clocks)

Bright

Focal Flowers

‘Lady of Shallot’, ‘Boscobel’, ‘Double Delight’ roses

‘Bartzella’ peony

‘Woodstock’, ‘Double Royal Navy’ hyacinth

‘Yankee Doodle’, ‘Old Glory’ lilac

‘Valentino’, ‘Ziggy’, ‘Colorista’ bearded iris

‘Golden Splendor’, ‘LeVern Friemann’, ‘Budapest’ lily

Secondary Flowers

‘Vilandry’ tagetes (marigold)

‘Pomegranate’ and ‘Flavorburst Summer Shades’ achillea milllefolium (yarrow)

‘Carlotta’, ‘Blue Shift’, ‘Jacqueline Ann’ lathyrus odoratus (sweet pea)

‘Orange Button’, ‘Indian Prince’, ‘Bull’s Eye’ calendula

Sherbet toned Chantilly antirrhinum (snapdragon)

‘Amazon Neon Rose Magic’, dianthus

‘Double Pink’ freesia

‘Starry Eyes mix’ phlox drummondi grandiflora

Filler

‘African Blue’ flowering basil

‘Marbles Mix’ mirabilis jalapa (four o’clocks)

‘Red Gem’, ‘Red Star’, ‘Tangerine Gem’, ‘Lemon Gem’ signet marigold

‘Golden Lemon’, ‘Lemon Meringue’, ‘Phyllis’ pelargonium (scented geranium)

Silver & Whites

Focal Flowers

‘Desmonda’ rose

Formosa lily

‘Pink Snowflake’ lily

‘Buttercream’ convallaria majalis (stock)

‘Immortality’ bearded iris

‘Angel White’ lilac

‘Festiva Maxima’ peony

Agave amica (tuberose)

Secondary Flowers

‘Alba’ freesia

‘Chabaud Jeanne Dionis’ dianthus

Chamomile

‘Ivory Princess’ calendula

‘White’ heliotrope

‘White Chantilly’ antirrhinum (snapdragon)

‘Jilly’ lathyrus odoratus (sweet pea)

‘Grandiflora’, ‘Jasmine’, ‘Starlight Dancer’ nicotiana

‘Mignotte White’ reseda (mignotte)

‘Edelweiss’ lavender

Convallaria majalis (Lily of the valley)

Narcissus

‘Isabellina’ phlox drummundii

Filler

‘Peppermint’, ‘Nutmeg’, ‘Lady Plymouth’ pelargonium (scented geranium)

Berggarten sage

‘Fairy Trumpets’ mirabilis jalapa (four o’clocks)

‘Variegated Pineapple’ mentha (mint)

Resources

When it comes to plants, visiting your local nursery or grower is always the best place to start when planning your garden. Likewise, if you are lucky enough to have a local seed company we would always recommend starting there as you look for new varieties of plants to grow in your garden. After that, here are a few of our favorite US resources for harder to find varieties of seeds, flowers & fragrant plants:

Morningsun Herb Farm is our go to local nursery here in Northern California, specializing in scented geraniums, our favorite flowering basils & agastaches (and of course - herbs). They also offer mail order throughout the continental US. So, if you can not find Mabel Grey scented geraniums or Mountain Magic flowering basil where you live, contact Rose.

There are many seed companies here in the US, here are a few of our favorites for unique varieties:

Adaptive Seeds

Floret Flower Farm

Johnny’s Seeds

Renee’s Garden Seeds

Select Seeds

Uprising Seeds

2026 Classes - Lafayette, Ca

March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad In this interactive class, you’ll dive into the essentials of growing a vibrant salad garden.

April 16, 2026 — The Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

And the biggest winter news: both of our hives at Homestead are alive!

Winter always keeps us on edge. Every beekeeper knows that uneasy question—will they make it?—lingers until spring arrives.

Last year, the answer was devastating for many. Commercial beekeepers reported record losses, with a nationwide survey from the Honey Bee Health Coalition revealing catastrophic colony collapse across the United States. Commercial operations experienced an average loss of 62% between June 2024 and February 2025—losses that far exceed historical trends and threaten crop pollination for almonds, fruits, vegetables, and many of our essential food systems.

Backyard beekeepers didn’t fare much better. Small-scale operations like ours reported winter losses closer to 50%.

Put simply: the bees are in trouble.

Honey bees today face a convergence of threats—parasites, pests, disease, pesticide exposure, and inadequate nutrition. Any one of these can weaken a colony; together, they can be fatal.

At Homestead, our bees have a few advantages. Most importantly, they have access to a diverse and nutrient-rich diet. We’ve intentionally planted the garden to ensure something is always blooming—even in winter. This steady availability of nectar and pollen supports stronger immune systems and more resilient colonies.

We also do not use pesticides in our gardens. Pesticide exposure is an ongoing area of research within universities and the beekeeping community, but one prevailing theory is sobering: flowers, trees, and plants absorb systemic pesticides, which then concentrate in nectar and pollen. Bees unknowingly bring those toxins back to the hive, where they can weaken—or in extreme cases, destroy—entire colonies.

This year, we made another intentional choice: we left more honey in the hives than ever before. It meant a more modest harvest for Homestead, but it gave the bees vital nutrition during the rainy weeks when they couldn’t leave the hive.

It’s still early in winter, and I find myself hoping for more rain. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that these two hives will make it to spring—and then explode into activity when true California spring arrives. With that abundance comes the next challenge: managing strong colonies and trying to prevent swarming.

Think good buzzy thoughts for our hives.

-Rosalind

A Note on Winter Foraging

Honey bees will venture out when temperatures reach the mid-50s (Fahrenheit). They won’t travel far, but they’ll search diligently for nearby sources of pollen and nectar—making winter blooms in the garden especially critical.

Winter Blooms for the Bees

Here are a few of our favorite winter blooms that provide both pollen and nectar for honey bees and native pollinators. Whether or not you keep hives of your own, planting winter-blooming plants is a meaningful way to support a wide range of pollinators when resources are scarce. As a bonus, these plants bring much-needed color, fragrance, and life to the winter garden—something we humans can enjoy just as much as the bees.

Annuals (edible & cut flower gardens, fruit tree orchards):
Calendula, Borage, California poppies

Perennials (landscape, herb & cut flower gardens):
Ornamental quince, Hellebore, Camellia, long-blooming Salvias like ‘Waverly’ and ‘Amistad,’ late-winter blooming Ceanothus varieties such as ‘Ray Hartman’ and ‘Snowball,’ Rosemary, Manzanita

Cover crops:
Yellow mustard, Clovers

Bulbs:
Crocus, Hyacinth, Snowdrops (a struggle here in the Bay Area, but a gift to bees in cooler climates)

2026 Classes - Lafayette, Ca

March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad In this interactive class, you’ll dive into the essentials of growing a vibrant salad garden.

April 16, 2026 — The Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful.

Good soil is the foundation for any successful planting, and growing food at home is a good way to ensure that the food on the plate is pesticide free and safe. In this post we will take a look at some of the ways to get good soil health, and how this manifests for us beyond the healthier plants that we see.

Very quickly let’s oversimplify things and loosely define what good soil health is a measure of. Soil health is a term that describes the holistic wellness of the soil based on what the soil has in it (nutrients), what is living there (microbes, biodiversity), and it’s physical make up and drainage (clay, loam, aggregate). To have good soil health, these factors have to be in balance, and certainly in the case of raised beds, adjusted and refreshed. Proper soil care means more colorful, more flavorful fruits and vegetables; which in turn often leads to better meals; which in turn often leads to happier people; which makes the world go ‘round another day.

NUTRIENTS - The easiest way to add good nutrients to the soil is to add organic compost and manure. How do you know if your soil is nutrient deficient? Plants have a variety of signals from discoloration to stunted, spindly growth, but they uniformly don’t look right if there aren’t sufficient nutrients. If you aren’t sure, you can test your soil by sending it out to a lab for testing. Check the internet for the best testing site near you.

MIBROBES AND BIODIVERSITY - Conveniently enough, adding compost and manure is a good way to up the biodiversity of your garden as well! Use an annual application to reset the balance after the plants have used the soil for a year.

SOIL STRUCTURE - The impact of soil structure for our purposes mainly concerns drainage. Thick clay soil, or unturned dense soil in the beds holds moisture and can be harmful to plants. In a raised bed, we annually turn or till the soil annually to aerate the soil and allow for better drainage while prepping the bed for this years application of microbes and nutrients. The turning of in-ground planting beds is more controversial as it breaks up and destroys the communities of microorganisms and contributes to run off. This is why farmers often promote their no-till practices in terms of their healthy regenerative farming practices. For the home gardener, we encourage turning your raised beds, and not tilling in-ground beds.

