Hi! We're the Gardners.

Meet the Gardners

Yep, that’s our little family: Jesse, Jessica, Ethan, Anna, Elijah, and Elliot.

Jessica and I both grew up roving the wooded hills of upstate New York; but after years of wandering, we met, married, and moved to suburban Pennsylvania.  There we began life together, started a design business, and had children.  But our rural roots called to us, and a decade later we moved back to New York—closer to family and surrounded by farmland.

Now we’re spending our days figuring out rural life and writing about it on our blog, so don’t be surprised if you see posts about building a chicken coop, planting fruit trees, tending a bee hive, or scheming about how to catch the cursed fox that keeps eating our chickens.  I’m also a fiend with a camera, so there will be plenty of photos!

We love many things in life, but three are relevant here: spending time with our family, learning more about the things we love, and making beautiful things with our hands.  So we started The Thoughtful Gardner as a way to marry the three.

Every candle you buy is carefully hand-made by our family, and your purchase makes it possible for us to do more of what we love, so… thank you for your support!

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
—Pablo Picasso

Check out our candles!

Our Homestead