Tasha's Corgi Cottage

Iin her mid-50s, Tasha fulfilled her long-held dream of living in Vermont by devoting her considerable energy to building a new home. She laid down her watercolour brush, completing no books from 1971-1975, the longest book sabbatical of her career. 

As usual, she knew exactly what she wanted. Her eldest son Seth already lived in Vermont and helped Tasha purchase adjoining land. Under Tasha’s guidance, he recreated a 1740s Cape Cod-style house owned by a New Hampshire friend.

“Everyone says my house is dark, but people don’t realize how dark old houses were. I love it dark. It’s like a nice chipmunk’s nest.”

When Tasha resumed illustrating books, her new home was revealed in the 1975 The Night Before Christmas. Over the next thirty years, Tasha published about thirty books, including more titles that featured Tasha’s Vermont home such as A Time to Keep, Springs of Joy, Rosemary for Remembrance, Seasons of Delight, the Tasha Tudor Cookbook, and a third Night Before Christmas. 

“Everyone who likes my illustrations says, ‘Oh, you must be so enthralled with your creativity.’ That’s nonsense. I’m a commercial artist, and I’ve done my books because I needed to earn my living, to keep the wolf away from the door, and to buy more [flower] bulbs!” 

Over time, Tasha created a cottage garden masterpiece saying “Some people call this a cottage garden, but it’s just a good messy garden. There’s no plan. It’s not like a painting – I just stick the plants in. I like large quantities of blooms all jumbled together: Reine de Violette roses, thalictrum, artemisia, iris, pinks, clematis, peonies, and forget-me-nots.”

Decades of visitors stepped into the past when visiting Tasha. Overnight house guests were frequent and often took part in the daily chores of farm life such as milking goats or weeding the garden. Creativity among friends abounded; marionette shows, basket making, doll making, sewing, weaving, wool dying, delicious home-cooked meals, afternoon tea, and Stillwater parties at mid-summer. Tasha’s lifestyle of creativity and homesteading remains a goal for many of her followers today.

“What you want is entirely a state of mind. I think happiness is a state of mind. Everything here gives me satisfaction. My home, my garden, my animals, the weather, the state of Vermont.”

In the 1990s, photographer Richard Brown documented Tasha’s home and lifestyle, creating the popular books, The Private World of Tasha Tudor, Tasha Tudor’s Garden, and Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts. In 2005, the family began hosting small tours of Tasha’s garden, which included an appearance from Tasha. 

Tasha spent the rest of her life at Corgi Cottage, her “Paradise on earth”, passing away on June 18,  2008, just shy of 93 years old, surrounded by family and friends.

“Einstein said that time is like a river, it flows in bends. If we could only step back around the turns, we could travel in either direction. I”m sure it’s possible. When I die, I’m going right back to 1830…Everything comes so easily to me from that period, of that time: threading a loom, growing flax, spinning, milking a cow.”

After her passing, the tours continued. Eventually, guests were allowed the inside  her home. Visitors came from all over the world to experience a place that they’d previously only seen in books, magazines, and documentaries. These sought-after tours continued until 2019 before the pandemic brought them to a close.

Tasha suggested that her garden ought to return to nature after her passing. The family attempts to preserve this national treasure, but she may be getting her way after all. Currently, it serves as a wildlife sanctuary for flocks of cedar waxwings, vireos, sparrows, wrens, robins, and more. Catbirds delight in the concealing shrubbery. It is more like the Secret Garden than ever. 

“Another appeal of my drawings, I think, is that they are done from actuality, not imagined. I know which side a cow is milked from, and what side you should mount a horse from, and how to make a haystack. It’s not made up… The flowers are growing wild in my fields or are from my garden. People who come to visit say, ‘Oh, it’s like walking into one of your illustrations.’”

Porcupines, minks, fisher cats, raccoons, and more move through on their way to other places. But the main garden residents are the foxes who have raised litter after litter under the barns over the past decade. They watch Tasha’s family lawn mowing and weeding, bearing the presence of people who offer some safety from coyotes. The kits wrestle in the garden, mindless of the heirloom hollyhock seedlings. Unsightly metal cages make an appearance to protect the precious seedlings, which benefit from the foxes' deterrence of mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and voles.

We quell multi-flora roses, garlic mustard, and other invasive plants from taking over the beds, where Tasha’s peonies, irises, poppies and so many more garden plants survive. We are amazed that so much of Tasha’s spirit remains in her magical landscape, telling us things are as they should be. It feels like she might round a corner at any moment and remark on the beauty of a rosebud coming into season.  Or that it is time to stop weeding and come in for tea. Or that we should be sure to pick daffodils on our way home.

Nearly all of the roofs of Tasha’s house have been re-shingled with seemingly thousands of cedar shingles. But before tours resume, other substantial repairs demand attention. The family isn’t sure what the future holds for this national treasure; a home with one foot in the late 20 century and the other in the 1830s. But there are many possibilities under unhurried consideration. 

There are many historic house preservation models to consider like Emily Dickinson’s Amherst, Massachusetts home which is affiliated with Amherst College. Its stewards have recently offered the opportunity to rent Emily’s writing room for your own studio session time. Imagine! The Olson House (of Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting Christina’s World) was recently acquired by the Farnsworth Museum and is open for seasonal tours. Or Rudyard Kipling’s Naulakha house in nearby Dummerston, Vermont, where many of our visitors have stayed. It is cared for by the Landmark Trust USA.

What we do know is that Tasha was one-of-a-kind and her home and garden reflect that. The artistry rises between the flowers, peeks out from the floorboards, and sparkles like dust motes in the shafts of sunlight. Tasha’s presence remains a guiding light for the future and we hope that when the time comes to reopen tours, her adoring public will be ready and waiting to visit again.

Photos by Richard W Brown