Welcome to the vibrant world of Sow ‘n Sow! Explore our blog as we delve into the art and joy of gardening, sustainable living and the beauty of nurturing seeds to bloom. Discover insightful tips and inspiring stories that celebrate the journey towards a greener, more vibrant world.
A growing gift from Audi Australia. These custom designed seed packets were made for Audi Hamilton Island Race Week. A ‘Trio of Herbs’ was gifted to each guest at the ‘Chiswick’ dinner presented by Matt Moran on Saturday the 17th of August.
I’m excited to announce that our first ever Christmas Gift of Seeds is now available to purchase through our webshop and via our stockists Australia wide. Billy Buttons are a gorgeous Australian Native which flower with beautiful bright yellow balls on long stems, perfect as a unique and stylish cut flower. If I do say
I’ve recently returned from a lovely 2.5 week holiday in the Northern Territory, and I wanted to share some of the stunning colours, textures shapes and moments with you.
While the Australian Native collection has been available for a few months, I thought it was about time I wrote a little about them. Since launching Sow ‘n Sow about three years ago, the question of native seeds has been asked many times. So late last year I decided to create the Australian Native Gifts
Sydneysiders keep an eye out for the City of Sydney’s Green Villages branded Gifts of Seeds. These will be used as part of the city’s partnership with Grow It Local, encouraging residents to grow their own food and live more sustainably. This is our second custom design for the City of Sydney (see the first
The Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) in Sydney is one of the most well-known gardens in Australia and as such we were honoured and thrilled to create a custom designed RBG Gift of Seeds. The packets are currently being placed in hotel rooms at the Four Season Hotel (Sydney) as an innovative way for guests to
Here are some snaps of the Wheat Grass trays I created for St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Melbourne. These went into the artist’s area as table centre pieces. The venue is the Footscray Community Arts Centre, a fabulous modern art gallery space. The simple, lush green trays looked great against the white walls and funky
Last week was an odd one, we threw ourselves into a last minute creative theming job for Big Day Out’s Wine Bar. Check out our “nest” and pallet creations which came together in 36 degree heat. Thanks so much to Imm, Caja, Mike & Bish for all your help, you’re the best, couldn’t have done
It’s been a year and a half since my sister Maddie and I threw ourselves head first into a massive creative theming project for South Bank in Brisbane (see here and here and here). I’m excited to say that I’m now back in the creative theming driving seat, this time dressing a bar in an
Me with fish in hand, doing it tough on Moreton Island, December 2012. After a divine 2 week holiday in Queensland I am now back in the studio and enjoying the relative quiet. We were incredibly busy throughout November and December which was invigorating and wonderful, but left us with little chance to do a
We have just moved into a wonderful, light filled studio in Fitzroy North and I’m dreaming up ways to transform the space into a plant-filled oasis. Like any professional procrastinator, I turned to pinterest to while away a few short hours and here’s some of the highlights. Studio neighbour Lauren McIvor wants a swing. How about
Amazing organic installations by French artist Mathilde Roussel. Exploring nature and physical life, Mathilde is interested in the cyclic metamorphoses that transform organic matter, whether vegetable, animal or human. Another incredible example of living artworks which I find incredibly powerful!
