About Erin

Erin has a different love of the garden. She doesn’t pretend to know all of the plants, and aside from the occasional weeding spree, prefers to leave most of the chores to Christopher.

What she’s always enjoyed is using the plants. This started as a focus on the edibles in the garden (Christopher looks forward to homegrown apple butter and rhubarb-infused tequila every year), and also bringing the garden indoors in the form of seasonal arrangements and crafted wall decor.

In 2022, Erin discovered basketry, bringing her appreciation of the utility and beauty of plants to a new level. She has learned that daylily leaves, wisteria runners, cup and saucer vines, and so many other plants have a place in creating functional art.

She has her own full-time business teaching students to make baskets, hats, jewelry and more out of locally foraged and farmed plants. You can check out her current lineup of classes and learn more about her own love affair with plants on her website, fieldandforestcrafts.com.

When you tour the garden today, you’ll see Erin’s work with willow represented in several ways. She has started to dabble in living willow structures (creating fences and obelisks that are literally rooted in the ground and leaf out every year). She is also interested in the age-old English tradition of willow wattle fences; there is a wee example in the garden currently. As our willow farm patch becomes more productive, she hopes to be able to make bigger and better examples of these willow projects.