Pine House Edible Gardens

first daffodils of the season!! a happy friday indeed // flowers and by @jessicacomerford #firstdaffodils #springisontheway #fromthegarden #growyourown

perfectly formed and abundant winter lettuces coming out of our atherton vegetable garden project this week!! we love this ‘marvel of four seasons’ butterhead variety for it’s beautiful color and taste #wintergreens #winterharvest #saladgarden #growlettuce #harvestlettuce #marveloffourseasons

our gardening team has been super busy with so much seasonal winter pruning over the last few weeks, including pruning back this beautifully shaped mature blenheim apricot tree at our orchard project in hillsborough!! we’re just about done with the winter pruning for all our fruit trees now and good thing too as it’s suddenly so warm and sunny out, it seems like spring is just about here!! #winterpruning #blenheimapricot #orchardgarden #springisontheway #growyourown

these corsican hellebore blooms are all from the same patch but each flower is just a little bit different!! a reminder that part of what makes gardens so special is that they are places where we can be more in touch with the wonder of nature in all its detail and diversity // by @jessicacomerford #natureswonders #corsicanhellebore #winterblooms #flowersforcutting #inthegarden

the cutest, happiest little veggie beds at our enclosed vegetable garden project in los gatos // by @moonrisefarmer #veggiegarden #growfood #growflowers #growyourown

wrapping things up for the week with this extra pretty arrangement from our flower workshop, created by our own talented cutting flower garden designer and gardening program manager Jessica Comerford] // by Jessica Comerford] #gardentotable #cuttingflowergarden #slowflowers

the veggie and cutting flower beds are all planted up and our front yard edible garden project in hillsborough heights is a wrap!! for this dedicated kitchen garden and overall front yard space we kept to a more subdued palette with blushy pink and apricot colored blooms and foliage in shades of green, but there is still so much production packed in and ready to grow! the two corten steel raised beds (one seventeen feet long and the other fifteen feet long) that anchor the ea...st side of the garden get amazing south-facing sun all day and will soon be overflowing with tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, zinnias and dahlias; meanwhile surrounding in-ground plantings of rosemary, culinary bay, camelia sinensis, lavender, saffron, pomegranate, apricot, pineapple guava, mandarin, navel orange, meyer lemon and kumquat speak to our client’s italian heritage and ensure there will be fresh fruit to harvest through the seasons. with roses galore and beloved ornamentals including variegated agaves, magnolia, palms and plumeria (!!) in the mix, it’s a really special planting that we can’t wait to see take off and grow in this summer! we’ll be sharing more photos of the overall front yard and the veggie beds later this season in the meantime, biggest thanks to our pine house team, especially @hollyautumnkuljian @elfeyo_ensenada and @jessicacomerford for designing, building and planting up this dreamy new garden and to our wonderful clients Marcy and Dave too for allowing us the creative space to make it happen! // by @jessicacomerford #frontyardedibles #kitchengarden #productivelandscapes #cortensteel #designbuild See more

from-the-garden harvest in the beautiful month of may // by @jessicacomerford #harvest #growfood #growyourown

we finally had a chance to stop by our terraced backyard landscape project, installed last summer in hillsborough, and are sooooo happy with how it’s all growing in!! our clients just painted their house the dark charcoal color we designed the garden to work with too, so everything really ties together now!! it is really hard to get good shots of this garden but here’s a few fun snaps to share a bit of the sunny spring day glory @hollyautumnkuljian and i were both practically giddy running around this place with our phone cameras trying to capture the magic of it all!! #backyarddreaming #blackhouse #ediblelandscape #springinthegarden #thepowerofpaint

our new bees have been happy and productive so far in their new homes at pine house client gardens all around the bay. after giving them a little time to settle in, we added new boxes to the hives and transferred a few frames from the old boxes to encourage the bees to move into the new space. its been a few weeks now and the bees have been busily buzzing around the gardens meanwhile we are looking forward to a delicious honey harvest later this summer!! thanks to pine house beekeepers @mohmarmalade @jessicacomerford and @wildflower_gardener for making it all happen // by @jessicacomerford #beekeeping #beesinthegarden #growyourown

