It's early January. The days are short, it's cold, and there's often a desire to close the door on the garden until spring. But winter isn't a season to hide from. It's a season to work with on your terms, at your pace, and with intention. The time you spend now makes everything easier come spring. It makes your garden healthier and more beautiful. And even just getting out there for a little bit each day can be enjoyable and beneficial. In this episode, Stevie joins me to talk about what we're focusing on in our client gardens this winter. We talk about how strange this season has been because it's warm, things are blooming and popping up when they shouldn't be, and we're pausing on important dormant pruning work until plants actually go fully dormant. We discuss what we're prioritizing right now, our favorite winter projects, and what makes this season worth embracing.

• What we love about winter in the garden, and why small intentional work now can lead to a less overwhelming spring
• Why winter in the Seattle region is so different this year, and how it impacts the work we're doing in client gardens
• Why we love dormant winter pruning, and why pruning techniques like espalier and pleaching feel like long-form sculpture
• The joy of seed shopping and seed swaps, and the hope that planning for the future brings when it's cold and rainy in January
• Why winter is the perfect time to add bare root trees to your garden and a low-stakes way to learn something new

• Pruning with Confidence YouTube Playlist
• Episode 5: How to Choose the Right Tree for Your Garden
• Free Winter Gardening Guide
• Free Winter Pruning Guide
• Seattle Tilth Seed Swap
• Raintree Nursery

• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube

Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.

I've been thinking a lot about where inspiration actually comes from. Not just where I find it, but where anyone finds it. And here's what I keep coming back to: garden design inspiration doesn't have to come from other gardens or even from plants. Some of my favorite inspiration comes from totally unexpected places. A dress. A meal. A painting hanging in someone's living room. Because at the end of the day, gardens are personal, intimate spaces where life happens and memories are built. So today, I'm walking you through my actual process for finding design inspiration anywhere and translating it into gardens that feel unique to the people who live there.

In this episode, I cover:

• How to filter through the flood of New Year’s inspiration without wiping the slate clean or throwing out what you already love
• Why looking beyond plants and gardens for inspiration and paying attention to what lights you up might be the key to designing spaces that feel personal
• How the things you've curated in your home are clues to what you love, and why I start every design project by walking through my clients' homes
• How to train your eye to see design elements everywhere by breaking things down into color, texture, shape, and line to distill patterns
• Silly but intentional thought exercises (like designing a garden based on a Crunchwrap Supreme) that help unlock creativity and find inspiration in very unexpected places

Resources:

• The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden by Roy Diblik

Shop our full list of favorite books at https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-relish-gardens. Every purchase supports independent bookstores.

Some of the links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. We only share things we genuinely love, use, and trust in our day-to-day garden work.

Connect with Us:

• Free Winter Gardening Guide
• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube

If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe. We've got new episodes every week. And if you know gardening friends who would love this, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.

Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.

There's something really grounding about returning to the same rhythms year after year. Showing up for the season. Showing up for yourself and the people around you. We set out to talk about seasonal rhythms in the garden, but what we ended up exploring is how those rhythms actually inform life, how repetition becomes ritual, and how those rituals anchor us through time.

In this episode, Nicole (my podcast producer and Relish Gardens marketing extraordinaire) joins me to share how she uses nature-based activities to help her kids connect to the season.

Winter is a good moment to reflect on which activities you keep in your life, which ones you prioritize, and why you value them. Because it's those small things, the ones you return to again and again, that create real connection.

• How traditions and seasonal rhythms ground us through the passage of time and connect us across years
• The mindset shift from seeing storm debris as a chore to getting excited about materials for winter pots and bonfires
• Nicole's approach to "microdosing anticipation" for her kids through nature-based advent calendar activities
• How putting the garden to bed creates space for both reflection on the past year and anticipation for what's coming

• Free Winter Gardening Guide
• Frog Pond Farm (Oregon)

• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube

If you loved this episode, subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you know a gardening friend who'd appreciate this conversation, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.

Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.

Living in the Pacific Northwest has taught me to pay attention to the light, or really, the lack of it. Growing up in California, I had no idea how intensely the seasons could shift until I moved to Seattle, where dusk feels like it hits at 3:30 and some days the sun barely seems to come up at all. It took me years to adjust to the rhythm of it. As a gardener, so much of what we do is tied to the light. The winter solstice has become one of my favorite turning points of the year. It's the shortest day, yes, but it's also the moment when everything shifts. We stop moving away from summer and start building toward spring again. There is something celebratory about realizing that from here, the light starts coming back, even if it's just a few minutes at a time.

