She's an avid gardener, beekeeper, and is currently re-wilding 29 acres of clear-cut forest in the Columbia River Gorge.
She also teaches photography online and at her in-person creative retreats, and loves connecting with other creative folks. Eva is currently writing a new book, penned Modern Homestead: a 21st Century Guide to Finding Your Wild, which is due out in Summer 2027.
About Eva:
Tell us a little bit about your career path and how you incorporate your love for gardening, growing and making beautiful displays alongside photography?
I’ve always loved the outdoors, my parents had a large vegetable garden growing up as well as their own Greek deli, so we used a lot of the produce at the restaurant and I just really fell in love with the joy and satisfaction of enjoying something you made with your own two hands. I learned photography in high school and it’s been a lifelong passion alongside cooking.
After college I started my own recipe blog, Adventures in Cooking, solely to share recipes with friends. But in time, the readership grew outside my little circle of friends, and I started focusing more on using my photography skills to take photos of the dishes, and it all kind of evolved from there.
Stylistically, I love trying to bring the feel of the seasons into each frame, to give a mood and a sense of time and space alongside the dishes.
How have you designed your garden and how do you incorporate structures such as the Monet Arch and Elegance Obelisk?
I moved into our homestead on 29 acres in November 2024, so we really had to start from scratch here since it’s just wild clearcut land.
We’re re-wilding the vast majority of it, but have set aside 1 acre for our garden, and it’s been profoundly exciting to start from nothing and have such a blank slate.
We built the vegetable garden this year, and designed it with two rows of 7 raised beds, with a walkway down the middle and the Agriframes Monet Arch connecting the last two beds. We aligned the center pathway with the view of the mountains and river, and with the arch silhouetted against it, it looks absolutely breathtaking. Like a living frame or doorway to the wild just beyond the curated garden.
We also have a balcony space that we love sitting out on for morning coffee and an afternoon tea, and I wanted to have plants there to give it a warmer cozier feel, and to also provide a privacy screen to shield the area from our nearest neighbors. We used the Round Screen to trellis some melons and cucumbers and Black Eyed Susan vines and it’s made such a beautiful living wall. We also have a potted sungold tomato and pole bean growing on the Elegant Obelisks and they’re absolutely thriving. I love the mix of solid structural support with beautiful design, part of why gardening is so enjoyable is simply the beauty of nature, so whenever I can add a little more beauty to my garden I’m a very happy human.
Tell us a little bit more about the book you’re writing and what inspired you?
I’m currently writing Modern Homestead: A 21st Century Guide to Finding Your Wild, which will have a mix of recipes, gardening, and crafts to go along with the seasons, and share a bit about my journey of moving out of the city and into a small village. The reasons for writing it are twofold for me; first, I have been asked a lot about what the process was like leaving the city and moving somewhere so wild, especially with having to build a house from scratch in a remote area. It was not an easy process to go through all the permitting and designing and everything, so I wanted to share a bit about that with folks who would like to do something similar someday.
And second, I feel like there’s a really high level of anxiety and depression in folks nowadays, and I really attribute that to an overexposure to screens and a lack of time spent creating something physical and real.
Our minds evolved to create things, whether it’s growing plants or cooking food or knitting a scarf, it feels good to do these things. So I wanted to create a blueprint, basically, for folks who want to connect more with nature but don’t know where to start. And it’s geared towards all kinds of folks, whether you live in the city or the countryside, you’ll be able to enjoy all the projects and recipes inside.
About Your Garden
Tell us about your personal gardening style?
It’s a mix of wild and organized, to be honest. I’m a pretty meticulous planner, so I enjoy sketching out where certain plants will go or what seeds I’ll try next year and things like that. Once things are in the ground and thriving, I like to let it go a little bit. I don’t trim much and enjoy the lush feeling of a garden that feels full. And I really enjoy it when it feels like the plants start to take over at the end of summer, especially the squash vines sprawling everywhere.
What made you choose the Monet Arch and how will you be using it throughout the seasons?
I really wanted a solid arch that would be able to withstand the temperature fluctuations here. We get snow in the winter, lots of rain in the spring and fall, and the summers are very hot and dry. I was drawn to the Monet Arch because I love the gentle classic curve of the top arch, and the fact that it was metal was fantastic because I know it will last for years and years, compared to a wooden arch which would maybe make it for a winter or two. I’m loving using it for my winter squash vines, they’ve been producing so well on it. I also have a currant tomato plant that’s loving the support of the arch. This spring I’m planning to trellis my peas on it and I cannot wait to see how tall they get! I think I’m also going to do pole beans on one side and squash on the other next summer, I feel like the two intermingled will be absolutely breathtaking, and also make harvesting easy since I can just walk under it and pick what’s hanging down.
What are your best tip for growing in the garden and how would you advise for a gardener starting out?
Add compost every spring, for sure. And don’t till. When you till, you kill all the beneficial insects in that top layer of soil, and bring up a ton of weed seeds.
Beneficial microbes (like the ones in compost) and insects (like earthworms) are so so helpful for plants and make them much more productive and healthy.
Gardening Advice
Can you share a tip or trick that changed the way you garden?
Mulching in the spring. It significantly cuts down on the weeding you’ll have to do all spring and summer, and it also reduces the water loss due to evaporation in the summer.
What gardening advice would you give to a gardener this season?
Don’t cut down all the veggies or flowers as they’re dying in the autumn. I know it looks messier, but many beneficial garden insects lay eggs in the decomposing plant matter, and if you just throw them in the compost bin you’re reducing the beneficial insects in your garden and opening up your plants for harmful pests next season, since then beneficial ones won’t have a leg-up.
Who is your gardening (or non-gardening!) heroes?
Monty Don, most definitely! I have learned so much from watching him and everyone else on Gardener’s World.
