Spring 2025 Garden Chores, Blooms

How's your spring gardening going? This is my fourth year of nurturing my Zone 7a cottage garden. 

It wasn't even four hours since I had gotten my summer annuals in the ground when a hailstorm hit on May 5th. - sinko de my annuals. 😢

Spring / Easter Tablescape - Breaking Dormancy

Welcome to my blog, Panoply. Today I have a treat for you - some tablescape inspiration - sure to get you excited for spring! We are finally breaking dormancy here in my Zone 7a region after a fairly brutal winter. It's a bit later than last year's spring, which was more a testament to our revised (warmer) zone rating according to the 2023 USDA plant hardiness zone map. 

In addition to my own spring tablescape, I am hosting a bevy of table artists and their ideas for spring and Easter tablescapes, too. Their direct links will be near the bottom of this post, so be sure to check them out!

Tales of the Traveling Tote #42 and Giveaway

Hello, readers, and welcome to Panoply! Today marks the 42nd instalment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, can you believe it? It's all about quarterly tales of ladies connecting friendship and stories of our everyday lives via a MacKenzie-Childs tote we all purchased at one time or another. 

Valentine's Day: Birds of a Feather

Hello, welcome to my blog, Panoply! Today I want to share a tablescape idea for Valentine's Day: Birds of a Feather. It doesn't have to pertain to just couples; in fact, it can be a great Galentine's Day celebration. 

I'm also hosting a group of other blogging table enthusiasts who are sharing their ideas for a Valentine's Day table. After all, as the adage goes, "birds of a feather flock together"! Their links are further in this post, so be sure to see them all.

2024 Cottage Garden Recap

Traditionally, I have summarized my blogging journal each year with collage style in a year-end post. It was a tidy way to button up each year, and I would send the year's posts off to be printed in a yearbook fashion. In 2024, Blog2Print ceased operation, and so, too, have the annual yearbooks. It's just as well, I suppose, as my bookshelves were getting a bit crowded for this cottage home. I guess I'll need to backup my blog on a more regular basis.

New year, new tradition. I'm looking back on my Zone 7a garden efforts of 2024, recapping weather and planting notes. My landscape garden is important to me, nurturing my mind, body and spirit.

January

We had a mix of average winter weather and a couple of unseasonably warm days (mid 60s F) by month's end. With just two snow events of 3" and 4" mid-month, these were our most significant accumulations for the entire winter! 

Gnome for the Holidays

Hello, and welcome to my blog, Panoply. Today I'm happy to be sharing the beginnings of Christmas and winter decor with a tablescape for you. 

Before I have the Scandinavian or Fair Isle police after me, let me just say right away that I have taken artistic liberties in the style elements I have assembled on my table today, and I am aware of it! 

Tales of the Traveling Tote #41 and Giveaway

Hello, readers, and welcome to Panoply! Today marks the 41st instalment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, can you believe it? That's over ten years of quarterly tales of ladies connecting friendship and stories of our everyday lives via a MacKenzie-Childs tote we all purchased at one time or another.