A coastal cottage garden, edited with a city girl’s eye

Gardening, design, and seasonal living learned in real time, mistakes and all

A white garden gate surrounded by blooming blue and white hydrangea bushes.

I grew up in coastal New England and spent years in the fashion closets of New York working in visual storytelling, learning how proportion, restraint, and seasonal rhythm shape everything we love.

Parsley & Petal is where that sensibility meets the garden.

Not sure where to start right now?

Start with The Seasonal Edit

a garden checklist

The Seasonal Edit is a recurring garden checklist of what’s emerging, what can wait, and what deserves attention now.
Practical tasks. Clear structure.
Timed to the season as it unfolds.

Plant Spotlight

Featured
Pinks (Dianthus)
Pinks (Dianthus)

Dianthus sit low at the front of my beds, softening the edges before the rest of the garden begins to fill in.

Catmint (Nepeta)
Catmint (Nepeta)

A long-blooming, deer-resistant perennial in Northeast gardens.

Hellebores (Helleborus orientalis)
Hellebores (Helleborus orientalis)

One of the earliest and most reliable flowers in a Northeast garden.

Popular in the Garden

Featured
Early Spring, Inside and Out
Early Spring, Inside and Out

A quiet shift into early spring, with hellebore containers outdoors and kokedama arrangements inside, two ways of welcoming the season.

Pinks (Dianthus)
Pinks (Dianthus)

Dianthus sit low at the front of my beds, softening the edges before the rest of the garden begins to fill in.

A Spring Visit to The Farmer’s Daughter Nursery in Rhode Island
A Spring Visit to The Farmer’s Daughter Nursery in Rhode Island

The whole place had a fairytale feeling—artful, a little whimsical, and just loose enough not to feel overdone.

When to Apply Pre-Emergent in Northeast Lawns (Timing Guide)
When to Apply Pre-Emergent in Northeast Lawns (Timing Guide)

Pre-emergent works by preventing weed seeds, like crabgrass, from germinating. Timing is what matters.

How I Prune Hydrangeas in My Rhode Island Garden (Mophead & Panicle Guide)
How I Prune Hydrangeas in My Rhode Island Garden (Mophead & Panicle Guide)

In the next week or so, I’ll start pruning my hydrangeas, something that used to confuse me until I finally understood how to prune them properly.

Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants for Northeast Gardens (What Actually Survives)
Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants for Northeast Gardens (What Actually Survives)

These are the plants that have actually survived deer, and how I manage stubborn wildlife in my garden.

From the Garden

Featured
When to Apply Pre-Emergent in Northeast Lawns (Timing Guide)
When to Apply Pre-Emergent in Northeast Lawns (Timing Guide)

Pre-emergent works by preventing weed seeds, like crabgrass, from germinating. Timing is what matters.

How I Prune Hydrangeas in My Rhode Island Garden (Mophead & Panicle Guide)
How I Prune Hydrangeas in My Rhode Island Garden (Mophead & Panicle Guide)

In the next week or so, I’ll start pruning my hydrangeas, something that used to confuse me until I finally understood how to prune them properly.

Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants for Northeast Gardens (What Actually Survives)
Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants for Northeast Gardens (What Actually Survives)

These are the plants that have actually survived deer, and how I manage stubborn wildlife in my garden.

From the Journal

Featured
Early Spring, Inside and Out
Early Spring, Inside and Out

A quiet shift into early spring, with hellebore containers outdoors and kokedama arrangements inside, two ways of welcoming the season.

A Spring Visit to The Farmer’s Daughter Nursery in Rhode Island
A Spring Visit to The Farmer’s Daughter Nursery in Rhode Island

The whole place had a fairytale feeling—artful, a little whimsical, and just loose enough not to feel overdone.

Early Spring Hellebores at Clark Farms
Early Spring Hellebores at Clark Farms

The farm was quiet, but inside was a magical surprise: tables filled with elegant flowers in bloom, in a wash of colors from pale green to whisper pink tipped in rose, to deep, saturated merlot.

A Note from the Garden

Parsley & Petal follows the evolution of a coastal New England garden — sharing what works, what doesn’t, and what quietly takes root.