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.
Their beauty is beyond dispute. No velvet can rival the richness of their falls; or, let us say, it is to velvet only that we may compare them. -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden June 26, 1949 I have thought of planting Iris for a long time, but they are rather expensive. Out my kitchen window … Continue reading Snatching Velvet in the Night
And now, at last, she was seeing daylight; the obstacles were clearing away; things were really beginning to move. -Vita Sackville-West Saint Joan of Arc, 1936 Thank God we made it through another winter and an unpredictable spring. I realize spring is not officially over until June 20th, but the swimming pools are open this … Continue reading Garden Tour: Memorial Day Weekend
They may roughly be described as roses which should be grown as shrubs; that is, allowed to ramp away into big bushes, and allowed also to travel about underground if they are on their own roots and come up in fine carelessness some yards from the parent plant. -Vita Sackville-West May 28th, 1950 In Your … Continue reading A Rose That Spoke
CURE FOR EMPTY SPACES IN YOUR GARDEN AND YOUR WINTER BLUES...
The rheumatic, the sufferers from lumbago, and the merely elderly, would all be well advised to try a little experiment in sink or trough gardening...raised to hand-level on four little piers of brick or stone, may provide in this their second life a constant pleasure and interest to those keen gardeners who for one reason … Continue reading To Fidget: A Garden in Miniature
The sage is altogether an amiable plant; indeed, its Latin name, Salvia, comes from salvere, to save, or heal, and one of its nicknames is S. slavatrix, which sounds very reassuring....The garden sages are useful for the herbaceous border. I do not mean that half-hardy bedding-out plant beloved of the makers of public gardens, S. … Continue reading Salvia: A Variety That Should Be Forbidden
It took me years of gardening to appreciate the pale beauty of its leaves and flowers, but now that I have learnt to look at them in the right way I can begin to see what other gardeners meant when they extolled the merits of the Funkia. One has a lot, an endless lot, to … Continue reading I Hate Hostas, Don’t I?
"The Morning Glory is a joy every year. Those enormous sky-blue trumpets that open every morning before breakfast and shut themselves up again between luncheon and tea...You must make sure to get the right kind: it is called Ipomea rubra-coerulea, Heavenly Blue." -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden: February 12, 1950 Vita loved her Morning … Continue reading From Muddy Waters to Finding the Perfect Shade of Blue
The cool weather we endured throughout February and March this year suited its arrangements perfectly, for a warm spell during the early months tends to hurry it up, and then the flowers are liable to damage by their two enemies, frost and wind....Avoid planting in a frost pocket, or in a position where [flowers: in this case … Continue reading Ghosts…
The only nasty color produced by the zinnia is a magenta, and this, alas, is produced only too often. When magenta threatens, I pull it up and throw in on the compost heap, and allow the better colours to have their way. -Vita Sackville-West February 12th, 1950 Yes, magenta does show up all too … Continue reading “Magenta is a Nasty Color”
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 