pine house assistant gardener Becca has become quite the sweet pea whisperer since she joined our gardening team last fall! building on formal horticultural studies at the university level and then an internship at filoli gardens, she’s brought fantastic ornamental plant care skills to our team meanwhile we’ve been intent on transforming her into veggie and flower farmer and think it’s turning out pretty well so far!! really though, we’re so lucky to have Becca as a part of our multi-skilled gardening team and are so thankful for her wonderful help, especially this busy spring season!! // by @jessicacomerford #gardenerflorist #teampinehouse #springgardening #sweetpeas

very happy to announce i’ll be a featured speaker in the annual Winter Lecture Series at the @nybg later this month! it’s a rare public appearance for me these days and i’m extra happy to be getting to do it in conversation with my friend, the wonderful Jennifer Jewell of @cultivating place!! in our conversation, i’ll be talking about the visual, physical and cultural inspiration my team and i seek to instill in each of the beautiful, productive, and culturally resonant lands...capes that we create here at pine house. i’ll also be talking about the mission of pine house and how we’re working to design spaces that tell a broader story of who we are, and aiming to do so within a more equitable service framework that centers our @blksanctuarygardens project. the talk is on february 25th, tix for the virtual event are available online see link in comments! #winterlectureseries #gardensofmeaning #newyorkcityherewecome See more

lush winter greens are a modern palette on this damp gray day at our mill valley backyard kitchen garden project // @hollyautumnkuljian #wintergreens #grayday #kitchengarden #modernedibles

yes, blueberries in february, and we were actually harvesting these traditional spring fruits in january too. the climate is definitely changing all around us and, while the urge to look away is strong, we are witness to it here in the gardens and consider it a privilege, however painful, to be present to all that is shifting in our natural and human worlds these days // by @jessicacomerford #blueberriesinfebruary #winterharvest #climatechange #dontlookaway

winter pruning is definitely the most important work we do in the gardens each year cutting back tired foliage and determining the directions in which our gardens will grow for the season to come. our awesome garden maintenance team started winter pruning most of our roses, including this large collection at our long time hillsborough project, back in mid-late january but are definitely still pruning away, gradually getting through all the roses, fruit trees and perennial p...lantings in our gardens all around the bay! if you haven’t cut your roses back yet, here’s a fun video reminder to do so once you’re done, a top dressing of alfalfa and good organic compost around the base of each plant will set your roses up for beautiful blooms this spring! // by @jessicacomerford #winterpruning #rosepruning #organicgardening #februaryinthegarden See more

magnolia season begins at our berkeley garden project #magnoliaseason #springisontheway #bloomsforallseasons

happy monday and happy days!! what a relief to be on this side of the election and to be celebrating a victory for the people!! for so many reasons many of them having to do with Stacy Abrams, Kamala Harris and the many more Black and brown woman organizers around this country who made this win happen for all of us -- today feels like a great day to say thank you and to find real and meaningful ways to support the Black women around us! happily, we are able to share an ...opportunity to do just that as our very own @blksanctuarygardens project is partnering with @farmgirlflowers for their ‘with heart' november campaign! we are especially excited about this partnership because farmgirl is another woman-owned local business that shares so many of our values around caring for people and the planet they also make the most beautiful #slowflowers and ship them nationwide! with every bouquet purchased in the november ‘with heart’ program, $10 goes directly to @blksanctuarygardens and the work that we do to define, uphold, and celebrate spaces of respite and beauty for Black women and their communities. so, please order some flowers! send them to your friends! tell everyone you know about it link to order is in comments!! oh, and also, please do join me on instagram live tomorrow (11/10) @3pm PST i’ll be talking with the folks at farmgirl more about BSG and also about how to create a meaningful garden of your own!! #blacksanctuarygardens #supportblackwomen #celebrationandthanks #novemberwithheart

we’ve spent this crazy election week channeling our energies into work on a new front yard garden installation project in deep east oakland and also wrapping up the design for our third Black Sanctuary Garden in the @blksanctuarygardens series, which is coincidentally just a few blocks away from where we’re working this week and where the first BSG garden was installed back in 2018! amidst the anxiety of the last few days, it has felt great to be spending our time creating be...autiful gardens for Black women to live with, with our equity pricing model and BSG project as the frameworks supporting both gardens to come into existence. i’m thankful for our wonderful clients, their garden dreams, and the opportunity they have provided us to work with them to co-create the beautiful and more equitable world we want to live in! we’ll be posting pics of our new front yard project sometime next week for today, check out our just-completed design for the third BSG garden over on @blksanctuarygardens and know that more is on the way soon! // by @xtal30 #designbuild #gardenmaking #lastofthezinnias #blackwomensgardens #blacksanctuarygardens See more