This week, I'm talking about how I mark the winter solstice as a gardener and why I love these seasonal rhythms and the changing of seasons.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why the winter solstice is such a turning point for gardeners, marking the shift back toward spring
• Simple ways to celebrate solstice, from community walks to keeping your lights up a little longer than usual
• The connection between holiday lights, cultural traditions, and our need for brightness during the darkest time of year
• Why the change of seasons is my favorite, and how I like to slow down enough to really notice the changes

Resources:

• St. Edward State Park, Kenmore, WA

Connect with Us:

• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube

If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe and share it with a gardening friend. Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.

Have you ever had the feeling that you love your plants, but your garden doesn't quite reflect the story you were trying to tell? We collect plants we love, we're gifted things, we bring home treasures from the nursery, and over time, the garden can start to feel muddled. That's where editing comes in. It's the missing piece we don't talk about enough in garden design. Just like any creative work, a garden is only as strong as the edit you bring to it. In this episode, I'm talking about how to observe your space, identify what's working (and what's not), and refine your garden into something that feels intentional, clear, and truly yours.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why gardens can start to feel muddled over time
• Why editing is the overlooked skill in garden design
• How editing creates stronger, more intentional spaces
• Strategies for clarifying your garden's story

Connect with Us:

• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube
• Free Fall Gardening Guide

If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe. We've got new episodes every week. And if you know a gardening friend who'd appreciate this conversation, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.

Mature gardens become collections over time. Pots, plants, benches, impulse buys, inherited pieces, and at some point, that collection either feels magical or it just feels muddled. In this episode, I walk through how I use design parameters to guide every garden I design, why limitations actually make gardens better, and how they can reduce decision fatigue.

In this episode, I cover:

• How strong design parameters help you move between gardens, make faster decisions, and avoid creative fatigue
• Why mature gardens can often feel muddled instead of magical, and how design parameters fix that
• The difference between a collector's mindset and a curator's mindset when building a garden
• What immersive experiences like Meow Wolf and Disneyland can teach us about garden design, storytelling, and creating intentional spaces
• Real examples from my award-winning Northwest Flower and Garden Show gardens, and how completely different parameters created two totally distinct spaces
• Why limitations, when developed ahead of time, contribute to stronger and more well-defined gardens

Resources and Links:

• Meow Wolf
• Relish Gardens 2025 NWFGS Show Garden
• Relish Gardens 2024 NWFGS Garden
• Download our FREE Fall Gardening Guide

Connect with Us:

• Relish Gardens Website
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on YouTube

If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe—we've got new episodes every week. And if you know a gardening friend who'd benefit from thinking about their garden through a curator's lens, send this their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.

Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.

Winter gardening doesn’t have to be miserable—or overwhelming. In this episode, Stevie and I share what gear we rely on to help maintain our clients’ gardens year-round.

We will share how creating an essential gear kit doesn't have to take up your entire house, and what gear makes cold-weather gardening not just doable, but genuinely enjoyable.

We dig into the stuff we actually use, the habits that make winter gardening feel less like a chore, and how a little fresh air can go a long way in keeping your spring garden (and your mood) in better shape.

• The benefits of just one day in the garden each week for both your garden and you.
• Why gardening in a light mist might be our actual favorite time of the year to garden.
• The mental and physical benefits of getting outside, even when it's cold and grey.
• The specific clothing and tools that make outdoor work bearable (and yes, comfortable)
• The one item Stevie keeps giving, and why it's a total game-changer
• Why you don’t need to own everything, and why we love the idea of borrowing and sharing tools with your community.
• Small-space-friendly tools that earn their keep in our kit
• Why more gear isn’t better, and can actually reduce your efficiency and lead to overwhelm.

• Helly Hansen Storm Weatherproof Rain Jacket
• Helly Hansen Storm Waterproof Rain Bib Pants
• Boot Dryer
• Japanese Hand Hoe
• Ryobi Electric Leaf Blower
• Brute 10-Gallon Bucket
• Stoggles
• Hori Hori

Some of the links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. We only share products we genuinely love, use, and trust in our day-to-day garden work. We encourage you to shop local and directly from the retailer.

• • Relish Gardens Website
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on YouTube

If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a garden-loving friend who loves learning about weird edible plants in the garden.