What is Brunette Gardens?

A garden of healing 🌱 from the trauma of our lives and times ❤️‍🩹.

My essays often come from a place of contention in me, and I write them in order to integrate: To take the threads that don’t seem to belong together, or to belong anywhere at all, and weave them through and into each other until they form a picture.

I could tell you how I got here, to a place where gardening is a balm from the trauma of my early life and then the times we live in adding layers on top of that.

And I will, in my newsletters to you, which will come to you as an email or as part of the Substack app. Yeah, there’s an app for that.

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But right now, I want to talk about you—because you’re here for a reason.

• 🫠 Maybe you were drawn in by my frank talk of waning empire, whether that’s shown up in my cultural commentary or the ongoing slowpocalypse series.

• 🥗 Or it could’ve been my whole-foods take on eating that got you here. I’ve shared many a recipe, and paid members get a whole book of them. Maybe you’re a huge fan of vegetables, but you don’t think going without meat and grain is healthy. You try to eat close to the source: from farmers you trust, or your neighbor’s chickens, or what you’ve grown with your own hands in your own backyard.

• 🥀 Perhaps you’re just looking for some beauty in your life, your own healing balm to be found in the words of a Brunette—if no longer an actual brunette—who gardens.

Ah… that last one, beauty. Have we paid enough attention to it in our quest for healthier, more secure food? Together here, let’s give beauty its due.

Free, paid, and founding memberships

Free:

✅ Most posts + my companion-planting guide

Paying members get:

✅ All posts + my companion-planting guide

✅ Archive content (230+ posts) since the 2022 launch

✅ Whole foods recipes as printable PDFs individually and as a 35-page booklet

Founding members receive this additional perk:

✅ A PRINT copy of any of my books (US) or an ebook boxed set (international)

With your paid membership to Brunette Gardens, you’re showing you value and understand the time and effort spent on research, image creation, and writing for this publication. You’re also acknowledging the many years my guests and I have put into cultivating our soil, as well as our talents.

Memberships cost just $5.99 per month, and you can cancel anytime.

My background

Through a lifetime of frequent moves—a military brat childhood and nomadic adulthood—gardening has been one of my few constants. Whether working a community tomato patch in the inner city or accepting a platinum award for wildlife gardening, my love affair with growing things has been lifelong… and complicated. A wordsmith by trade, I’ve published journalism, books, and games, often winning awards.

Guests

I sometimes feature other voices besides my own: guest writers, podcast interviewees, fellow Substackers, and book authors. My husband also writes on occasion.

Connect with me

I often hang out at Permies.com and am part of the commentariat at Ecosophia.

You can always reach me at brunettegardens[at]gmail[dot]com (replace what’s in the brackets with the symbols).

🌱 🌱 🌱 🌱 🌱

I wish you health and happiness, whether you got your hands dirty today or not! 😉