Willows End is the garden and nursery at the home of Erin and Christopher Cox. If you’ve found this page, you probably arrived via a social link. Below are some of the other things we’d love you to learn more about!

Links & Resources

Screenshot from website

Blog

If you enjoy Christopher’s rantings on Instagram, you might like to check out some longer form writing, chock full of pretty garden photos. Check out the articles!

My favorite weeding tool

If you garden a lot, you obviously weed a lot. There are lots of opinions and rationales for different tools, but this is my favorite. Why? Because it’s incredibly strong (never bends even a little bit when torquing on it in hard ground), and the shape of the handle lets you use your weight to apply leverage, rather than your wrist. I used to buy these on Amazon, and they were cheaper, but it has been unavailable for a long time there. Currently direct from the Radius online store, it’s $32.99. This is not an affiliate link, I get no benefit from sharing this link, other than to share my favorite tool. Go get one.

Field and Forest Crafts

This is Erin’s business website. She is a basket maker, teacher, and wild crafter who either grows or forages all of her own materials, aiming to make truly sustainable products and share her knowledge and inspirations with others. She offers hands-on workshops in a small North Seattle office complex. Check out her site

A woman is walking in between rows of basketry willow in a farm field

Our Willow Farm

Erin grows her own willow for use in basketmaking, and also hopes to have enough willow to eventually offer willow basketry workshops in her classroom. This section on her website details the evolution of planting and harvesting basketry willow on a rented farm plot in Carnation, Washington. Read about the farm

A pair of secateurs rest next to a willow stem

Garden Tool Sharpening

Willows End offers professional tool and knife sharpening. Erin apprenticed with Pete’s Sharpening in Duvall and uses a Tormek T8 professional grade slow speed grinding and honing machine. Are your tools rusty and dull? Do you remember how well your hand pruners used to work? Have you ever tried using a sharp shovel to dig? Tools with sharp edges are easier on you and better for the plants you’re working with. Let’s make your tools sharp again!

A little before and after... The left picture is from April, the right picture is from November. Swipe for the full photos. So much changes over the months. Spring bulbs came and went. Don't worry, Duncan 🐕 is still here in November, but probably
This is one of my favorite vignettes right now. The orange is a lions head Japanese maple, the red is Orange Rocket barberry, and the glorious glaucous blue is parahebe perfoliata. Tucked under the barberry is a Kaleidoscope abelia, seen more clearly
Words embedded in picture: "Just a quick note on election day to say, f*ck Trump and all the racist f*cktards of MAGA. This country will survive despite you. Pretty garden pictures will resume tomorrow."
If you choose a big variety of plants, you get fall color and texture from all sorts of places. 1-2. A black currant has a nice kaleidoscope of colors right now. You could pretty much make a classic fall scene with just black currants and blueberri
Misty mornings the last few days have helped accentuate the layers in the garden. Fall color typically reaches its peak the first week of November for me, but lots of trees have started turning. 1. This view in the front garden used to look right i
The little maple in the pot in the first two pictures is a garden grown seedling. It has a nice burgundy summer color with veining that stays a muted gold. In previous autumns, the leaves just browned up and died, but this year it's putting on a colo

@seattlegardener on Instagram

Christopher has been writing and posting garden photos to Instagram as @seattlegardener since 2017. Stay up to date with the design and plants at Willows End garden