We’re incredibly excited to launch Sow ‘n Sow’s beautiful new Gifts of Seeds and Paper Garden Gift Tag collections! And to do justice to these stunning new ranges, we’ve made some changes to our branding and we’ve created a beautiful new website, where we’re also stocking some of our favourite organic-inspired designer products! A few notes
Anna Garthforth is an installation artist known for her incredible typographic moss installations. Her ‘Grow’ moss typography is a pinterest/ blogging world favourite – I’m sure many have seen that one before (pictured below). I contacted Anna to ask her permission to post photos from her website and she kindly sent me these photos of
Here’s a cool little rooftop garden created by Melbourne designer Ben Osborn-Macpherson. Ben always wanted a rooftop garden but only has a 1x3m balcony, so he made this mini version out of one of his stencils. It looks great doesn’t it! Mainly I think because the stencil is really good, so you have a great
We’re really proud of these custom designed Gifts of Seeds for a few reasons. Firstly because they are part of a fabulous program which celebrates sustainable living and ‘growing your own’, and secondly because we had the opportunity to work with The City of Sydney! We were delighted to hear that the council’s Sustainability
We’ve just completed a custom design for a new Bed and Breakfast on the Mornington Peninsular called The Guest Room Mt Martha. The owner Pauline Eather wanted to have a personalised message printed onto the back of the existing Forget-me-not packets, so that she could leave one on the pillow for guests as a take
On Saturday I dressed up like a lady and set out for High Tea at the Windsor Hotel to celebrate a friends impending elopement! There I met the lovely florist Petra from Pomp and Splendour whose work is far too beautiful not to share with you here! Petra does flamboyant floristry for events, photo shoots and
I’ve been a big fan of this kind of artwork since starting Sow ‘n Sow and discovering the book Natural Architecture by Alessandro Rocca. And I have previously featured the amazing work of Mikael Hansen, one of the other artists featured in the book. But here’s some more incredible works, this time by Patrick Dougherty. Patrick weaves
My sister Maddie has a very nice blog going on and it is updated daily with design inspiration from around the world. Although Maddie, like me, was born and raised in Australia with no German heritage to speak of, unlike me, she thinks she is part German. She’s been living in Germany for the past
We were delighted to custom design a range of Gifts of Seeds for Blue Illusion, the Australian owned chain of women’s fashion boutiques. Produced especially for Mothers day, the Blue Illusion selection features Basil, Poppy and Sunflower with French poems and Blue Illusion styling. Available now in Blue Illusion stores Australia-wide, they make a gorgeous
I may be just a little bit obsessed with figs at the moment. Ask any of my friends and they will all have heard of the fig enterprise I had planned for the weekend. It all started when I heard that my friend Chelsea’s (the one who grew the amazing giant Russian sunflowers!) massive fig
This is the breathtakingly stunning wedding of my dear friend Josephine to her husband Joshua, held in the picturesque McLaren Vale wine region of South Australia on April the 14th 2012. Words cannot describe how enchanted this event was, and it was such an honour to provide custom Gifts of Seeds for the occasion. Designed
These terrariums are ‘oh so cool’, I feel like taking a soldering workshop! Made by ‘Score + Solder’ on Pender Island, Canada, they are available to purchase online with worldwide shipping. I attempted terrarium making for a while and I have a few around my house which aren’t really looking very cool. Though I haven’t mastered
On a lovely, cool late summer’s day my parents, partner and I visited the historic Diggers Club Garden of St Erth in Blackwood, Victoria. These gardens had been on my to-do list for years and as a Diggers Club member I’d heard a lot about it. It was also St Erth’s Autumn Festival so we enjoyed
We just received these professional photos from South Bank in Brisbane, taken during Regional Flavours last year. That’s me (Michelle) at the top in our stall during the event, then Maddie, then a closeup shot of one of our pallet garden beds, and the Junior Masterchef contestants sitting beside a pallet garden. They are such
…how does your garden grow? Here are some pics from my garden, all items grown from Sow ‘n Sow seed of course! The marigolds have taken over our veggie patch and have been in full bloom since December. The oregano is lovely and bushy and a bunch of healthy new seedlings appeared recently. We have
My collection of gardening books is growing and I’m starting to spending more time with them now that it’s too hot to be in the garden! They mostly consist of second hand finds, especially those with gorgeous vintage stylings which serve as references and inspirations for our products, have gorgeous illustrations and look very cute
Last year we developed a beautifully illustrated flyer with help from our designers, which serves as an info sheet and in-store display poster for our stockists. I just realised that we’ve never shared this through our website! So here it is, the gorgeous Sow ‘n Sow flyer. It’s double sided and folds in a concertina
Our Plant Labels made from repurposed hand-stamped spoons were featured in the February issue of House & Garden magazine! It caught us a little off-guard as we were out of stock after Christmas and the magazine was released before we had returned from holidays, but we’ve managed a quick re-stock and they are now
Looking back through our photo shoot with the wonderful stylist and photographer Emily Jade Barr, I found some lovely shots which had near been forgotten! Wishing everyone a happy Christmas/ New Year break. We will be back on board on the 10th of January and are looking forward to a full year of sowing goodness!
