A Writer’s Garden–A Cottage Garden from Gail Kittleson

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A Writer's Garden, cottage gardens, flowers, Gail Kittleson, WWII romance

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is Gail Kittleson, talking about her cottage garden. Welcome, Gail!

It’s been interesting watching our cottage garden grow this year, especially since the hero of my novel-in-progress was growing one, too. 

A Nineteenth Century British woman, Clare Lucas Balfour, wrote:

“What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not the stars our flowers of heaven?” Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Political (1917)

What would the heavens be without stars? And we might echo this thought concerning the earth and flowers. The beauty stars and flowers bring to our world, though, cannot be measured in exactness.

            How often did glancing out the window at our cottage garden warm my heart this summer? How many times have your spring or summer or fall flowers lightened yours?

          I could add a few pages of quotes here—but this one from Joseph Addison will do. “There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than beauty.”

When we’re really down, we need encouragement in the worst way. Sometimes we can barely hold our head up, and things like flowers and stars can make an enormous difference. The fictional hero who spent the summer with me knew this because he’d grown up with his grandfather’s garden.

And his grandfather patterned his gardens after…drum roll…writers! Check out the cottage gardens of Thomas Hardy and Beatrix Potter!

About the Writer/Gardener:

Gardening “grew” on Gail Kittleson, who writes World War II fiction. She’s always dabbled, but having lived long enough to see the consequences of planting a sprout or seedling, now spends more time thinking through her gardening decisions. Since victory gardens became so vital during the Forties, they play a role in several of Gail’s novels.

Follow Gail on social media at:

Gail Kittleson: Facebook: Twitter @GailGkittleson: @gailkittlesonauthor (Instagram)

You can check out Gail’s books on Amazon

Land That I Love

by Gail Kitteson

Set in the German Hill Country of Texas during World War II, Land That I Love is a sweeping literary novel of love and loss; friendship and animosity; fathers and sons; and coping during times of war and peace. Yet it is more than a love story. It is about the racism and bigotry that still exist in our world. As author Gail Kittleson’s characters struggle with the problems of everyday life, they teach us that we survive hard times by being good neighbors despite our differences and that hatred can be conquered by love, understanding and forgiveness.

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Through A Writer’s Garden with Wendy Macdonald

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A Writer's Garden, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, cottage gardens, garden eye chocolate, Garden photos, garden poetry, In the Garden, Wendy Macdonald

Gardens Inspire My Writing

Gardens are eye chocolate and inspirational caffeine for my writing heart. I tend my own garden mostly for the sake of the inspirational beauty it provides around my home. Beauty inspires, calms, and fills me with joy. If I were given a choice between going on a shopping trip or a garden tour, I’d pick the tour every time. And if I had to choose between a vegetable garden and a flower garden, I’d pick a flower garden because I’d rather starve my body than my soul.

Cottage gardens are my favorite style because you can grow both food and flowers together, and I also love quaint little old character houses surrounded by mature perennials, shrubs, trees, and all things floral.

 

 

 

My imagination and cozy factor get fired up when I peek over the fence of an old-timer property rich with history and charm. I find myself wondering who first loved this home and what the owner’s life was like.

Time in a garden fills my inkwell to the brim. How do gardens inspire you? What’s your favorite kind of garden?

 

In the Garden

 

In the garden I like to go

For a break from daily chores

To dream of places far away

Of flowers grown on foreign shores

~

In the garden I like to escape

Into a land of make believe

And pretend I’m a princess in distress

Waiting for my Knight of relief

~

In the garden I like to be

Away from the hustle and bustle of life

As just a writer on her knees

Planting and growing stories to write.

Wendy/ 2016

 

About the Author:

Wendy L. Macdonald is a Canadian, inspirational writer/blogger who also loves to photograph nature. When she’s not writing, drawing, or gardening, she enjoys hiking in the beautiful parks of the Comox Valley with her husband of 32 years. She homeschooled her children and believes all those years of reading aloud helped develop her love of storytelling and writing. Wendy invites you to visit her blog where you will find nature photography, memoir style posts, and links to her” Daily Bread” style Facebook page etc. at www.wendylmacdonald.com  

 

 

 

 

 

A Writer’s Garden–Through the Garden Gates with Wendy L. MacDonald

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A Writer's Garden Through the Garden Gates with Wendy L. MacDonald, Author Catherine Castle's blog, cottage gardens, Gardening blog, inspirational/mystery romance author Wendy L. MacDonald, pictures of cottage gardens

Welcome to My Cottage

I’d like to invite you to step through the gate and join me on a tour of my cottage garden. It’s both a refuge for me when I need to be alone and a welcoming place to share with special friends and family. Today I’d love to share it with you.

English cottage gardens are my absolute favorite; therefore you’ll find most of my perennial borders are characteristically unpredictable (I adore surprises). The blending of herbs, flowers, and even vegetables adds a charm and flavor I can drink in for hours. Our property is also divided into rooms. Rooms for privacy. Rooms for growing vegetables. And rooms with sunny spots for reading a favorite book (or hosting tea for two).

In the especially cottage looking areas of my garden I’ve allowed flowers to reseed and spill over onto paths and lawns. Some classic English garden flowers, such as Foxgloves, like to choose their own place to bloom—usually it’s outside the edges of a flowerbed. And this happens to reflect the changes that have happened within me over the years. I’m a recovering perfectionist who used to grow everything in a predictable and linear fashion. But my journey on earth has been as unpredictable as our coastal weather, and I have become more flexible due to the ebb and flow of life’s tide.

A more relaxed approach to landscaping has washed up on the shore of my cottage garden. I’ve embraced the casualness of allowing fern fronds to age and fall to the earth as a cozy skirt around each plant. This helps conserve moisture and keeps down weeds (and labor). Even autumn leaves are left to blanket the perennial borders while the lawnmower and my rake gather the ones from the lawn to feed my compost piles. There’s no room in a cottage garden for green-thumbs with control issues.

When my husband and I first viewed our present home, while shopping for a new place to live six years ago, the landscaping was the first thing we looked at. The house would have to have been a derelict to scare us off once we’d been smitten by the trees, shrubs, perennials, and overall ambiance of the property surrounding the forties-something house.

It’s one of the original homes on our road. At one time it was considered a farm house and was encircled by fields of cows and trees. It’s now down to ¾ of an acre and is walled in by a subdivision and retirement complexes. The homes around us have teeny tiny lots with gigantic homes planted in the center of them. Our old magnolia tree, alone, would take up most of one of their backyards. And that’s one of the joys of older gardens—they have room for plants to roam, grow, and flourish.

My creative heart definitely flourishes here, and I hope I’ve inspired you to appreciate anew your own garden space. To tend a garden is a gift, to tend a cottage garden is a joy.

Blessings ~ Wendy

 

About the Author:

Gardener/writer Wendy L. Macdonald has been gardening since childhood. Her favorite thing about gardening is fragrant old-fashioned flowers and fresh vegetables. When she’s not gardening she’s writing poetry and inspirational mystery/romances. You can learn more about her at http://greenlightlady.wordpress.com Her twitter and Facebook links are listed on her blog.