Links & Resources

Field and Forest Crafts

This is the business website for my wife Erin. 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. Our better half, Erin, apprenticed with Pete’s Sharpening 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. Get sharp!

Many of my hebes are in flower, which is one of my (admittedly many) favorite moments in the season. Hebes (sometimes called Veronica) are evergreen shrubs native to New Zealand (mostly). They have tidy small leaves with distinct architectural arrang
I did a photoshoot with several of Erin's baskets out in the garden. I'll spread them out over a couple of posts — she now has completed too many interesting styles of willow basket to feature in one post. ☺️ These pics were intended as part of
True story: Earlier today I posted a casual picture of a bouquet my wife made this morning (repeated here as the second picture in case you missed it). Well, I hurt my back working in the garden today (not super bad, but probably out of commission
Rose season calls for bouquets! Roses are Koko Loko and Rosie the Riveter, as well as flowers from a florist rose I planted several years ago that comes back and blooms every year. In the center here are a couple of unopened hydrangea blooms. The whi
Happy solstice! Here are a few scenes in my garden caught on this last evening of spring. 1. Koko Loko rose is an impossible color to characterize. It emerges in tones of pale creamy lavender, fading to cafe au lait. In evening light it is almost p
My climbing rose is a cultivar called Bathsheba from David Austin Roses. This is its third growing season in my garden. The last picture before the video shows the same time last year, when the growth only reached about halfway up the trellis; now, i

@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