The Bloomwood Cutting Garden
“Though the word ‘beautification’ makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal, and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me… beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.”
— Lady Bird Johnson
It started in 2013 with some tomatoes and dahlias I haphazardly tossed in the ground in an oddly shaped 100 sq foot garden that came with our home. Over the years we’ve added on to the garden space again and again, eventually abandoning all pretense of there being an actual “yard,” until we created what is now an urban farmlet in a diverse and vibrant neighborhood just three miles south of downtown Seattle.
We use a lot of creative growing practices to maximize our space, utilizing trellises, the side of the house, fence lines, arches, metal farm troughs, and classic raised beds. What was once the front yard is now the “field” with four rows of annuals planted each year. We even took over the driveway a few years ago!
The Bloomwood cutting garden is the soul of Bloomwood Floral. It keeps us connected with the earth, in tune with the seasons, and present in the here and now, providing an endless source of inspiration and healing energy. The garden also provides habitat for honey bees and other beneficial insects, as well as native plant species.
Land acknowledgement.
Thank you to our friend and mentor, Kelly Sullivan of Botanique, for these words. We couldn’t have put this more perfectly.
Bloomwood acknowledges that we are on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people, specifically the Duwamish Tribe, the first people of Seattle. As a business whose focus is growing, arranging, and teaching about flowers, our ties to the land are immense, obvious and meaningful. Everything we do is based on a relationship with the land, and each flower is a gift. With this gift comes the responsibility to steward well both our Cutting Garden and this region’s land, to learn about its history and people, and to stand with the Duwamish Tribe who have been here since time immemorial. We honor the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe for the innumerable gifts we receive daily from this beautiful place we call home.