How does all of this make the world go round? Well good soil leads to better mineral uptake through plant roots, which (through a chemical process not to be explained here) creates more nutrient rich fruits and vegetables. Not only that, those nutrients taste better, and they look better. Fruits and vegetables from good soil are more brightly colored than those coming from less ideal soil environments.

Good food is what we’re all about at HDC, and it starts in the soil. Good food leads to better physical health and better mental health. And good food starts in the soil where it’s grown. Here is an inside look at some of the garden tasks we do in our edible gardens here in Northern California. This list is easily adjusted for those in cooler climates, just simply begin when you are snow free.

January/February

• Cover crops are growing, if you have empty spaces in your garden - or you simply were too busy to seed in the fall, seed additional cover crops, like Borage and Lacy Phacelia for the pollinators. If using the scatter method (ie. simply sprinkling seeds randomly over soil for a natural look) make sure to follow with a scattering of soil to lightly cover the seeds or you may just be feeding your neighborhood birds.

• Once a year, we give the entire garden a soil boost with a humic acid application. This simple practice supports long-term soil health and sets plants up for a strong, resilient growing season ahead. We apply humic acid at the base of all fruit trees, throughout perennial and annual planting beds, and across the broader landscape.

• If you’re new to humic acid, think of it as a powerful (and completely natural) soil conditioner. Humic acid is derived from decomposed organic matter and helps to improve soil structure, increase water and nutrient retention, and support beneficial microbial life. It also helps “unlock” minerals in the soil, making nutrients more available for plant uptake. Specifically for the edible garden, after applying humid acid, we top-dress the areas with organic compost or well-aged chicken manure to really lock in the benefits. For fruit trees: Add about a cubic foot of organic compost or well-aged chicken manure on top of the humic acid. In your annual or vegetable garden beds: Scatter a light layer of the humid acid and then cover with organic compost or well-aged chicken manure to nourish the soil as plants grow. Depending upon the size of your raised bed, you may use anywhere from a 1/4 cup top a full cup of the humic acid.

February

• Now is the time to cut back fava beans, if you planted them as a cover crop in your annual vegetable beds. We cut back the favas before they flower and fruit, keeping their nitrogen rich roots in the soil. If you are wondering why we cut fava beans before they flower and fruit, it is because we want to maximize nitrogen in the soil and the plant stores nitrogen in its roots.

• In raised vegetable beds, turn beds to aerate, add organic compost, chicken manure or planting mix. Check irrigation lines for leaks after this task.

March

• Before you begin spring planting in your raised beds, add granular fertilizer and compost or planting mix to raise the soil level of the bed close to the rim before planting (if you haven’t already). Planting begins in annual beds - but not tomatoes! We do not plant tomatoes until after tax day, as they are tropical fruits who do not want to be outside in the garden when temperatures are below 55 degrees. And yes, many folks do plant earlier and use many methods to keep the tomatoes warm in order to be the first on the block with a tomato harvest, but let’s save this topic to explore more in a future post. Feed your entire garden with granular all purpose fertilizer - except for plants in the protea family and succulents.

• Once rains have slowed down, make sure your garden and greater landscape is well mulched. If its been a couple of years since you have done this, spring is a good time to do so. Also note that if your garden received a lot of rain this year, mulch may have gotten displaced. Please do not use dyed barks for mulch rather natural wood chips, as the dyed bark removes nitrogen from the soil during their decomposition process.

April - September

• As long as outside temperatures are under 85 degrees, continue fertilizing your vegetables and cut flowers as needed using granular fertilizer and liquid fertilizer, such as fish emulsion. Also continue to top dress plantings as needed with compost or mulch.

October - December

The cycle begins again. As the garden slows, it’s time to plant cover crops in annual beds, beneath fruit trees, and in any unused garden spaces. These quiet winter plantings do some of the hardest work of the year—protecting soil, feeding microbes, and setting the stage for spring.

If you’re unsure what to plant, here’s a simple guide.

• Legume Cover Crops
  Legumes—such as fava beans, clover, field peas, and hairy vetch—are planted for their nitrogen-fixing superpowers. They pull nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form plants can actually use, while also building soil structure and increasing organic matter.

  A word of caution: if your garden is frequented by gophers or voles, crimson clover is basically their favorite dish. You’ll be feeding your soil beautifully, but you may also be hosting a small underground dinner party—one that will later inquire about when the tomatoes are being served.

• Non-Legume Cover Crops
  Non-legumes like radishes, mustards, and buckwheat focus on soil structure and protection. They improve texture, add organic matter, and help prevent erosion. Deep-rooted options, such as daikon radish, are especially helpful for breaking up compacted soil layers, improving both drainage and root penetration.

• Grasses and Cereals
  Oats, rye, and barley are go-to choices for farmers and gardeners covering large areas. These fast-growing cereals create dense foliage that suppresses weeds, shields soil from winter rains, and contributes generous organic matter when turned back into the soil.

Plant them now, let them work all winter, and your spring garden will thank you.

Classes & Events

I’m excited to be teaching in my home garden again this year. Located in the East Bay of San Francisco, it’s a special place to gather, learn, and get our hands in the dirt. If you’re local to the Bay Area—or visiting during these dates—I’d love to have you join us.

Hope you all are having a good winters rest and if weather allows, some time to be outside in the garden.

—Stefani

March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad In this interactive class, you’ll dive into the essentials of growing a vibrant salad garden. You will learn through each step of the process, from planting to harvesting. Learn how to select the best salad greens for our climate, prepare your soil, and nurture your plants to ensure a bountiful harvest. We’ll cover essential tips on watering, weeding, and organic pest control, giving you the tools to cultivate a thriving salad garden. At the end of the class, we will create a delicious, fresh salad together, allowing you to enjoy what a local, home-grown salad embodies.

April 16, 2026 — The Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques. Stefani will guide you through essential topics such as disease prevention, pest management, and optimal watering practices to ensure a bountiful harvest. You’ll also learn about sustainable gardening methods and how to maximize your garden’s productivity. We will dive into soil preparation, seed growing by transplant, plant placement and fertilization. Succession planting will be covered. By the end of the class, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to grow vibrant, delicious tomatoes all season long.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful. Stefani will guide you through her favorite varieties, share tips for cultivating them at home, and demonstrate how to create artful floral arrangements that can be enjoyed both visually and on the plate. Each participant will create their own edible flower arrangement to take home. All materials provided.

Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year and the quiet return of the light.

This day has long been honored with simple, grounding rituals—watching the sun rise and set with a cup of garden-grown tea, lighting a fire or candle, and welcoming the outdoors in with cut evergreens. It’s a beautiful time to make a wreath, clip a sprig of rosemary (often called the sun herb), set intentions for the months ahead, or even begin dreaming of longer days by purchasing seeds for the coming gardening season.

One of my favorite solstice traditions is sitting with a warm mug of tea grown and gathered from the garden. Cheerful chamomile flowers, harvested in summer and carefully dried, wait patiently for this moment—brewed into a fragrant, calming cup meant to carry us gently through the longest night and toward restful sleep.

As the days gradually lengthen, I’m wishing you warmth, lighter hearts, and brighter days ahead.

We’ll return in January to share how we begin the year with soil preparations in the garden. Until then, have a wonderful holiday season and stay warm.

-Stefani

IN THE GARDEN

Easy to grow from seeds or seedlings, this lovely cool season annual will bloom throughout winter, spring and fall depending upon your gardening zone. Calendula is not fussy about soil type as long as the soil is moist and well draining. In most areas, it prefers full sun or partial shade. Calendula is one of the easiest ornamental edibles to add to your garden, whether it’s planted in a container or planting bed. The plant has an upright growth habit of 18 to 24 inches (46 to 60 cm) tall, so you can tuck it in among other plants. We love the more unusual types, including ‘Strawberry Blonde’, ‘Bronzed Beauty’, ‘Radio’, and cultivars in the ‘Flashback Series’.

HARVEST

Harvest calendula flowers and add the petals to salads and herb butters for an instant pop of color; sprinkle them on as generously as you’d like. Calendula makes a beautiful natural dye, and because it has healing powers, you can use the flower heads or petals to make your own salves, tinctures and oils, and as the basis of a medicinal herbal tea. Flowers can be dried by various means, including air drying or in a dehydrator. Fully dried flowers can be stored in a sealed container for up to 12 months.