so thankful to be out in the gardens today and away from the news i knew we were going have to wait for the results of this election, but knowing it and living it are two very different things, especially when so much is on the line. in the absence of vote count updates (come on, nevada!), it’s been such a pleasant distraction to be outdoors and to get to see that the palo alto courtyard garden and potted citrus collection (the l’orangerie!!) we installed near the beginning of this year has grown in so nicely and is looking so full and pretty these days, overflowing with flowers and winter citrus fruit harvests on the way // by @jessicacomerford #courtyardgarden #citruscollection #ediblegarden #novemberinthegarden

holding a clear vision of liberation and beauty for all through this exceedingly uncomfortable time // by @jessicacomerford #butterfliesontheway #liberationnow #metamorphosis #uncomfortablebecoming #stillwerise #monarchsforbiden

we delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty maya angelou via @soulfirefarm // we watched in wonder yesterday as this monarch caterpillar went through the laborious and likely uncomfortable process of tucking themself into the cocoon they’d made for themselves at our alameda garden. it was an amazing sight that i’m taking as a message from the source that metamorphosis is what’s happening collectively right now. so helpful to have support from nature in holding a clear vision for positive albeit uncomfortable change as we make our way through today and days to come may we all wake up butterflies on the other side // by @jessicacomerford #whennaturespeaks #metamorphosis #thebeautyofthebutterfly #monarchbutterflies #electionday2020

thankful for blue skies, crisp mornings, and time to connect with plants and nature this morning as we harvest roselle at our orinda garden project and collectively await our country’s reckoning. if you have not already, please do vote, and early too! and, if they are within reach, a reminder to let nature and plants be a balm for you and us all today by @unitedstreetsofflowers #november #inthegarden #roselleharvest #sorrelharvest #hibiscussabdariffa #favoriteplants #govote #letnaturebeabalm

happy friday, happy blue moon, and happy halloween weekend!! if you haven’t already, now’s the time: GO VOTE!! i dropped mine off at my local ballot box earlier this week and it was easy!! you can do it too!! let’s do this biden/harris 2020!! // by @unitedstreetsofflowers #happyhalloween #bluemoon #govote #bidenharris2020

ok, last harvest shot for this week, i promise it’s just been so amazing to see all the abundance coming out of the gardens this month, i couldn’t not share it with you all!! pictured here are the oceans of zinnias and tomatoes we harvested from the beds at our ross garden project earlier this week. that garden (and actually, as of today, all our gardens, hooray!!) has been turned over and planted up for fall i’m so proud of our team for _getting_things_done_ this month, and amidst the madness too! now we can sit back and watch our new veggies grow and hope and participate and VOTE for our country too!! fingers crossed for our election next week and do make sure to get your ballot in if you haven’t already!! // by @jessicacomerford #harvest #fromthegarden #harvestseason #zinniasfordays #votingseason #govote

meet pine house lead gardener marianne @mohmarmalade!! although she’s somehow managed to mostly evade the camera until now, we are actually celebrating marianne’s one year anniversary working with pine house this month! marianne has been putting her CASFS-trained veggie farming, flower arranging and beekeeping skills to great use during her time with us, growing and harvesting the most bountiful gardens for our clients all around the bay area! and when she’s not here at pine house, marianne is one half of our favorite local community-driven urban farm @berkeleybasketcsa!! it’s been a joy working with marianne this year and we are so thankful to have her as part of our team // by @jessicacomerford #farmergardenerflorist #teampinehouse #thatgardeninglife

more harvest beauty this time in shades of green as we move through this final week of transitioning our vegetable beds for cool season crops // by @jessicacomerford #corianderflowers #watermelon #greenlimeenvyzinnias #harvest

so much fall color at our tropical courtyard planting in hillsborough // by @jessicacomerford #fallflowers #tropicalcourtyard #octoberinthegarden

we’ve been clearing out summer veggie beds all month with the most bountiful harvests resulting i am loving these late october harvest pics for capturing some of the abundance from our client garden projects all around the bay // by @jessicacomerford @unitedstreetsofflowers and @mohmarmalade fallharvest #fallgardening #octoberinthegarden #lateseasonabundance #growfood #fromthegarden