Christmas is fast approaching and we’ve been flat-out with orders – it is wonderful to know that our Gifts of Seeds will be bringing joy to many households this Christmas. We’ve also finally added our Children’s Garden Gift Sets to our online shop which make a gorgeous little set for budding young green thumbs. They
I discovered Angus & Celeste at Life Instyle and was gob smacked by their gorgeous vases and hanging planters. I’m not usually into porcelain objects or vases, but these really caught my attention. They are artistic and timeless with unique botanical illustrations that have a distinctly Australian feel. I also love the choice of plants
My partner and I took a road trip to Sydney (from Melbourne) via the NSW south coast a few weeks ago which took us right past two of our regional NSW stockists. I was excited to visit The Tree House Connection in Ulladulla as I’d met the owners Emily and Rosie at Life Instyle and
My list of favourite artists is growing and I am really excited to have discovered the work of Sydney based Janet Laurence. She has an impressive list of exhibitions behind her including a fascinating installation at the 2010 Sydney Biennale ‘Waiting, A Medicinal Garden for Ailing Plants’ which is featured in many of the pictures
The stylish staff at culture mag couldn’t resist our Forget-me-not Gifts of Seeds for their Eco Chic spread in the October/ November issue. I rarely indulge in purchasing magazines but all the press we’ve been getting has given me a fantastic excuse to discover everything I’ve been missing! The article reads “With the festive season
We’ve just jumped in and joined Instagram and I have to say I’m a little bit addicted! Now I have a great excuse to take photos of pretty flower pots, woollen tea cosies and kittens while I’m out and about. Instagram is a free iphone app that allows you to filter images into cool styles. If
Some more wonderful publicity has come our way, this time we’re featured on page 113 of the latest Country Home Ideas magazine. Exciting times for Sow ‘n Sow!
I discovered Lord Butler via Elk at Life Instyle – they had decorated their stand with striking floral arrangements which really caught my eye. After drooling over their beautiful new clothing and leather goods, I asked one of the lovely Elk ladies about the installations and she gave me Lord Butler’s flyer. Lord Butler is an eco friendly
Our Gifts of Seeds are on page 30 of the latest ‘The Outdoor Room’ magazine! I have to say, this is a really beautiful mag – it’s full of gorgeous photography, styling and dreamy gardens. Very refreshing in the world of gardening magazines. Check out page 30!!
Gorgeous hand stamped plant labels made out of re-purposed spoons by Alister and Jane of Kabwares. Alister is a tool maker by trade and when he was retrenched Kabwares was created with KAB standing for Keeping Alister Busy. Aren’t they sweet!
It’s always lovely to get a bit of press! ‘My Basil’ is featured in the October issue of House & Garden magazine.
Pretty little forget-me-not flowers We went to Kyneton on the weekend to see some open gardens which were a part of the Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival. Corinella Country House is about 10 mins from the centre of town and had a most magical garden filled with daffodils and bursting with Forget-me-nots! They also had the
It is with much excitement that I introduce two new Gifts of Seeds to the Sow ‘n Sow range, ‘Baby Sweet Pea’ and ‘Thank-you Marigold’. Designed by my very talented sister Madeleine Brady, the Thank-you Gift of Seeds have been kept beautifully simple and elegant to suit any occasion or gift giving opportunity. With gorgeous,
Super cute creatures for your desk! These little ‘Domsai’ are designed and produced by Matteo Cibic Studio in Nove Italy. Each has its own personality with little cactus inside; I want them all.
‘Slim Jim’ table by by Roland Graf for Fredericia Furniture Source: Daily Tonic
Since being back in Melbourne we have continued working at a million miles per hour with Life Instyle which started just 2 days after we arrived home. It was wonderful being there in the beautiful old Royal Exhibition Building and we met lots of wonderful people including a lot of new stockists and the very
We had a wonderful weekend at Regional Flavours. After months of work designing and installing the pallet gardens and hanging installations, we were able to see and hear the public admiring our creations. The response was incredibly overwhelming… just about everyone who walked past the pallet gardens stopped to have a look and the comments