A GARDENER’S SALVE

Fun to make, beautifully golden, and endlessly useful, this salve makes a thoughtful gift from the garden. This recipe is endlessly adaptive to the amount of flowers & oil you have on hand.

Infuse

Fill a small glass jar (a pint works well) with whole fresh or dried calendula flower heads and petals.

Top the jar with sweet almond oil—olive, coconut, avocado, or jojoba oil are great alternatives. Make sure the oil sits about an inch above the flowers to allow for expansion as they absorb the liquid. Seal the jar tightly, give it a good shake, and place it in a warm spot for 4–6 weeks. Or if you are in need of a quick gift, infuse your petals in the oil over very low heat for a few hours on the stove top or crock pot.

Strain

Once the infusion is complete, strain out the calendula using cheesecloth and a fine strainer. Make sure to squeeze out the oil from the petals as they will hold onto it. Pour the infused oil into a clean glass jar.

Add Bees Wax

To make your salve, follow this easy equation: for every 1 cup of infused oil, add 1 ounce of beeswax. (Use more beeswax for a firmer summer salve, less for a softer winter blend.) Heat the beeswax until it has melted over low heat, add the infused oil, and give it a good stir. If you do not already have a pot dedicated to gardening projects such as natural dyes and salve making, this maybe the time to chose an old pot and do so. Once hardened, the beeswax is hard to clean. And with a dedicated crafting pot, you do not have to worry about bits of beeswax making their way into your next pasta dish!

Carefully pour the warm salve into ½-ounce or 2-ounce tins. A funnel is useful here, but be warned, the wax will harden in the smallest parts of your funnel, so clean immediately. Alternatively, you can transfer the warm salve into a measuring cup with a spout to effectively pour the salve into the tins. I find the measuring cup easier to clean/remove the hardened salve from than the funnel. Sprinkle a few dried calendula petals on top before it sets, and let the salve filled tins cool fully before closing them with their caps.

Store the salve in a cool spot until you are ready to gift it or use yourself and enjoy within a year.

2026 Classes

Just in time for the holidays, we have a series of garden classes in 2026 that make for great holiday gifts! The classes are held in Lafayette, Ca and are available as single classes, but for those interested in an entire series we are offering a holiday discount. See our website for more information or shoot us an email at hello@hdcgardens.com.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season,

Stefani

March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad In this interactive class, you’ll dive into the essentials of growing a vibrant salad garden. You will learn through each step of the process, from planting to harvesting. Learn how to select the best salad greens for our climate, prepare your soil, and nurture your plants to ensure a bountiful harvest. We’ll cover essential tips on watering, weeding, and organic pest control, giving you the tools to cultivate a thriving salad garden. At the end of the class, we will create a delicious, fresh salad together, allowing you to enjoy what a local, home-grown salad embodies.

April 16, 2026 — The Italian Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques. Stefani will guide you through essential topics such as disease prevention, pest management, and optimal watering practices to ensure a bountiful harvest. You’ll also learn about sustainable gardening methods and how to maximize your garden’s productivity. We will dive into soil preparation, seed growing by transplant, plant placement and fertilization. Succession planting will be covered. By the end of the class, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to grow vibrant, delicious tomatoes all season long.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful. Stefani will guide you through her favorite varieties, share tips for cultivating them at home, and demonstrate how to create artful floral arrangements that can be enjoyed both visually and on the plate. Each participant will create their own edible flower arrangement to take home. All materials provided.

SAGE GARLAND

During the late season before the first frost, we gather long stems of ‘Berggarten’ sage to begin the drying process. This simple, beautiful garland starts as a centerpiece on our dining table and then gets hung to finish drying—a perfect, last-minute garden project for Thanksgiving. It fits comfortably on a 6-foot (1.8-m) table, and you’ll need 3 to 5 yards of 28-gauge floral paddle wire, depending on the length you prefer. And if your herb garden is abundant, feel free to mix in bay, rosemary, scented geraniums, a bit of thyme—really anything fragrant you have on hand.

Materials

• 25 to 30 fresh ‘Berggarten’ sage stems with leaves (make harvesting cuts as long as possible, and use fewer stems for a smaller table) and/or additional herbs from your garden

• Paddle wire (we recommend 28 gauge size)

• Garden twine - hemp or natural

Process

• Lay a stem of sage on top of one end of a 7-foot (2-m) length of hemp twine or other natural-colored twine, with the sage leaves hiding the end of the twine and the stem end pointing down the length of twine. The twine will be the structure upon which the garland is built.

• Wrap 28-gauge paddle wire (the kind florists use), still attached to the spool, three or four times around the stems and the piece of twine. Keeping the wire attached to the spool, lay the second stem of sage just below the top of the wrapped first stem, slightly overlapping so that the leaves of the second piece cover the stem of the first piece, and wrap the wire around both stems and the twine. Continue adding sage and wrapping wire down the length of the twine.

• When the garland has reached the desired length, turn the last stem of sage backward and tuck it into the end; then wrap it with wire to secure it in place.

• Place the finished garland on your table and enjoy it as a beautifully scented fall decoration for up to 2 days. After that, you can hang the garland in a cool, dry place to finish drying, which will take about 10 days to dry completely. Use sage leaves directly from the garland as needed, or remove all of the leaves at once and store them in a jar.

• The dried sage & herbs will last for up to a year in your pantry.

2026 Events & Classes

Just in time for the holidays, I’m excited to share that I’ll be teaching three hands-on workshops in my Lafayette, CA garden this spring—perfect for garden-inspired gifts. You can sign up for a single class or bundle them together as a series. For details, visit our website or email us at hello@hdcgardens.com.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving,
Stefani

March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad In this interactive class, you’ll dive into the essentials of growing a vibrant salad garden. You will learn through each step of the process, from planting to harvesting. Learn how to select the best salad greens for our climate, prepare your soil, and nurture your plants to ensure a bountiful harvest. We’ll cover essential tips on watering, weeding, and organic pest control, giving you the tools to cultivate a thriving salad garden. At the end of the class, we will create a delicious, fresh salad together, allowing you to enjoy what a local, home-grown salad embodies.

April 16, 2026 — The Italian Summer Garden Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this course offers invaluable insights into selecting the perfect tomato varieties, preparing your soil, and implementing effective planting techniques. Stefani will guide you through essential topics such as disease prevention, pest management, and optimal watering practices to ensure a bountiful harvest. You’ll also learn about sustainable gardening methods and how to maximize your garden’s productivity. We will dive into soil preparation, seed growing by transplant, plant placement and fertilization. Succession planting will be covered. By the end of the class, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to grow vibrant, delicious tomatoes all season long.

May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop Learn how to grow, harvest, and arrange stunning blooms that are as delicious as they are beautiful. Stefani will guide you through her favorite varieties, share tips for cultivating them at home, and demonstrate how to create artful floral arrangements that can be enjoyed both visually and on the plate. Each participant will create their own edible flower arrangement to take home. All materials provided.

Harvesting in Winter

In the kitchen garden, continue harvesting cool-season vegetables and annual herbs, but do so gently. From November through mid-February these plants essentially enter a slow dormancy, which means little to no new growth. Gone are the wild days of summer and fall when everything seemed to grow a foot overnight. Winter is a season of rest—for the garden and for us.

Plant Garlic & Cover Crops

December is the last chance for planting garlic and cover crops. Remember the old saying: the size of the clove determines the size of next year’s bulb. Save the small cloves for cooking, or plant them in a separate row for green garlic in spring.

If you are skipping vegetables this winter, plant a cover crop in the empty bed spaces to revive soil nutrients and support your local pollinators with a winter nectar source. Fava beans, Yellow mustard, buckwheat and borage are all good choices.

Once garlic and cover crops are in, halt all other seeding and let your garden beds rest.

Care for Perennials & Annuals

Early winter is the time to cut back tea plants and perennial herbs for their once-a-year hard prune. As you remove spent annuals in both the edible and cut-flower beds, keep an eye out for seed heads and save them for planting in next year’s garden.

Citrus Care

Citrus trees are typically heavy with fruit this time of year and need a little love.

• Add support or begin harvesting to relieve weight on branches.

• If leaves are yellowing, apply organic citrus fertilizer and worm castings.

• When frost threatens (below 32°F), cover trees overnight with a frost blanket or an old sheet.

