Ina & Her Garden

It sure doesn't feel like it, but the calendar is telling me it's April and that means it's time to start thinking about what I want to plant or how I'm going to make this yard I have presentable. One of my all-time favorite ladies also has one of my all-time favorite gardens -- Ina Garten. If you're in her camp, you can go on and on about her, just like me I'm sure. There is something about watching her shows that has the "books on tape" effect on me -- it's soothing and totally mellow. No squawking and exaggerated made-for-tv accents that so many shows have. And the occasional glimpses of her house are always a draw. Sometimes I daydream about a life filled with Hampton's houses, gay best friends in my kitchen and a cashing in my tight pants for a closet full of big, square Eileen Fisher smocks.

Her garden makes me swoon, so I found some pictures to try and get a better idea of what she has going on -- it's all beautiful. 20+ years of gardening and planning is paying off in folds.

Those boxwoods make me crazy, I love them so much.

My scanner is killing me lately, but here is a photo of her home as shown in one of her cookbooks.

Ina hosted an event for the East Hampton Historical Society, I thought this photo was a fun real-life example of her "how easy is that?" motto in action -- simple and elegant backyard cocktails.

There are some super sleuths out there --an aerial view of her estate shows the set up pretty well. The land was purchased a long time ago, and in the past two decades, they have added the gardens and fruit tree orchards. Recently, she built the barn/office/studio that was so widely covered in House Beautiful.

A little out-building off of her main house. In one of the interviews I read on her garden, she talks about her attempt at casual but organized and elegant gardens. Her philosophy is to edge every thing neatly and then have what's inside be organic and natural, but in a tight color palette. She doesn't stray far from purples, blues and greens. Her thought being that it helps everything look better longer, giving things order, even when the beds are actually less thought out.

Her barn addition.

Another view of an out building.

The barn at night.

I believe this is her herb garden right off of the barn. Pea gravel and bordered beds in a small courtyard -- so gorgeous.

The entrance into the herb garden.

In the garden with Food Network

I spy lettuce and Rosemary.

Total celeb porn for me: Ina and Gwyneth in the same photo, I couldn't resist adding it. It's from an issue of Gwyneth's Goop newsletter featuring recipes in How Easy is That?