Eastborn Gardens

Hiya! I’m Kathryn!

It is the easiest and the hardest thing in the world to tell a stranger about oneself – or at least I find it so.  Inevitably, I will leave things out, and you will find me disingenuous.  I suppose that, like many people, I too am many things.  I am an avid reader, an artist, an excellent chef in the kitchen, a runner, and a wife.  Yet for all my creative pursuits, I spend the days while my plants grow as a highly logical analyst. I manage hundreds of thousands of rows of data a day.  All that and yet, for the purpose of this blog, know that I am a gardener.

I come to gardening by a rather circuitous route.  My parents tried to give me a homesteading lifestyle as I child. But, while I appreciated the ideals, I didn’t appreciate how much WORK it was! When I left for the university life of the city, I eschewed the country life and vowed to never return.

The thing was, I loved the produce and the idea of growing things. When starting to ardently garden with my husband some twelve years ago, I dedicated myself to learning all that I could. I applied the same techniques I’d learned at my analytical day job to becoming a gardener. Try, read, experiment, learn, and above all: don’t quit.  I used curiosity, knowledge, and a degree of my innate stubbornness. And I came to realize that gardening doesn’t have to be hard work, if you work smart.  In this way, I have created something truly precious to me that I want to share.

Over time, I’ve discovered I am the one consistently teaching my parents and others about the garden. Not the other way around.  There are things I’ve learned, tried and failed at, then tried anew and succeeded. Things even others with decades of farming and gardening experience don’t know.  I have knowledge that I can impart to others. I have a passion and a joy for my highly successful gardening techniques that I can share alongside the history of my plants. Their stories, as well as my own. 

Like seeds, big things can grow from small beginnings.  Like seeds, many stories can spring from a single idea.  And so, as all stories (and seeds) must have a place to start, I have started this blog.  Stories are a huge part of who I am, both reading and writing.  I hope the stories that I tell here can be entertaining, fun, and insightful while also imparting some garden wisdom you might not have known before. 

Right up front, I will tell you that I’m not an expert – and, really, any advice from someone who claims to be an expert should be treated worth a grain of salt.  I didn’t go to college for agriculture.  I’m not a horticulturist or even a master gardener (yet!), but I feel confident that I can rightly look you in the eye and say, “Yes, I am a Gardener.”  It is my hope you’ll find inspiration and knowledge learned from my stories here at Eastborn Gardens.