If you end up with more citrus than you can eat, dehydrated slices—especially Meyer lemons—make beautiful additions to teas, cocktails, or holiday gifts and decor.

Prepare for Fruit Tree Pruning

Keep an eye on the forecast and when you have a few rain-free days, apply a dormant oil spray to fruit trees. We usually spray once before pruning and again afterward.

And speaking of pruning, now is the perfect time to brush up on fruit tree pruning techniques, before the season begins in January. A few excellent resources include:

• Backyard Fruit Tree Basics - Dave Wilson Fruit Tree Nursery

• Grow Organic’s youtube channel is full of helpful resources. Here are some highlights:

  • Restorative pruning

  • Apple and Pear pruning

  • Pruning 101

  • Espalier training

Seed Shopping

Start planning your 2026 garden by browsing some favorite seed companies’ catalogs, ours include: Uprising Seeds, Adaptive Seeds, Johnny’s Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, Pinetree Garden Seeds & Select Seeds.

Irrigation Check

Now is a good time to walk your garden and check your irrigation system to ensure emitters still align with woody perennials that have grown over the season and that you do not have any leaks. Adjust or turn off irrigation as appropriate for your local winter weather.

Garden-Inspired Gifts for the Holiday Season

If you have a gardener on your holiday list, I’ve gathered a handful of my favorite things—plus a shameless plug for my 2026 garden classes and books! I have no skin in the game here, these are simply products, tools, and makers I truly love and want to share.

This is a busy time of year outside of the garden. I hope you all have the opportunity to escape the holiday frenzy for just a moment and enjoy this quiet season in the garden.

-Stefani

Garden Classes (Spring 2026 — Lafayette, CA)

I’ll be teaching three hands-on workshops in my garden this spring. Come ready to dig, plant and learn.

• March 12, 2026 — Grow Your Own Salad

• April 16, 2026 — The Italian Summer Garden

• May 7, 2026 — Edible Flower Workshop

My Garden Books

I’ve written three books celebrating the beauty, abundance, and sensory joy of edible landscapes, kitchen gardens and fragrant flowers.

The Beautiful Edible Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2013)
Named one of Amazon’s Best Garden Books of 2013, this book shares how to grow organic fruits and vegetables while designing a garden that’s beautiful year-round. With a fresh design approach, lush photography, and ideas for gardens of all sizes—from sprawling yards to small patios—it’s perfect for anyone wanting a gorgeous, productive space.

Harvest: Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants (Ten Speed Press, 2017)
Part garden guide, part inspiration/project book, Harvest offers creative ways to use homegrown plants—from pantry staples and botanical beverages to fragrances, cocktails, florals, and more. A gift-worthy book full of projects that are both aspirational and genuinely doable.

The Fragrant Flower Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2024)
My newest book dives into the art of growing fragrant flowers outdoors and bringing those scents indoors. With beautiful photography and a mix of storytelling and instruction, it’s equally at home on the coffee table, potting bench, or bedside stack.

Garden Vases

For arranging garden blooms, I often reach for pieces from Colleen Hennessy Clayworks and Zoe Dehring Ceramics. Both are small Bay Area makers, so inventory shifts quickly—if you don’t see the perfect vase right away, sign up for their newsletters or follow along on Instagram for restocks.

Dehydrator

After years of trial and error, I finally found a dehydrator that’s compact, fast, and good-looking enough to live on the counter: the Magic Mill. I use it to preserve citrus slices, figs, persimmons, tomatoes, herbs—everything.

Ice Cream Maker

This past year I experimented with preserving the garden via ice cream, and I’m hooked. My current machine (the Whynter ice cream maker) is the best I have tried so far: no pre-frozen bowls, no ice, no salt—just plug it in, pour in your mix, and let it churn to the perfect consistency. And a bonus, you can also use it to chill or make frozen cocktails from the garden!

Pruners

No garden gift list is complete without a pair of pruners. There’s a perfect pruner for every gardener—you just may have to try a few to find yours. I prefer the lightweight ARS pruners over the heavier, more traditional Felcos. The lighter weight is easier on my hand and joints. Luckily, living near Hida Tool in Berkeley means I can compare multiple styles in person. If you can, visit a local tool shop before investing. And don’t forget: every pair needs regular sharpening. A simple diamond sharpening stone will keep them in top shape.

It is probably no surprise that getting the Homestead bee hives ready for winter is something we take seriously. This year we have taken a few extra steps to get them ready for the cool, wet months ahead.

The first thing I do to prep the hives is to make each hive a brick of sugar. The brick serves as an emergency food source for the bees in case they run out of honey and are in desperate need. It also acts as a moisture absorber in the hive. We have erred on the side of caution and have left each hive a super full of honey. This is a very conservative stance in California, as most beekeepers take as much honey as they can. (There was a very wet winter two years ago, and I lost two hives when they ran out of resources in May due to a late winter and a frigid and wet spring. Ever since those two losses, I have erred on leaving too much honey rather than too little. )

If we have a mild day in January, I will try to take a swift look at the top of the hive to see if we need to add another sugar brick. Some hives will eat through the sugar by then, while others won’t touch the sugar at all.

I removed each queen excluder from the hive before placing the sugar bricks on top of it. You can see what a queen excluder looks like in the image above. It is the wire rack resting on the side of the hive. Queen excluders are used between the layers of the hives to prevent the queen bee from laying eggs in the honey, in the supers. During winter, the bees will huddle in a ball for warmth, collectively keeping each other warm. They will migrate during the cold winter to the top layers of the hive, so we do not want to prevent the queen from having full access to the honey at the top and from huddling for warmth. The extra wooden frame that surrounds the sugar brick serves as a shim, added to provide additional space for the sugar brick to be laid on top.

Above, you can see an image taken during winter with thermal imaging. You can see the ladies are all up at the top of the hive. Please note that all male bees (drones) were kicked out of the hive months ago, so they don’t use resources during winter when they are not needed. Harsh! 😬

The last internal layer we add is a vent box on top of the sugar bricks. We line the mesh box with an old t-shirt, and then we add wood shavings on top. As the bees huddle for warmth, they shed water and moisture. If the bees had the regular wood top and no moisture protection, the water could condense on the top and drip down on the huddle of bees. If the temperatures are freezing, you can get frozen, wet, dead bees.

When I pull the vent box off in March, it is usually soaking wet and has mold. I am grateful for this system of additional resources and wood shavings.

Our hives are in a protected, fenced area in the garden, but I still added a few rocks on top of the hive to weigh down the covers in case of extreme winds. One year I had a deer bump my hive and the top came off in the middle of winter. Thankfully, it was discovered quickly, and we were able to save the hive. I now strap my hives that are in unfenced areas in case of wildlife bumps. That’s it! Our bees are ready for the cold months ahead & fingers crossed we will have rain!

-Rosalind

Here are our upcoming events! 💚

1. Community Seed Swap 🌱

Join us at a free community seed swap at Soul Food Farms in Vacaville! It will be on November 15, 2025; from 10am-1pm at the Soul Food Farms address:

6046 Pleasants Valley Road, Vacaville, CA

Seed Swap Community Guidelines!

Welcome to our seed swap! Sharing seeds is a beautiful way to cultivate plants, foster friendships, and build a stronger community. To make sure everyone has a great experience, please follow these simple guidelines when preparing and labeling your seeds:

PREPARING YOUR SEEDS:

• Clean & Dry: Ensure your seeds are completely dry and free of pulp, chaff, or plant debris to prevent mold in storage.

• Reasonable Quantities: Share what you can—just a small packet is plenty! Remember, even a few seeds can grow into many more to share next season.

• Healthy Sources: Please only bring seeds from healthy plants. Avoid saving seeds from plants that showed signs of pests or disease.

• Open-Pollinated & Heirloom Preferred: Hybrid seeds may not produce true-to-type plants. If you’re sharing hybrids, just let others know.

LABELING AND PACKAGING YOUR SEEDS

A good label helps your seeds find the right home. Please include as much of the following as you can:

• Plant Name: Common name and variety name (e.g., “Tomato – Cherokee Purple”).

• Year Harvested: So people know how fresh the seeds are.

• Growing Notes (optional but helpful!): Any tips like “needs staking,” “good for containers,” or “bee favorite.”

• Please package your seeds in small seed-sized envelopes. These are often called banking envelopes. We will have a few of these on site, but do not count on us to have enough for everyone. The expectation is that your seeds will be packaged and labeled.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

• Share seeds you’d be excited to receive yourself.

• Bring a seed and take a seed.

• Take only what you’ll use, so there’s plenty for everyone.

