Berkshire Garden Style: Coming Out of the Woodwork

I mostly prefer life behind the scenes, but here I am coming out of the woodwork. It's been awhile since my last blog post, so it's about time to get started again and publish more regularly now that I have a lot more that I want to share! Autumn is a great time for reflection and acknowledging the inevitable change. My garden design work here at my lifelong home in the Berkshires is my passion so much so that I need to share that with you...so here we go!

Let's first talk about the way of life here in the Berkshires. It's authentic and entrepreneurial. It's a place where people come to stay for awhile, where art blends with music, literature, nature and food. It's a place where work blends with leisure and we're never quite sure where one begins and the other ends. Here in the Berkshires, there is an unspoken open invitation to linger. Come here to be a part of and to contribute to the magic and the beauty that is this place. There is a sense that this place, the highland region of Massachusetts, west of the Connecticut River is a compost heap of creativity. In this place, connections are made daily between food, farming and art - all with beauty and authenticity at the heart of any creation.

I want to share with you just a tiny sample of the creative human endeavors in the Berkshires and invite you to be a part of these creations. Just outside Great Barrington in Housatonic, you will find Richard Bourdon's Berkshire Mountain Bakery, famous for their sourdough recipe. Richard's story is one of authenticity, drive and chance-taking that brought him from Canada via Amsterdam to the Berkshires. Berkshire Mountain Bakery's mission to produce a beautiful and healthy product from the land is apparent in all of their creations. Head a little further North to Pittsfield and visit Township Four. Connecting people to plant beauty inside the home, Nathan and Jed at Township Four provide bespoke floral designs to meet any budget. Their new store now offers classes and workshops facilitating knowledge sharing which remains true to the existence of Berkshire lifestyle.

If you travel through or live in the Berkshires and sample the sensual delights of Berkshire grown food, music and art, you get a clear picture of the Berkshire lifestyle. The lesser seen, but more important element of the Berkshire lifestyle to those who choose to call the Berkshires their home, is the garden. The garden is the space and the place that connects the people, the plants and creates the experiences from which we live. The garden is the foundation for the flowers, the foods, the events and the lives lived in the Berkshires.

Your garden provides a multi-functional space of opportunity. For people, a garden allows for expression, experimentation, food provision, entertainment and mental and physical health and wellbeing. For our winged and furry friends, a garden --when thoughtfully designed, provides food and a reproductive and symbiotic habitat. For the plants above all, the garden is a space to exist and multiply in harmony with each other. Residential gardens in the Berkshires are extensions of the homeowner's living space. The garden is an additional room to spend as much time in, sitting working or socializing.

Now what is it about the garden that makes it distinctly a Berkshire garden? What is this thing I'm calling Berkshire Garden Style? Do you want to know? Brew your coffee and sit down in your garden with me; through a series of musings and collections of small things I will share with you my experience and my knowledge. I invite you to learn more about the finer details of gardening the Berkshire way through booking one of my courses. Above all, I encourage you to be a part of what I am creating and have created in the Berkshires