Putting the Native Plants Back
Time flies — we hear it constantly. Here's proof.
These before-and-after photos show a woodland native garden we installed (designed by @militcadenee) on a site with a complicated past. Back in the 1950s, a service road ran through this area during interstate construction. By the time we got here, it had become neglected mulch beds, struggling grass, washouts, and runoff on a dry, compacted ridge.
Which Mulch is the Right Mulch?
Mulching season has begun, and every season, the question is whether there is a better way.
De Hessenhof
A memory of a nursery in Holland stayed with me over the years. I couldn’t fully remember the name or location until it appeared on a social media feed in the past year. I don’t recall exactly what the post was, but it caught my attention and triggered a memory: I had found De Hessenhof again!
When a Tree Becomes Lumber
I watched the elm for many years.
It stood tall and pristine, a straight trunk over fifty feet high and nearly two feet wide, and I knew what was coming. Dutch elm disease doesn’t rush; it arrives slowly—a yellowing branch, then another—thinning the crown and taking branches one by one. Each season, I examined it more closely—not just for its decline, but for its shape, its structure, and what it had already made.
My First Propagated Plant
A childhood memory from my dad’s greenhouse, where a single jade leaf quietly taught me what propagation — and vocation — could mean.
Why Hortiwijk?
Hortiwijk grew from a lifelong wonder at watching seeds become something more. Shaped by family, horticulture, and a deep respect for the land, this space exists to share what careful observation can teach us—about plants, about place, and about our responsibility to tend what we’ve been given.