Together we’re growing a garden that’s bigger than any one of us. Thank you for being part of this community seed circle!

2. Kitchen Alchemy with Herbs and Cannabis 🧪

6pm- 8 pm in Lafayette, CA; November 13, 2025 (more info here)

Our last Lafayette class of the year! Join Penny and Stefani in the kitchen as we create bespoke dishes using the bounty of the garden. This is what the summer herb garden was heading for all season! We become kitchen alchemists as we transform our harvested herbs into tisanes, tinctures, infused oils, salves, and delicious beverages and edibles.

Penny will offer instruction on the unique properties of cannabis for health and wellness as we include it in the herbal ingredients in our creations. Come prepared to learn by doing as we make several favorite herbal recipes for mind, body, and soul. Here’s what we’ll be creating together:

• Cannabis Tincture (Cannabis)

• Herbal Salve (Calendula and Cannabis)

• Herb Oil

• CBD mocktail

3. Culinary Wreath Class 💐

Morningsun Herb Farm, Vacaville; November 22 (More info here)

Join us for a hands-on workshop where nature meets creativity. In this immersive experience, you’ll craft a lush, edible wreath using an array of fragrant herbs, flowers, and seasonal botanicals..

Stefani will guide you in weaving together an aromatic masterpiece, blending the beauty of the natural world with the flavors of the season. This workshop is ideal for those seeking to harness the beauty of the earth and craft a stunning, botanical-inspired wreath to adorn your home or kitchen.

IN THE GARDEN

Pineapple guava is a subtropical perennial plant with considerable cold tolerance, so it will grow well in USDA zones 7 to 11. This highly useful, edible, beautiful shrub’s drought tolerance and easygoing nature also make it a great contender for growing in a container—an especially wonderful option if you’re growing it in colder regions that would require overwintering the plant indoors.

Requiring full sun to partial shade, pineapple guava appreciates afternoon shade in climates with extremely hot summers. It can be grown in full shade but will not fruit regularly. Because of its ability to grow in a variety of light conditions, we use it as a repeating element in our landscape designs. With an upright branching form that can easily be trained as an espalier or small specimen tree, pineapple guava can grow to 15 feet (4.5 m). We love and appreciate that pineapple guava is considerably unfussy. It seems to grow happily on its own. Once established, it’s quite drought tolerant, although it yields better fruit with regular watering. It’s also self-pollinating, so only one tree is required to produce fruit.

HARVEST

The blooms of the pineapple guava resemble passionflowers, and they are as pleasing to the palate as they are to the eye. If you harvest only the flower petals, the fruit will continue to grow and ripen in the fall. We think the flowers taste like cotton candy, and you can eat them right off the tree. Or toss them into a salad, add them as a garnish to iced tea or cocktails, or use them for preserves.

The fruit is slightly soft when ripe (similar to a banana). You can test for ripeness by very gently moving the fruit from side to side. If it easily separates from the tree, it’s ripe. Ripened fruit also falls freely from the tree and can be harvested from the ground. We eat the fruit by scooping out the pulp and tossing it into a blender to make smoothies, or turning it into a simple syrup for cocktails or sodas. One of the biggest advantages of pineapple guava is that it can be frozen and cooked without loss of flavor from its fragrant, cream-colored flesh. Freeze whole fruit and it will keep for up to a year.

Pineapple Guava Simple Syrup

Simple syrup is a staple for cocktail makers. This version is a simple infusion of fruit, water, and sugar, liquefied to flavor carbonated water and cocktails. Crafting a simple syrup is a fantastic way to extract the essence of the fruit without having to use the pulp and seeds. The sweet, tropical nature of pineapple guava makes it the perfect addition for cocktails, homemade sodas, and smoothies.

For a tropical homemade soda, mix 1 tablespoon (or more to taste) pineapple guava simple syrup into 8 ounces carbonated water. Add 1 ounce (or two if you like your cocktails more alcohol forward) of vodka for a refreshing tropical version of a vodka soda. Or, use to make a refreshing and regenerating pineapple guava and kale smoothie (pictured opposite) by placing 1 apple (peeled and cored), 1⁄4 cup pineapple guava simple syrup (or 2 fresh pineapple guavas, peeled), 1 banana, 6 kale leaves, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, and 4 ice cubes in your blender and blend completely until smooth. Pour into a glass and enjoy.

MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS

2 cups pineapple guava pulp, roughly chopped, from 15 to 20 fruit (depending on size)

2 cups organic sugar

2 cups water

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Place the pineapple guava pulp in a nonreactive saucepan and gently bring it to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Once the fruit breaks down (about 10 minutes), remove the pan from the heat, let the mixture cool slightly, and then pour it through a sieve into a bowl.

Press the pulp with a wooden spoon to maximize the amount of juice extracted. Discard the seeds and larger bits of fruit in the sieve. Combine the strained pulp with the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a clean nonreactive pan. Place it over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to prevent sticking.

Once the sugar has dissolved (about 5 minutes), remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool slightly. Use a funnel to pour the hot liquid into a clean jar or bottle and seal with a lid. Let it cool, and then store it in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to a year.

Celebrating Flower Farmers this Saturday

I’ve just returned from a trip back East and to Paris. Though I was gone for only two and a half weeks, I left in summer and came home to fall. The speed of that shift always amazes me in the garden.

This is the magical moment when late-summer tomatoes share space in the harvest basket with fall’s apples, pineapple guavas, and figs. And if you haven’t yet, now’s the time to get your fall crops in the ground.

For those of you dreaming about next year’s cut flower garden, I’d love for you to join us this Saturday at Morningsun Herb Farm. Debra Prinzing will be giving a garden talk as we celebrate the release of her new book, The Flower Farmers. Rose and I will be joining her with floral & herb design demonstration. The event if free and takes place from 10am - 12pm at Morningsun Herb Farm, located at 6137 Pleasants Valley Road in Vacaville, Ca.

Hope to see you there!

-Stefani

The book’s creators, Debra Prinzing and Robin Avni, are the powerhouse duo behind the Slow Flowers movement.

Robin Avni (left) and Debra Prinzing (right)

Together, they’ve spent years celebrating and uplifting the people who grow, design, and share locally grown flowers. Debra is the author of 12 books on flowers, and is an inductee into the Garden Writers Association Hall of Fame. Robin has produced 18 books and received numerous national design and photo editing honors. Their new book introduces readers to 29 farmers and designers from across North America, each with their own inspiring story of how they came to work with flowers. It’s not just about growing blooms—it’s about building a more sustainable, connected, and joy-filled way of life. Each heart felt story jumps off the page with lush photography.

What I love about this book is how it makes the act of flower farming—whether on a small backyard scale or a large working farm—feel both deeply personal and universal, larger than life yet accessible to everyone. Flowers remind us of hope, resilience, and beauty, and The Flower Farmers shines a light on the people who bring that magic into our lives.

To make the morning even more special, we’ll have a live floral design demonstration at Morningsun Herb Farm. Even in October Morningsun has so many great flowers in the garden to share with hummingbirds, pollinators, and gardeners! Morningsun owner Rose Loveall will be teaming up with me to share our artistry with fresh, seasonal herb and flower blooms. Watching flowers come together in the hands of designers is always inspiring—it’s the kind of experience that makes you want to go home and create with whatever you have in your own garden.

This will be a relaxed, joyful gathering where you can:
Meet Debra and Robin in person and have your copy of The Flower Farmers signed.
Watch Rose and me create a beautiful fall arrangement.
Connect with other gardeners, flower lovers, and community members who share the same passion. Sip on herbal flower water and tea, enjoy herbal treats and wander the gardens.
Leave with your heart (and maybe your arms) full of flowers, plants and inspiration.

So, if you’re craving a morning that blends beauty, creativity, and community, I hope you’ll join us. Bring a friend, linger in the gardens, and celebrate this new book with us.

Morningsun Herb Farm - The Flower farmers Event!
Saturday, October 4, 2025
10 am – 12 pm

This is a free community event. Books will be there for sale and the authors will be signing them. These are great holiday gifts for the gardening lovers!

The summer garden is a time of true abundance. The garden is so full of herbs & vegetables, that it is hard to imagine not having access to all of our favorites in just a few short months. But it will happen, fall is right around the corner. And if we are anything as edible gardeners, we are planners. Always thinking about what we want to eat in 3 months, so that we can start our seeds now. November is 3 months out and for many folks it is a time in the garden when herbs are either cut back and dormant, dead or covered under the first snow.

