Grow something.Eat something.Meet someone.Say hello
Garden journal 01September 1st, 2026

GROWING

WITH TAMAR

Gardens, food, flowers
and fascinating people.

Come into the garden ↓
01

How the garden began

It started with
Aleppo peppers.
Then everything else.

Tamar holding freshly picked orange marigolds in her garden
attack of the6 foot marigold

Seven years ago, I brought a handful of Aleppo pepper seeds home from Lebanon. Because I grew up there, planting them in the Hudson Valley felt like bringing a piece of home into a new garden. That small beginning quietly changed everything.

What started with those seeds became an obsession: growing the things I love to cook with but can never find in stores, along with varieties I’ve never heard of just to see whether I might love them too. I cook what I grow, arrange whatever is blooming, and I love making things delicious and beautiful.

Pale pink zinnias and green leaves in Tamar’s garden
FROM THE GARDENZINNIAS IN THE LIGHTLATE SUMMER
A handmade cardboard television frame
Growing With Tamar / Episode No. 01

THE SHOW / COMING SOON

Grow something.
Eat something.
Meet someone.

I grow things, cook them, arrange them, and meet people I want to know more about.

I spent 22 years building a successful beauty business in Manhattan. Now I split my time between New York City and the Hudson Valley, growing vegetables, flowers, and heirloom varieties I can’t find in stores.

I left Lebanon during the civil war when I was 10. When I finally returned 30 years later, a visit to the border of Lebanon and Syria led to an unexpected gift: Aleppo pepper seeds. I brought those seeds home to the Hudson Valley, where planting them sparked an obsession with growing. Gardening also became a place where I could heal.

On Growing with Tamar, I’ll teach you how to grow on a city stoop or in a backyard, introduce you to things you may never have tasted, and cook what we harvest. Along the way, I’ll sit down with fascinating people to talk about what they grow and why.

Find me on YouTube

WHAT I’M GROWING AND EATING

Good things
from the garden.

What’s growing now, plus a few ideas for what to do with it. Tap a veggie for the recipe.

Orange marigolds after the rain in Tamar’s garden
IN BLOOM / 01Marigolds after the rain.

FROM THE GARDEN / TOMATO ID

Scrumptious
tomato varieties
I grew this year.

Costoluto Fiorentino, Cherokee Purple, Moskvich, San Marzano, Sun Gold, and two mystery tomatoes arranged and labeled on a gray stone surface
White cosmos flowering along a path in Tamar’s garden
Flower detour no. 01

WILD IS A COMPLIMENT

A little overgrown is where it gets interesting.

Flowers lean into the vegetables. Vines go wherever they want. Nothing is particularly obedient, which is probably why I like it.

FROM MY CAMERA / LATE SUMMER

Meanwhile,
in the garden.

No stock photos. No perfect rows. Just the garden, planted my way.

Pink cosmos, orange marigolds, and vegetables crowding a path through Tamar’s garden
01Garden path.
Tamar’s full garden surrounded by woods and hills
02Glorious mess.
Large red hibiscus flowers blooming in Tamar’s garden
03Gorgeous smorgeous.
Yellow and burgundy coreopsis flowers winding through garden foliage
04Growing wild.

FINE, I’LL GROW IT MYSELF

I couldn’t get a reservation, so I grew the damn chrysanthemums myself.
Chrysanthemum salad topped with finely grated Parmesan

Don Angie has a chrysanthemum salad I wanted to try. Getting a table was ridiculous. Three months out, a black Amex, eight laptops running Resy, who knows. So I said fuck it, grew the chrysanthemums, and made the salad.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

What are you
hungry for?

hello@growingwithtamar.com

Ask what’s available, arrange an order, or get help with your garden. Need ideas for what to grow? No complicated forms. Just email me.