Journal

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Soulty Films

A Seed I Didn’t Know I Was Sowing: The Story of Into the Garden

The story behind our garden-inspired jewellery collection, my gran’s old watering can, and a lemon tree that’s still waiting for its spot.

Title

By Claire Sandham / 03 November 2025

I’ve always thought the best stories start small. This one starts with a patch of sand.


When my husband and I moved into our first apartment together, we found a little place close to the heart of Cape Town. Space was always going to be tight, and a garden felt like a long shot. I wanted one anyway.

“And so it began.”

Some apartments were lovely, most were small, and none of them had the one thing I kept quietly hoping for. Then we found ours. Just off the patio was an outside area that, if you were feeling generous, you could have called a garden. But I just knew I could turn it into something. So, we signed the lease. 

 

And so it began.

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Soulty Films

I threw myself into that sandy corner. I coaxed grass to grow where it had no business growing, shade and all. I planted veggies, some of which thrived and some of which taught me a great deal about humility (that little garden fed my soul far more than it ever fed our mouths). Slowly, season by season, it became my tiny oasis. It was the place I went to touch the grass, get my hands dirty and ground myself after a long day. It brought me so much joy and a kind of peace I never expected to find in a few square metres of (once-questionable) courtyard.

“You sow a seed long before you can see what it’ll become.”

While I worked on that little patch, I kept picturing another one. A bigger garden, somewhere down the line, with a proper veggie patch, a space to home long chats over tea, and a lemon tree. Since I was a little girl, I’ve always loved citrus trees and their bright, sunny smell hanging in the air.

 

I had no idea when that garden would happen, or where. Looking back, I think tending the small one was my way of making an unsaid promise to the future one. You sow a seed long before you can see what it’ll become; an important lesson that I continue to carry with me throughout my small business journey.

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Soulty Films

That's when Into the Garden was born

Imagining the life I wanted to grow into, and thinking about how full gardens are of memory. Everybody has one tucked away somewhere: a grandparent’s rose bush, the fig tree they climbed as a kid, the accidental strawberries grown by a munch at the pool. Gardens hold onto our stories in a way very few places do.


If this collection has a seed, it’s the Watering Can Charm.

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Frances Marais

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Soulty Films

“It’s the small, repeated act of showing up for something”

My grandmother, Helena, had an old, rustic metal watering can that she used every single day. I can still hear the way it clanked gently as she carried it across the garden. As a child, I never gave it a second thought. It was simply part of her, her garden and her day.

 

Watering is the least glamorous part of growing anything. Nobody takes photos of it. It’s the small, repeated act of showing up for something, day after day, long before there’s anything to show for it. Most of the time, that’s exactly what care looks like.

So the Watering Can Charm was the first piece I knew had to exist. It’s small enough to wear every day (about 10mm tall, a touch wider from handle to spout) and comes in solid sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold. Every one is handmade in our little Cape Town studio, so each has its own tiny quirks, which I like to think my gran would have appreciated. It’s for the people who nurture things, whether that’s a windowsill of herbs, a whole garden, a family, or a dream that’s taking its time.


The rest of the collection grew from the same place. The Lemon Charm and Citrus Wedge Charm for those childhood lemon trees (and the one I was still dreaming about). A Strawberry Charm, a Flower Basket, a little Frog for the garden’s resident lodger, and a Champagne Coupe for the long evenings yaps. Each charm is a small keepsake from the garden, made to be collected slowly, added to over time, and layered on a charm necklace or bracelet as your own story grows.

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Verity FitzGerald

“So here I am again”

In the 18 months after I first started designing this collection, life moved quite quickly. We bought our first house. And in a twist I still laugh about, the previous tenants had left “the garden” pretty bare. No grass, no beds, nothing growing at all. Just sand.

 

So here I am again, back at the beginning, slowly nurturing a bare patch of ground into something I love.

 

The difference is that this time there’s space. Space for a proper veggie patch and, at long last, space for a lemon tree. I’m currently plotting and planning exactly where it will go.

© 2026 Botanica Jewellery. Photo by Soulty Films

It’s a full circle moment I never saw coming. The seed I sowed in that little courtyard, without really realising I was sowing anything, has grown into the very thing I used to daydream about. It took patience. It took a lot of small, unglamorous days of watering. And it reminded me why I made this collection in the first place.


Gardens are never really finished. They move with the gentle rhythm of the seasons, they ask for our patience, and they give us somewhere to come back to ourselves. I think the small things we keep close work in much the same way. A charm on a chain can carry a memory of where you’ve come from, and a whisper of hope for where you’re going.

“I open each of those collections for a short ordering window"

You might have read about why I pressed pause on our everyday ranges earlier this year. Into the Garden was one of them. These days, I open each of those collections for a short ordering window so that our small team has time to make every piece slowly and properly, by hand, in our studio.


Into the Garden is open for orders until 17 November. If you’re reading this once the window has closed, sign up to our emailer, which is always the first place I share news of a collection opening again.

Whether you’re adding to a charm collection that’s been growing for years, starting one of your own, or looking for a meaningful gift, I hope something here brings you the same joy it has brought me.


Thank you for stepping into the garden with me.


Until next time,


Claire

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