Drying herbs is always a good first preserving option and something I hope you all are already doing - but have you tried using salt to preserve your herbs? It’s easy to do and wonderfully convenient, because it can be used as the basis for any marinade or salt rub for both meats and grilled vegetables. The fresh herbs permeate every ounce of the salt mixture and release a fragrant, intoxicating aroma that will preserve your garden harvest long after the garden has shifted into winter dormancy.

Salt-Preserved Herbs

MAKES 8 OUNCES

• 15 to 20 stems of garden herbs, including winter savory, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and parsley

• 2⁄3 cup flake sea salt

This recipe can be increased or decreased depending on the size of your harvest. Rinse the herbs in cool water and place them on a towel to dry. Destem and coarsely chop the herbs’ leaves.

Add the salt to the herbs and continue to chop, mixing the two in the process. You want a coarse, not fine, texture. Combine the herbs and salt in a jar, seal the lid securely, and refrigerate. The salt-preserved herbs will last up to a year.

Classes & Events

I hope you’re all enjoying August and finding time to get out into the garden. My own tasks this month include spending as much time as possible in the greenhouse, starting a new round of fall crops. I’m especially excited about the spigarello, shungiku, and purple sprouting broccoli harvests to come this fall.

In the kitchen, I’ve been busy canning tomatoes, making pickles, preserving herbs, and putting up pears in brandy, port, and cider (it’s been an especially big year for my pear trees!). Out in the garden, I’m collecting as much seed as possible, with special attention to cut flower crops like Villandry and Gem marigolds, zinnias, and dahlias.

I’ll have plenty of seed to share at our November Seed Swap community event with Soul Food & Morningsun Herb Farms. If you’re in the SF Bay Area, save the date, bring some seed, and join us!

Stefani

September 2: Harvesting Excellence - Final Care for Herbs and Cannabis🌿- Lafayette, CA. This hands-on course is designed for gardeners who want to master the final stages of the growing cycle and ensure that their herbs and cannabis are harvested and processed with precision and care.

September 3: Summer Harvest Celebration, Tomato Preserving Party 🍅 - Lafayette, CA. Celebrate peak tomato season with us in the garden! Join Rose, Alexis and me for a hands-on workshop where we’ll make tomato jam, tomato basil ice cream, and preserved tomatoes by canning. We’ll also whip up a fresh tomato sauce, then head outside to bake pizzas and enjoy the harvest together. Come for the preserving tips, stay for the homemade pizza under the summer sky!

November 13: Kitchen Alchemy with Herbs and Cannabis - Lafayette, CA. Join fellow Ten Speed Press author, Penny Barthel and me in the kitchen as we create bespoke dishes using the garden's bounty. We’ll transform garden herbs into tisanes, tinctures, salves, infused oils, and more—plus explore cannabis’s wellness properties. This is a creative, hands-on kitchen experience for mind, body, and soul.

November 15: Community Seed Swap - Soul Food Farm, Vacaville, CA. 10 A.M. - 1P.M. SAVE THE DATE and Join Morningsun Herb Farm, Homestead Design Collective & Soul Food Farm for a community seed swap! This is a free event to celebrate the year’s harvests while sharing seeds for next year’s garden.

Lately, my social media feed has been churned (pun intended) into a full-blown butter bonanza! Everyone’s either vacationing in Paris and sneaking home vacuum-sealed bricks of French butter, or channeling their inner homesteader—milking cows, churning butter from scratch, all with a charming British accent and zero mess. I mean, how?! It has me daydreaming about that off-the-grid, live-off-the-land lifestyle—if only it were as effortlessly beautiful as it looks on TikTok.

As a gardener, I’ve got my own way to join this summer’s butter moment—with Blooming Butter: a compound butter made with edible flowers. I make it every summer and freeze it to enjoy throughout the year. It’s simple, beautiful, and a celebration of the flower garden.

My garden is filled with edible flowers that are just as beautiful on the plate as they are in a bouquet. Some of my favorites for this project are bachelor’s buttons, calendula, nasturtium, and borage. You can use them one at a time or mix them all together for a colorful, confetti-like effect.

Here’s a quick look at each:

Bachelor’s Button – The small, bright petals are perfect sprinkled on soft cheeses, salads, cakes, or even cocktails. They’re delicate and cheerful—like little bursts of color.

Calendula – A favorite from winter through summer, calendula is known for its medicinal properties and bold, daisy-like blooms. It’s generous in color, bloom quantity, and nutritional value.

Borage – These vivid blue flowers have a fresh cucumber flavor, which makes them a natural in summer salads and drinks. Plus, they’re pollinator magnets—bees and butterflies love them.

Nasturtium – Probably the most well-known edible flower, nasturtiums do it all. You can eat the flowers, leaves, and even the seeds. I especially love the newer, dusky-hued varieties like ‘Lady Bird’ and ‘Purple Emperor.’

So, if you’re feeling inspired by the butter trend, give edible flowers a try. Blooming Butter is a simple, beautiful way to celebrate the garden and add something fresh to your summer table.

BLOOMING BUTTER

A stick of butter and a few flowers are the basis for this beautiful and delicious way to preserve your edible flower harvest. Compound butters (mixtures of butter, flowers, and herbs) can be prepared and frozen for up to 6 months. We like using bachelor’s buttons because the tiny petals are the perfect size and require no additional chopping. Calendula, nasturtium & borage are also a few of our favorite edible blooms for this project. If you are growing more than one variety of edible flowers, use them all. Add a bit of the flower-flecked butter to grilled fish, flank steak, or grilled vegetables. For equally delicious variations on this recipe, substitute chives for the shallot.

MAKES 4 OUNCES

10 to 12 edible flowers (aprox. 1⁄4 cup) like bachelor’s button, nasturtium, calendula & borage flowers. Use more or fewer petals, depending on how “confetti-fied” you want your butter to be

4 ounces butter, softened (not melted)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1⁄2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 medium shallot, diced

Gently rinse the flowers with cool water and set them aside to dry on a clean cloth.

Stir together the softened butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and shallot.

Pinch the petals from the flowers, discarding the bitter-tasting centers.

Add the petals to the butter mixture and stir.

If using immediately, store the butter on the kitchen counter, away from heat. To preserve the butter, roll it into a log shape (or multiple small rolls that can be used as needed), wrap it in parchment and then foil, and freeze. The butter will keep for up to 6 months. When you’re ready to use it, let the butter come to room temperature before serving.

Classes & Events

Summer is in full swing in the edible garden—we’re busy harvesting tomatoes & peppers while also planning ahead for our fall and winter crops. I hope you’re finding time to step into a garden and simply enjoy it, even for just a moment.

If you're in the mood for a cocktail or some boozy ice cream, we’d love to see you at our next class at Morningsun Herb Farm!

-Stefani

August 16: Botanical Cocktails & Boozy Ice Cream - Vacaville, Ca. Join Rose Loveall and me for a magical summer evening celebrating herbs, botanicals, and booze at Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville.

As the sun sets on a hot August night, you'll learn and sip your way through garden-inspired cocktails like a refreshing Hugo Spritz, a floral Lavender Aviation, and a bright summer tomato martini creation—each highlighting herbs fresh from the garden. Then cool off with a tasting of boozy herb-based ice creams: Bourbon Chocolate Mint Chip and Watermelon Tequila Sunrise. These are decadent, grown-up treats designed for warm summer nights.

September 2: Harvesting Excellence - Final Care for Herbs and Cannabis🌿- Lafayette, CA. This hands-on course is designed for gardeners who want to master the final stages of the growing cycle and ensure that their herbs and cannabis are harvested and processed with precision and care.

September 3: Summer Harvest Celebration, Tomato Preserving Party 🍅 - Lafayette, CA. Celebrate peak tomato season with us in the garden! Join Rose, Alexis and me for a hands-on workshop where we’ll make tomato jam, tomato basil ice cream, and preserved tomatoes by canning. We’ll also whip up a fresh tomato sauce, then head outside to bake pizzas and enjoy the harvest together. Come for the preserving tips, stay for the homemade pizza under the summer sky!

November 13: Kitchen Alchemy with Herbs and Cannabis - Lafayette, CA. Join fellow Ten Speed Press author, Penny Barthel and me in the kitchen as we create bespoke dishes using the garden's bounty. We’ll transform garden herbs into tisanes, tinctures, salves, infused oils, and more—plus explore cannabis’s wellness properties. This is a creative, hands-on kitchen experience for mind, body, and soul.

