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.
There is a form of hypocrisy common to nearly all gardeners. It does not affect only the gentle amateurs, but has been known to affect even the most hardened professional, who is not, generally speaking, a sentimental or squeamish man. It is the human weakness which, accompanying our determination to rid ourselves of our slugs … Continue reading Bug Killer
The more one gardens, the more one learns; and the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows. I suppose the whole of life is like that: the endless complications, the endless difficulties, the endless fight against one thing or another, whether it be green-fly on the roses or the complexity of … Continue reading What Books Can Do…
We have been warned that there may be a shortage of certain flower seeds after the unnaturally wet and sunless summer of 1954, and that it is therefore even more advisable than usual to order in good time. -Vita Sackville-West More For Your Garden January 2, 1955 I haven't written in a few weeks. During my time … Continue reading Coming Home…
No good comes of repining, so let me note one special thing I saw at Nymans on that rather bleak March day, a thing that can be planted by any of us during the coming autumn with an assurance of immediate effect next spring. You know how truly right daffodils look in grass? It may … Continue reading A Gardener’s Haste Makes Waste
The watchers out on the grass could see the interior of the rooms illuminated by the savage glow. The paneling of the hall had caught, and even as they looked they saw the canvas of a portrait give an extra little spurt of a yellower flame and flutter without its frame to the floor. This … Continue reading Garden For The Eyes-Write For The Ears
The marvel of Peru, Mirabilis jalapa, is familiarly called four o'clock, because it opens only at tea time and shuts itself up again before breakfast. It is an old-fashioned herbaceous plant, seldom seen now, but quite decorative with its mixed coloring of yellow, white, red, or lilac, sometimes striped or flaked like some carnations. -Vita Sackville-West … Continue reading Just In Time For Tea
Spring and summer are well provided with flowering shrubs, but it is a puzzle to know what to grow of a shrubby nature for colour in the late months of July, August, and September. There are the hibiscus (Althea Frutex) which are attractive with their hollyhock-like flowers... -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden June 25th, 1950 Everyday … Continue reading Hollyhocks That Grow On Trees?
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
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
...Poison has done its work only too well. In what agony, during the dark hours, have these miserable members of God's Creation perished? -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden; 1958 I panicked when I saw the caterpillar damage on my rose bushes. Easily distinguished by the large chucks of green taken from the leaves. They came … Continue reading The Art of Conversation…
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 