I’m Eleanor and I love growing things.
I grew up in gardens and around gardeners. I have vivid memories of exploring my nana’s garden at their North Yorkshire Moors cottage in England where I was born; of helping my mum as a kid in our vegetable garden in Minnesota, where I got paid 5¢ for each Colorado potato beetle I squished. The first flowers I ever grew were zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers in a tiny patch of dirt my dad dug up for me behind our house next to the big garden. In each apartment I’ve lived in as an adult, I’ve managed to find a way to grow something—even if it was just herbs in my kitchen window.
After spending my 20s trying to make the 9-to-5 thing work, I missed being creative and started playing with flowers. In 2010, I decided to launch bash & bloom, now Bloomwood Floral, as a way to scratch that creative itch. After flowering for a dear friend’s wedding, I knew there was no turning back. I left my non-profit career and threw myself into making this work.
When I met my husband in early 2013, he came with a house on a 6,000+ sq ft lot. Which, by Seattle standards anyway, is giant. There was a big concrete raised bed and within a few months of us dating, I had commandeered the garden to plant vegetable starts and cosmo seeds. Eight years later and we have no grass, and just about every square foot of space is taken up by my little urban farmlet in Beacon Hill, Seattle. The growing bug is a real thing, and I have it.
My family has grown, too. Husband and I share our home with our precocious toddler, Archer, and our two dogs, Manny and Pippa. We have a flock of eight chickens who help out in the garden from time to time, providing endless hours of entertainment. (Have you ever seen a chicken jumping?)
Most days you can find me out in the garden or up the street at my Pea Patch spot, often with a very cute toddler in tow.
