Hi, I’m Stacy and it’s so nice to see you!

Welcome to my home and garden.

I’m a self-taught master gardener who lives and gardens in northern New Jersey, zone 6a.

I’ve been gardening for over 20 years and enjoy helping beginner gardeners find their inner green thumb, as well as discover a love for all things plants and flowers.

I love to bring the outdoors inside my home too.

So come grow stuff and create beautiful spaces with me.

We recently moved from our family home to a new-to-us vintage farmhouse so I’ll be sharing both homes for you to see!

Tour My 1850 Farmhouse

We just moved to a gorgeous 1850 farmhouse located on over ten acres in north-central New Jersey, gardening zone 6a.

We live about a 45 minutes from NYC, an hour from the Jersey Shore and an hour from the Poconos, PA.

It’s not far from our old home (you can read all about the old house at the end of this post.)

This home and property were a really unique and beautiful find for us.

And while we weren’t actively looking to move (maybe more casually looking?) we found this and fell in love with it!

Wait until you see why!

close up of the front porch in fall with corn stalks, pumpkins, rudbeckia and more fall garden flowers

front yard garden view of potager garden and front yard landscaping in front of 1850 farmhouse with hardscaping and stone steps, green garden fence with arbor covered with lonicera and a japanese barberry

The Gardens

As you can see, the gardens are pretty expansive.

There are a lot of great bones here with specimen plants, ponds, tree sculptures, and garden statues.

It’s really gorgeous!

You can see more of them and learn about what I’m planning to do with it all in these posts.

Here are just a few of the gardens you’ll see in my posts.

small cottage garden in fall with sedum autumn joy, rudbeckia and celosia overlooking the valley in fall with a sugar pumpkin

black lab laying on deck in the zen garden at sunset in fall

Small pond garden with japanese maple and garden sculptures with blooming azalea and daffodils -37 Backyard Living Space Ideas — Zen garden koi pond with Japanese Maple and Garden Sculpture

close up of green arbor with dogwood tree blooms, pool and garages

Our Vintage Farmhouse

While we have incredible gardens here on our 10-acre property, our 1850 farmhouse is super cool too.

It has lots of character and charm.

And the former homeowners took impeccable care of it.

This is what our home looked like when we first moved in.

vintage farmhouse home tour front entry with stair railing

Vintage Farmhouse Dining room travertine floor tile

I shared a full home tour HERE so we have something to refer back to as we update it.

We’ve been spending a lot of time painting rooms to lighten it up. You can see all the changes in these posts:

Before we take on anything major, we wanted to give our new home a neutral look so we can step back, appreciate the bones, and decorate from there.

Although we made some changes already, our home still has lots of faux finishes, some of which are really unique and amazing.

But it’s coming along and I love where it’s going.

We’ve got a lot more DIYs planned both inside our home and outside in the gardens.

I can’t wait to tell you more about what we’ll be doing!

To see my new home through the seasons, you can check out these seasonal home tours.

Vintage Farmhouse Living Room in Fall with dark leather couches, cozy throw blankets, throw pillows, vintage floral art, french country tables and area rug

Tour My Former Home

This was our suburban home in northwestern New Jersey, gardening zone 6a.

We live about an hour from NYC, an hour from the Jersey Shore, and an hour from the Poconos, PA.

Way Back When

Our home was originally built as a tiny 3 bedroom/1 bath ranch in 1960 in a small neighborhood on a dead-end street.

When we first moved here in the late ’90s, we loved the rustic, country curb appeal of our cute town, with a bustling main street and great school system.

The house sits on half an acre of land and had very few gardens when we first purchased the home.

Shortly after moving here, we started our family.

While the kids were young, we updated the house, finished the basement, and added a multi-tier deck.

Our family quickly grew to three girls who are very close in age, so outgrew our 3 bedroom ranch pretty quickly.

When my youngest was a few months old, we added a second story to make our home a center hall colonial with a walk-up unfinished attic.

(We recently finished the walk-up attic for me to use as an office – you can check it out HERE.)

And we painted the interior cranberry, sage, and gold.

My Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation

In the last few years, I updated the entire house, including my kitchen.

Which was a HUGE project that I did by myself and am the proudest of.

Spring Forward with My Rustic Farmhouse Spring Home Tour

You HAVE to see what this kitchen looked like before I painted the cabinets! Click here to see the BEFORE.

And if you have more questions about this project, I answered a bunch of FAQ’s about painting kitchen cabinets with chalk paint.

The Dining Room

It’s AMAZING what a can of paint can do!

Click HERE to see the BEFORE of the dining room.

My Farmhouse Living Room

Since remodeling our home we painted and redecorated this whole space.

And I’m really happy with the result too.

I love to decorate it with lots of pretty neutrals and florals.

Click HERE to see the BEFORE.

Birdhouse Centerpiece Idea for the Dining Table

The Laundry Room Where I Actually Want to Do Laundry

My laundry room is also a must-see! Isn’t this a great space?

The Gardens

After construction was completed, our yard was a blank slate because it was completely torn apart from updating the septic bed in the backyard and moving the well to the front yard.

My passion for gardening really took off after moving to our home.

So having a blank slate was the perfect opportunity to change the foundation gardens and surrounding beds.

I designed an everblooming cottage garden surrounding the front walkway so it would be the first thing you see when you visit my home.

You can see how it grew and changed last year HERE.

This garden is my happy place!

With the backyard torn up, we leveled it to have a flat area for a kids’ play area.

After leveling it, there was quite a drop-off around the septic bed, so I planted it with large flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials to conceal the drop-off.

It has become one of my favorite gardens today.

Last spring, I painted the shed so it would look more neutral in the gardens.

And what a difference that made!

Wait until you see what it looked like before.

In spring 2021, we renovated this whole garden even more.

For starters, we moved the vegetable garden to where the playset used to be.

To learn all about my raised garden beds for growing herbs and vegetables, CLICK HERE.

In addition to relocating the vegetable garden, we renovated the shed garden with a picket fence and a cut flower garden that I started from seed in my basement.

Doesn’t it look amazing???

When we moved the well, the front yard was also pretty torn up.

Since we had well pipes sticking out of the ground, my husband suggested turning the area into a garden.

So that’s what we did.

And I now refer to it as my cutting garden because lots of beautiful blooms that can be cut for arrangements are grown there.

The Outdoor Living Spaces

In addition to my gardens, I enjoy creating beautiful outdoor living spaces.

Through the years, we fixed up several areas of our yard to make relaxing summer spaces to enjoy.

HERE are some mistakes I made that you’ll want to avoid when designing a backyard living space.

One of our favorite spots to hang out is the outdoor dining space.

To us, it is an outdoor oasis and feels like we are visiting a resort when we sit out here!

In addition to the outdoor dining area, we have a lower deck that houses a small living room area.

And all of my houseplants.

Backyard Living Space on the Deck With Fire Pit

In addition to the deck gardens, we also created this fire pit area in the corner of our backyard.

We enjoy the fire pit all summer long and love to see it all lit up with twinkle lights.

Seasonal Home Tours You May Enjoy

Thanks for touring my home today.

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Enjoy your day! xoxo

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