Next week, a landscaper and his crew will be coming to my garden to straighten up the edging around the beds in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral, put down a proper landscape fabric in the paths (the only place I’d use landscape fabric), and then put down a good, walkable, mulch in those paths.
Then they’ll edge around all the various borders—Plopper’s Field, The Shrubbery, Autumn Dreams Gardens, Family Circle, Whatever-I-Called-That-One-Border, and Bird’s Blanket, leaving nice sharp V-cuts to define the edges.
Finally, they’ll also clean up the garden path that runs through Autumn Dreams Gardens, putting down fabric and rock to make it less of a weeding nightmare.
And with those projects done, I will be entering my spinstercore (spinster-core? Spinster Core?) era of gardening. (Let’s go with spinstercore.)
Did you know there was such a thing as spinstercore?
I didn’t. I first heard the term while watching a video on YouTube from Real Vintage Dolls House, “where nostalgia finds a home.” In the video, she mentioned spinstercore as a new term revolving around living a single life ala Miss Jane Marple of the Agatha Christie mysteries.
Miss Marple (Jane to friends her own age), a spinster, occupied her days with grandmacore type activities like knitting, cooking, enjoying tea, watching neighbors, reading, visiting shops to buy a notion of this or a packet of that, solving murder mysteries, and, of course, gardening, all minus any grandchilden.
Now combine grandmacore with cottagecore—a decorating style where vintage items, handmade items, second-hand items, and make-it-do items get mixed with fresh flowers and a sunny view of the garden—and make it the home of a single person, and you almost have spinstercore.
There’s at least one more element to add to grandmacore and cottagecore to turn a home and garden into spinstercore.
You must hire someone to do some of the heavy lifting in the garden, such as what I’m having the landscapers do next week, to free up your time for more pleasant pursuits, like grandmacore activities, and less strenuous gardening.
And that is why I am calling this era of my garden my spinstercore era.
In other words, or if you’d like an equation,
Grandmacore Gardening + Cottagecore Gardening + Hiring Someone to do the heavy lifting = Spinstercore Gardening
Oh yes, I’ll still be mowing my lawn, planting my vegetable garden, weeding, and watering. Goodness, I wouldn’t really be gardening if I didn’t do those things, now would I? I just won’t be doing those projects that I never got around to because they involve heavy lifting and wheeling around wheelbarrows full of mulch and rock. Instead, like Miss Jane Marple, I’ll let someone else do those for me, spinstercore style.
Of course, it goes without saying that I’m skipping the solving of murder mysteries, but I am open to solving other mysteries that might come my way, such as I occasionally mention in my weekly newsletter, In the Garden With Carol. (See what I did there? If you are interested in those mysteries, which may or may not involve garden fairies, you’ll have to subscribe to that newsletter.)
I’m leaning into spinstercore gardening!
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