Now through September is ideal for planting peas, onions, carrots, celery, radishes, turnips, and beets for fall harvest. For hearty greens lovers, there are plenty of options that will transition with you from summer to fall, including kale, chard, spigarello, and a variety of Asian greens. And for fans of chicories, now is the time for radicchio, endive, and escarole to be added to the salad garden. We are also transitioning from heat tolerant romaine to spinach and loose leaf varieties of lettuce and of course, continuing succession plantings of all of the arugulas - Large Leaf Italian, Rustic and my new favorite from Puglia, Italy - Olive Leaf.

Here are some of my Favorite varieties to plant (including links to many of the seed companies that sell these seeds so that you can learn more):

Peas: Royal Snap II (purple), Sugar Snap (green) & Honey Snap II (yellow)

Onions/Shallots: Cuisee de Poulet (a beautiful pink onion/shallot that I have been enjoying all summer), Red Long of Tropea (torpedo), Blush (pink), King Richard leeks, Deep Purple scallions, Purplette spring onions, Dutch Red shallots (we plant these by bulb and not seed)

Chicories (radicchio and endive): I think every cool season salad garden should include radicchios & frisée. These bitter greens are some of the most nutritious and beautiful greens in the garden! Combine with fennel and citrus for a delicious winter salad. If you are fearful of the bitter taste, start with frisée and one of the pink radicchios. I promise you will fall in love and wish you planted your entire salad garden with these beauties: Stella Rosa (pink) , Adige Medio (red speckles), Variegata di Lusia (pink speckles), Luna Rosa (pink to dark red) , Rosa di Veneto (pink), Bel Fiore (speckles), Benefine (frisée/endive).

Hearty Greens: There are so many hearty greens beyond kale. Swiss chard is a traditional favorite, including: Orange Fantasia, Peppermint, Rainbow and Spinach: Giant Noble & Bloomsdale. Italian Leaf broccolis are a staple in my garden. These beautiful greens make a broccoli floret in spring after we have enjoyed the leaves all fall and winter long in salads, soups and stir fries. Try Spigariello Liscia and Spigarello Riccio. Asian greens thrive in the cool season garden. We enjoy Komatsuna & Shungiku. And of course, kale … Beira, Red Russian, Wild Garden Frills & Mamba.

We also begin planting overwintering crops like broccoli and cabbage, which will be ready by early spring. As temperatures cool in October and November, we plant garlic, shallots and one last round of onions. This is also when the final lettuces of the season go into the ground.

Garlic: We order our garlic seed from Filaree Farm in Washington State. Favorites include: Thai Purple, Thai Fire, Music, Blossom & Chesnok Red

The winter garden is not complete without cabbages! Tiara (green), Caraflex (pointed mini), Farao (green) and the multi-colored savoy, Deadon.

Lettuce & Arugula: Dark Lollo Rossa (deep red), Freckles (green with red splashes), Truchas (burgundy), Merveille des Quatre Saison (red), Salanova mix, Olive Leaf arugula & Rustic Italian arugula. If you want to learn more about Olive Leaf arugula, below is a video of one of my recent harvests.

And even though it is tempting to leave tomatoes in the garden, squeaking out the last fruit through the holidays - we remove our tomatoes on the last day of October and sow cover crops in their place. These not only support soil health through the winter but also help feed the essential microorganisms that keep your garden thriving. Fava beans are one of my favorites—they enrich the soil and offer a tasty harvest in spring.

December through February is the time for Rest, Recharge & Perennials. During these cooler months, we won’t be planting vegetables, but we’ll continue tending to overwintering crops and cool-season edible flowers and greens. Garden beds will be top-dressed with chicken manure to nourish the soil and protect it from winter rain.

This is also a great time to plant perennials and cut flowers. While the days are short and gray, we’ll be dreaming—and preparing—for a vibrant and productive spring.

Edible flowers: Brush Strokes viola, Chianti pansies, Pink Surprise and other varieties of calendula, Borage, Velvet Dawn Bachelor’s Buttons and the previously mentioned Shungiku is as much about the edible flowers as the greens!

A few of my favorite fall planted cut flowers for spring blooms include: Larkspur, both Misty Lavender & French Aloutette, Delft Blue & Bridal Veil nigella, Breadseed poppies (edible seed, too), Iceland poppies, Foxgloves & Black Knight scabiosa.

Classes & Events

Fall and winter are not only ideal seasons for planting—they’re also my favorite time to design and plan the garden for the year ahead.

If you're interested in growing food but aren’t sure where to begin, we’re here to support you! At Homestead Design Collective, we offer garden design and coaching services to help you get started with confidence. I’ve also written three books—The Beautiful Edible Garden, Harvest, and The Fragrant Flower Garden—and regularly host classes here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Next week, I’m excited to welcome you into my personal garden in Lafayette for two special workshops. First up is our Preserving Pickle Party, where we’ll share hands-on techniques for putting up the season’s bounty. Then, we’ll dive into all things cool-season planting in our Fall & Winter Garden class, building on the ideas we’ve started to explore here.

Whether you're just beginning your food-growing journey or looking to deepen your skills, now is a perfect time to get into the garden and learn more.

-Stefani

August 5: Summer Preserving Pickle Party 🥒- Lafayette, CA. Join Rose Lovell (Morningsun Herb Farm) & Alexis Koefoed (Soul Food Farm), and me for a hands-on pickling workshop in the garden! We’ll cover quick pickling, traditional preserving, dehydration, and simple syrups—using fresh summer produce straight from the garden.

August 7: The Fall/Winter Garden 🍂❄️ — Lafayette, CA. Learn how to plant garlic, cover crops, and cool-season vegetables for your fall and spring edible garden.

August 16: Botanical Cocktails & Boozy Ice Cream - Vacaville, Ca. Join Rose Loveall, and me for a magical summer evening celebrating herbs, botanicals, and booze at Morningsun Herb farm in Vacaville.

As the sun sets on a hot August night, you'll learn and sip your way through garden-inspired cocktails like a refreshing Hugo Spritz, a floral Lavender Aviation, and a bright summer tomato martini creation—each highlighting herbs fresh from the garden. Then cool off with a tasting of boozy herb-based ice creams: Bourbon Chocolate Mint Chip and Watermelon Tequila Sunrise. These are decadent, grown-up treats designed for warm summer nights.

September 3: Summer Harvest Celebration, Tomato Preserving Party 🍅 - Lafayette, CA. Celebrate peak tomato season with us in the garden! Join Rose, Alexis and me for a hands-on workshop where we’ll make tomato jam, tomato basil ice cream, and preserved tomatoes by canning. We’ll also whip up a fresh tomato sauce, then head outside to bake pizzas and enjoy the harvest together. Come for the preserving tips, stay for the homemade pizza under the summer sky!

September 18: Harvesting Excellence - Final Care for Herbs and Cannabis🌿- Lafayette, CA. This hands-on course is designed for gardeners who want to master the final stages of the growing cycle and ensure that their herbs and cannabis are harvested and processed with precision and care.

November 13: Kitchen Alchemy with Herbs and Cannabis - Lafayette, CA. Join fellow Ten Speed Press author, Penny Barthel and me in the kitchen as we create bespoke dishes using the garden's bounty. We’ll transform garden herbs into tisanes, tinctures, salves, infused oils, and more—plus explore cannabis’s wellness properties. This is a creative, hands-on kitchen experience for mind, body, and soul.

Preserving your garden’s harvest is a beautiful way to celebrate the seasons and capture a moment in time. Each harvest brings an abundance of possibilities—jams, pickles, teas, even ice creams. But one of my favorite ways to savor the garden’s bounty is by making amaro.

Amaro is an Italian herb-infused bitter liqueur, originally used as an after-dinner digestif, chilled or over ice. Recently, however, there’s been a bitters revival, with cocktail enthusiasts mixing the bittersweet digestif into beverages beyond just classic cocktails such as the Manhattan and the old fashioned.

Gem marigolds are a perfect component because of their distinct bitter flavor and for the lovely amber hue that results. These edible marigolds are covered in fragrant blooms from early summer until the fall. Low- mounding plants, their lacy foliage is pretty, but the abundance of flowers truly steals the show. Our favorites include ‘Lemon Gem’, ‘Tangerine Gem’, and the bicolor ‘Red Gem’. For amaro’s signature tartness, we’ve added some chinotto orange rind, the key ingredient in Campari, the popular Italian herbal aperitif. The beauty of making amaro is how it captures the taste and color of the season—each batch shifting in flavor and hue as the garden evolves through the year.

