Ben's Garden

07/22/2026

A love story, told in four keepsakes.

It began in Paris, beneath iron balconies and flower-filled windows. There were roses, a dance across a black-and-white floor, and one very important question tucked inside a blue velvet box.

She said yes.

Years later, the table is full, the tea is warm, and the story they started has become a family. Because the most beautiful lives are not made from one grand moment, but from all the little things we choose to hold onto: each other, the memories, and the love that turns ordinary days into a story worth telling.

Swipe through the chapters. Which one feels like yours?

07/19/2026

People who chose their profession have always fascinated me. What decided it — passion? Legacy? Curiosity? Money? I was never afforded that luxury. I always knew what I was going to do.

But architects, especially. Bringing other people’s dreams to reality through the complex machinery of engineering. Precision in service of someone else’s imagination.

I live in a world that is the opposite — broad, colorful brushstrokes, rough with bristles and oil paint. So a line drawing feels like peace to me. One pen, no color.

This is the store, interpreted to its simplest. And boy oh boy — is she still so pretty.

What should I draw next?
Any ideas?

07/17/2026

07/17/2026

Read all about it in the new ✨ Substack:

For 34 years I’ve bought fragrance for our studio. Every supplier hands me the full ingredient list before I spend a dime. So when a candle brand says it can’t tell you what’s inside — it can. It already has. Just not to you.

New essay. The blank label, the receipt it’s protecting, and the sixty-day promise we just made in public.

If you’ve ever flipped over a candle looking for answers and found nothing, this one’s for you.

benbusko.substack.com
🔗 Link in bio

07/15/2026

Read all about it in the new ✨ Substack:

For 34 years I’ve bought fragrance for our studio. Every supplier hands me the full ingredient list before I spend a dime. So when a candle brand says it can’t tell you what’s inside — it can. It already has. Just not to you.

New essay. The blank label, the receipt it’s protecting, and the sixty-day promise we just made in public.

If you’ve ever flipped over a candle looking for answers and found nothing, this one’s for you.

benbusko.substack.com
🔗 Link in bio

07/04/2026

Every Fourth of July 🇺🇸 we walked down to the beach at Stony Brook just before dark. Blankets on the sand, salt still on our skin from the afternoon, the whole town gathered at the water’s edge waiting for the sky to open up.

I remember the pause before the first firework more than the fireworks themselves — that collective held breath, the harbor gone quiet, my family beside me.

Thirty years later, I’m still trying to bottle that feeling. These vintage flag trays are the closest I’ve come — each one decoupaged by hand in the same town where I watched those skies as a kid. The top flag is the Bennington ’76 — one of the earliest designs of the Revolution.

Wishing you a Fourth full of salt air, held breath, and the people you love.

Shop our High Summer 🍓🍉🌻 picks — link 🔗 in bio.

06/30/2026

Benjamin Busko painted the Three Village Inn, dressed for summer 🍉🍒 and the Fourth of July, just yesterday on his rooftop garden in NYC.

A childhood friend of mine (a coordinated one, lacrosse I mean) used to get marched here most Federal holidays dressed in a full Revolutionary War costume or as a pilgrim for Thanksgiving and the deal was he had to bring a friend from school with him. Time seems to have passed, and thankfully, I was never chosen. Different owners these days (Oyster Bay friends, actually) — that family who ran it for years has moved on — but the place is every bit as charming. Say that Ben sent you and order the Tavern burger.

This is summer on Long Island’s North Shore — flag up, flowers out, red plaid tablecloths waving in the breeze... The kind of afternoon you want to slow all the way down for. Take a stroll 🚶‍♂️through Stony Brook Village and visit Ben’s Garden to discover what’s new for the summer. You’ll be delighted, and may leave empty handed!

📍Stony Brook Village — open all summer.

Curious what you think. Benjamin Busko
XX Ben

06/21/2026

Some things you make at sixteen. (slide 1)

Some things people are still reaching for thirty-two years later.

Pressed flowers under glass — the set the buyers at Anthropologie said yes to, back when I was a kid who couldn’t believe the call was real. (slide 2 — the Ben’s Garden catalog, 1994) Pansies. Delphinium. The blue that started all of it.
Slipped beneath a sweating glass of rosé on a summer table, the way they were always meant to be used. Not saved. Not shelved. Used. Reissued from our archives, bring your flower coaster set home today.

The full story is up now on Ben’s Substack — and for the first time, you can bring the set home straight from the page.

🔗 benbusko.substack.com

06/21/2026

Read all about it in the new ✨ Ben’s Garden Substack:
For 34 years I thought I knew the whole story. Turns out I knew my half and mistook it for the book.

I made the vessel. You made the meaning. I just never got to see that part — until now.

New essay. The Katie Couric story, the “wrong” blue tray Paris Hilton loved anyway, and what Ben’s Garden 2.0 actually is.
If you’ve ever held onto something of ours, I want to know what it became.

bensgarden.substack.com
🔗 Link in bio

06/20/2026

Build a wall that tells your story. ✨

Start with a feeling — Paris in the springtime, a love letter to home, a champagne state of mind — and let your trays do the rest.

Mix sizes. Layer the leaners against the wall, hang the hero pieces above, and let the trio of bubbly trays crown the top. There’s no wrong way to do it. That’s the whole point.

Every piece is handmade decoupage, built to be lived with — propped on a dresser today, hung in the hallway tomorrow. Your collection grows with you.

Tell us your collection energy: blooms 🌸, baguettes 🇫🇷, stars & stripes 🇺🇸, or… dinosaurs 🦕. We don’t judge. We decoupage.