About

The original 66 Square Feet, Cobble Hill

Hello, I am Marie, the author of 66 Square Feet, a blog I launched in 2007 (Blogger's heyday). It it still updated several times a month, but you find me daily on Instagram @marie_viljoen

In my non-blog life I write about food and plants, am the author of two books, garden obsessively, love to forage for unusual ingredients, and lead seasonal walks with picnics to introduce people to wild spaces, plants, and foraging.

So why 66 Square Feet? Once upon a time I lived in a tiny apartment with an even tinier terrace, in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. It was exactly 66 square feet small. Or big. It inspired this blog and my subsequent cookbook, 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life. It was a wonderful little space. Even the New York Times liked it. I lived there first with a big black cat, and later with the Frenchman, my husband, who left his country and home for me and the cat. It was very romantic. Since then, we have moved three times and there have been more New York gardens:

Harlem 

In Harlem I added a (Plus) to the 66 Square Feet title.  Because the terrace was much bigger. (Follow the link for all the Harlem terrace posts.)

Despite the pleasure of transforming that space (which was also featured in the New York Times, and a book), our stay was not very long or happy: we lost the cat - Don Estorbo. And our drummer-landlord was a piece of work. Life was loud. 

1st Place

We moved back to Brooklyn, to the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, coincidentally just a few blocks south of our original tiny apartment and terrace. There was a spacious backyard which I coaxed from weed jungle to garden. In summer we watched fireflies dance, and a pair of possums that visited in the evenings. We ate supper at a long wooden table, endured a bonkers upstairs neighbor, and hordes of summer mosquitoes. (You don't know mosquitoes until you have lived with a Brooklyn backyard.)

Its hashtag on Instagram is #1stPlaceBK and on the blog it is 1st Place.

It was an inspiring laboratory and helped me write the wild plant cultivation tips for my second book, Forage, Harvest, Feast - A Wild-Inspired Cuisine.

After three years we moved again. I threw a plant adoption party to find homes for most of my 1st Place collection. The rest came along with us.

The Windsor Terrace

Which brings us to now: a top floor, wide-open New York sky (and a really decent landlord - they exist!). This terrace is #thewindsorterrace on Instagram and The Windsor Terrace tag, here - named after our neighborhood. 

I grow all kinds of edible plants, with a revolving menu of herbs, leaves, and annuals. Our citrus tree flock moves in and out in late fall and spring. There are no mosquitoes. (They hate heights.)

And so the small-space gardening adventure continues.

When I am not writing and reading and recipe testing and gardening - or washing the dishes - I am walking in the woods and wild places.