SUMMER GARDEN AMARO

MAKES 1 QUART

Enough herbs and edible flowers to fill a 1-quart jar, for example:

• 1 cup gem marigold flowers and leaves

• 2 to 6 anise hyssop flowers and leaves

• 1 sprig rosemary

• 1 to 6 lavender blooms

• Small bunch of thyme (such as French, English, or Lemon)

• 1 to 6 calendula flowers

• 1 to 6 bee balm flowers and leaves

• Small handful of rose petals

• 1 to 8 viola petals

5 to 10 alpine strawberries or other berries

Rind of 2 chinotto oranges or other citrus

Good-quality, unflavored vodka like Hanger One, Grey Goose or similar

SIMPLE SYRUP

MAKES ABOUT 1 1/4CUPS

1 cup water

1 cup organic sugar

Gently rinse the herbs and flowers, leaving the blooms intact to capture the bitter attributes of their centers. Add them all, along with the berries and citrus rind, to a 1-quart jar. Fill the jar with vodka to just below the rim (you might not need it all) and seal with a tight-fitting lid.

Check the amaro daily or every couple of days, and give it a good shake to ensure that there are no floating leaves or flowers. After 4 weeks, taste the amaro. If you prefer it stronger, allow it to infuse for another week or so. Once you’ve achieved the flavor you like, strain out the herbs, edible flowers, berries, and rind.

Next, make the simple syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a nonreactive pan. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to prevent sticking. Once the sugar has dissolved (about 5 minutes), remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool slightly.

Add 1 cup of the simple syrup to the strained amaro liquid and let infuse for an additional 2 weeks, then taste. If you find the amaro more bitter than you’d like, add more simple syrup but remember the sweetener is meant to take the edge off of the bitter taste rather than mask it. Once the bitters are to your liking, store indefinitely.

Store it in a cool, dark place. Enjoy!

CLASSES & EVENTS

July is a vibrant, busy time in the garden. Spring annuals are winding down, heat-loving herbs and vegetables are thriving, and the first big summer harvests are rolling in. If you're ready to expand your preserving skills, we’ve got some exciting classes coming up! From tangy pickles and boozy ice creams to garden-grown, cannabis-infused gummies—we'll be covering a wide range of fun and creative techniques. If you're in the SF Bay Area, be sure to check out our upcoming workshops. In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying these warm summer evenings and finding a little magic in the garden.

Stefani

August 5: Summer Preserving Pickle Party 🥒- Lafayette, CA. Join Rose Lovell (Morningsun Herb Farm) & Alexis Koefoed (Soul Food Farm), and me for a hands-on pickling workshop in the garden! We’ll cover quick pickling, traditional preserving, dehydration, and simple syrups—using fresh summer produce straight from the garden.

August 7: The Fall/Winter Garden 🍂❄️ — Lafayette, CA. Learn how to plant garlic, cover crops, and cool-season vegetables for your fall and spring edible garden.

August 16: Botanical Cocktails & Boozy Ice Cream - Vacaville, Ca. Join Rose Loveall, and me for a magical summer evening celebrating herbs, botanicals, and booze at Morningsun Herb farm in Vacaville.

As the sun sets on a hot August night, you'll learn and sip your way through garden-inspired cocktails like a refreshing Hugo Spritz, a floral Lavender Aviation, and a bright summer tomato martini creation—each highlighting herbs fresh from the garden. Then cool off with a tasting of boozy herb-based ice creams: Bourbon Chocolate Mint Chip and Watermelon Tequila Sunrise. These are decadent, grown-up treats designed for warm summer nights.

September 3: Summer Harvest Celebration, Tomato Preserving Party 🍅 - Lafayette, CA. Celebrate peak tomato season with us in the garden! Join Rose, Alexis and me for a hands-on workshop where we’ll make tomato jam, tomato basil ice cream, and preserved tomatoes by canning. We’ll also whip up a fresh tomato sauce, then head outside to bake pizzas and enjoy the harvest together. Come for the preserving tips, stay for the homemade pizza under the summer sky!

September 18: Harvesting Excellence - Final Care for Herbs and Cannabis🌿- Lafayette, CA. This hands-on course is designed for gardeners who want to master the final stages of the growing cycle and ensure that their herbs and cannabis are harvested and processed with precision and care.

November 13: Kitchen Alchemy with Herbs and Cannabis - Lafayette, CA. Join fellow Ten Speed Press author, Penny Barthel and me in the kitchen as we create bespoke dishes using the garden's bounty. We’ll transform garden herbs into tisanes, tinctures, salves, infused oils, and more—plus explore cannabis’s wellness properties. This is a creative, hands-on kitchen experience for mind, body, and soul.

Hi everyone, it's Stef from Homestead. I'm here with Christian and Rosalind, and we are sharing another part of our test garden. So this area was just planted last fall and you can see how large and full it is. It is a low water, pollinator attracting, cut flower garden. Chris, what have we got? And be careful there's a bee right there.

Well, that's good because the bees are declining and they're very happy here. As you can see, everything is mostly in full bloom. This is Dwarf Greek Oregano, the Nana Compacta. I know … it's a mouthful! It's an edible oregano. Yeah, it is. And it's just starting to come into bloom right here.

We've got the dwarf curry. This is Helichrysum Italicum Anom, it stays a lot tidier than the typical curry plant. Now this isn't the kind of curry that you cook with. It's just smells like it when you rub the foliage and smell your hands. It's incredible! And it's a new favorite from Rose at Morning Sun Herb Farm. We're still kind of testing this out. This seems to stay a lot tidier though than the other one, which makes it a great gardening plant and an understory for the Phenomenal lavender.

We've been planting Phenomenal lavender in lieu of the more common Provence lavender. It just seems to handle the heat waves a little bit better than the Provenance does and handles humidity well, too. So if you're on the east coast, this is a good one to plant.

And then what was this? This is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz, ornamental, oregano. This is a new one for us. We're not really sure what this is gonna do, but, it looks pretty exciting, very pretty, its beautiful and tough as nails. Yeah, all of these plants are really tough. They all got planted in the crazy heat wave last summer and pretty much everything survived.

As is typical, we love to interplant all these Mediterranean and native plants with some really fun things in the Protea family. Like, look at this. The beautiful color on this Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset’. Very easy, very hearty. It loves this same kind of, microclimate (as the California & Mediterranean natives).

Then we've got the King Protia here - a little finicky in the landscape. It really likes to be grown on a slope, as it is. Then this. Oh, beautiful. I love this plant. This beautiful thing just started coming into its own. This (plant) is called ‘Celestial Blue’ Sage. This is a hybrid of the Cleveland Sage and the Mojave Sage. Mojave Sage is a beautiful plant that's very, very difficult to grow in the garden. And this seems to take on the best qualities of both parents as you've got like the different colored coxes with the flower and a shrub that is hardier and more garden friendly. So then, this entire planting strip is really super low water, super harvestable. Obviously supporting the pollinators as we're getting whizzed by.

We've got Apiana sage, Grevellia … we've got a whole wide variety of Proteas … all great plants for harvesting and Buckwheat! Buckwheat's a great midsummer pollinator plant for bees and butterflies. Then let's show them this Hakea right behind you, too. This guy right here. This guy has gone gangbusters. Just look at the cool foliage. It also gets these like really awesome sea urchin shaped flowers, which I don't remember when it actually bloomed. I think it was the early fall. Is it fall? Yeah. I don't know either. Even when it's not in flower. The foliage is just super cool. It's great for arrangements too.

And this plant is extremely vigorous too. This thing is tripled in size since we planted it. Last summer and then we’ve got our good Verbena ‘De La Mina’, which is a (California) native from the islands off of Baja. This plant Blooms 24/7. It's been in bloom since January. Yeah, it looks like it might be due for a cutback at some point. You can see the flowers are kind of getting to the end of their rope here, but that's okay. It'll just grow back and start blooming again.

And then this is another favorite from Baja. This is Lepechinia hasta. And this one actually starts blooming in summer and goes through the fall. So it'll kind of take over when a lot of these other California natives start to kind of peter out and it's a favorite hummingbird plant. Bees love it. And the foliage smells like Seven-Up. Yeah. It's a great fragrant flower. Tough as nails.

Alright, so we just wanted to share with you this really fun planting we did last fall. And what's amazing is that all of these plants besides the proteas were planted in either four inch or one quart size. And look how large and full this planting is. All right, have a great day everyone!