HI THERE! I'M BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI, FREELANCE WRITER, HISTORICAL RESEARCHER, & PERPETUAL SEEKER OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. WELCOME TO MY SPACE WHERE I SHARE THE BOOKS I'M READING, MY SPIRITUAL FINDINGS, FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN, AND LOST STORIES. ALL ARE WELCOME HERE.
A dear neighbor brought me a tussie-mussie this week. The dictionary defines tuzzy-muzzy, or tussie-mussie, as a bunch or posy of flowers, a nosegay, and then disobligingly adds that the word is obsolete. I refuse to regard it as obsolete. It is a charming word; I have always used it and shall continue to use it, … Continue reading What Is A Tussie-Mussie?
I write this note far from home, on a not unenviable expedition which involves wandering round other people's gardens. -Vita Sackville-West August 17th, 1947 In Your Garden This summer we have done our usual expeditions. We have gone to the family cottage a couple times on the East side of the state, and also to … Continue reading Expeditions: MICHIGAN SUMMER
My liking for gardens to be lavish is an inherent part of my garden philosophy. I like generosity wherever I find it, whether in gardens or elsewhere. -Vita Sackville-West March 26, 1950 In the quote above she speaks of pruning. From her books I gather that Vita thought pruning in the Spring a foolish way … Continue reading Life After Deadheading
People often ask what plants are suitable for a shady situation, by which they mean either the north side of a walk or house, or in the shadow cast by trees. There are so many plants that no one need despair. -Vita Sackville-West A Joy of Gardening; 1958 Astilbe and the Romanovs, perhaps that will … Continue reading Astilbe & The Romanovs
Within minutes of arriving Vita was 'flat in love with Sissinghurst'. 'The place, when I first saw it on a spring day... caught instantly at my heart and my imagination. I fell in love at first sight...It was Sleeping Beauty's Garden: but a garden crying out for rescue.' Standing in the middle of the vegetable … Continue reading Fresh Eyes
The bees think that I have laid it for their especial benefit. It really is a lovely sight; I do not want to boast, but I cannot help being pleased with it; it is so seldom that one's experiments in gardening are wholly successful. -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden June 18, 1950 A couple years … Continue reading Survival of the Fittest: Milkweed
Travelers between Calais and Paris must surely have noticed the lumps and clumps darkening like magpies' nests the many neglected-looking strips of trees along the railway line in the North of France. Perhaps the neglect is deliberate; perhaps they pay a good dividend. -Vita Sackville-West A Joy of Gardening; 1958 The one and only catalpa … Continue reading Under The Catalpa Tree…
The tame, too smug, I cry; There's no adventure in security; Yet still my little garden craft I ply, Mulch, hoe, and water when the ground is dry... -Vita Sackville-West The Garden; 1948 The other day I was looking up odds and ends when I came across a word I have never heard. … Continue reading A Peculiar Fight For Turgidity
It is sufficiently remarkable that a great and powerful noble should have accepted so frank a criticism from a peasant, little more than a child. He was more accustomed to see such people tremble in his presence. Such impertinence must have taken his breath away. Besides, it attacked him in his most private feelings. -Vita … Continue reading Spiderwort or The Unfortunately Named
They used to be regarded as a common old plant, almost a weed, when we grew the type which spread everywhere and was only a pale orange thing, not worth having... Now there are many fine hybrids, which may come as a revelation to those who have not yet seen them. They will grow in … Continue reading The Daylily: “The Lord Loves A Working Man”
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 