I know a lot of us have picked up new hobbies since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Over this last year especially, I’ve thrown myself into gardening. Working in my garden has become a creative outlet and a big stress reliever. If you’ve been following along on Instagram, my garden is basically all I’ve talked about this year. So I thought it was high time to start documenting this passion of mine on the blog and what better way than a photographic tour of my garden through the seasons.

I will start by saying I garden in usda zone 7a. I grow mostly ornamental flowers and plants with a handful of herbs that I use in cooking and medicinally. I am partial to native perennials and shrubs and I have a huge soft spot for hydrangeas of all types. The last few years, I’ve been growing annual flowers from seed for cutting. I am drawn to formal garden design but I enjoy creating a much looser, cottage-y look in my own garden. It’s more forgiving and fun that way! My garden is always a work in progress because I find a lot of joy in designing (and redesigning) the structure and plant combinations in each bed.

My garden is basically one large L-shaped border that runs across the front (south-facing) and east side of our house. I refer to my beds as the front garden and the side garden because it was only this year that they were expanded to meet. I have good drainage and largely great soil, although there is an area along the north side retaining wall that was backfilled with heavy clay. I am pretty lucky!

The front flower bed in May and July

The side flower bed in June and August

March

My daughter Sage and I started cleaning out the garden on March 9th. I fertilized all the shrubs and pruned the bobo hydrangeas in the front flower bed. We started seeds indoors, admittedly a bit too early. We began what would become a near weekly tradition of visiting a garden center and letting Sage choose something to plant in her own little flower patch. For anyone who knows her, this is when her obsession with “baby ba-tulips” began. By the last day of the month, the daffodils were beginning to bloom.

In bloom: British Gamble daffodil, was supposed to have a peachy pink cup but ended up being yellow.

April

Sage and I checked the front flower bed every single day, in eager anticipation of the bulbs breaking ground and then blooming. Anthony and I had planted them the previous November. I highly recommend growing bulbs if you don’t already. There’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing those little green shoots bursting out of the ground when everything else around is still looking so bare. By the 6th week after sowing, my seedlings had all gotten leggy. Even the sunniest window in my house wasn’t quite enough light so early in the season. So I experimented with moving my entire greenhouse shelf outside. As the weather got warmer, I hardened off the seedlings by leaving the cover open for a few hours each day. I made sure it was zipped closed at night until the overnight temperatures were mild enough. After about two weeks, I was leaving the cover open most of the time and the seedlings were doing much better. By the end of the month, Sage’s flower patch was filling in nicely. She enjoyed the chore of watering, sometimes in full Laura Ingalls Wilder costume.

In bloom: Exotic Emporer tulips (white), Daydream Darwin hybrid tulips (peach-orange), White Diamonds daffodil mix, British gamble daffodils.

May

My mother’s day present this year was extending the side flower bed to connect with the front garden. My husband’s whole family pitched in to help and we got the weeding and mulching done that day too! I was so so so so thankful! By mid-May, the foxgloves and climbing rose were in bloom. On the 31st, I pruned our locust tree and my friend Ella helped me cut back the tulips & daffodils. That entire afternoon and into the evening I had contractions that were 4 min apart. It ended up being a false alarm — a sign I may have overdone it a bit as a 9 month pregnant lady.

In bloom: climbing rose (unknown variety), hardy geranium “Rozanne”, Foxy Dwarf mix foxgloves

June

The first garden bouquet of the season was a mix of roses, hardy geraniums and catmint that I gave to my friend Shawn. I did a lot of “puttering about” in the garden as I waited for my due date. I bought clearance annuals to cut back and revive - which ended up working out great! I planted marigolds and catnip to help ward off aphids - which didn’t actually seem to help much. I planted out the rest of the seedlings I had started in early spring and I sowed more zinnias & sunflowers in the part of the side flower bed that we dug in May. I harvested the first herbs of the season: lavender, sage, lemon balm and motherwort. I waited for the sunflowers to bloom.

In bloom: Oakleaf hydrangea, nepeta “Walker’s Low”, coreopsis “Uptick Cream”, hardy geranium “Rozanne”, french mix marigolds, white snapdragons, Foxy dwarf mix foxgloves.

July

I had a baby on the last day of June. We came home on the hospital July 3rd to find the sunflowers were blooming! The front flower beds were completely taken over by weeds. I didn’t work in the garden again until almost the end of July but I did spend just about every morning out there in the early postpartum days. Enjoying my breakfast & tea outside became my little morning ritual. Some days I got 5 minutes, some days I got 30 but either way, starting the day off with the fresh air and quiet did me so much good.

In bloom: Bobo paniculata hydrangea, volunteer sunflowers (likely a hybrid from “Evening Sun” planted the year before), phlox “David”, echinacea purpurea & pow wow white, agastache, rudbeckia Sahara mix, french marigolds, salvia “Lighthouse Purple”, yarrow, peach dahlias (unknown variety grown from Floret seed), statice, black eyed-susan, coreopsis “Uptick Cream”, pincushion flower, snapdragons, calendula, Pro cut white sunflowers, assorted zinnias.

August

By the beginning of August the garden was bursting with color. I harvested sunflower seeds to dry for the first time. Some I plan to experiment with planting and the rest will go into our bird feeders over the winter. I still had a wagon full of plants I had purchased on clearance in my final weeks of pregnancy. So as some annuals began to look tired or buggy, I took the opportunity to begin pulling and reworking the side garden a bit for fall. Taking photos of the garden to make little mock-ups on my phone became my way to get my gardening fix when I was actually needed indoors, taking care of our newborn.

In bloom: Pro cut white sunflowers, blue lobelia, china aster, salvia “lighthouse purple”, rudbeckia Sahara mix, salvia “Victoria Blue”, marguerite daisies, white and pink yarrow, Foxy dwarf mix foxgloves, zinnias

September

As the weather began to cool, I finished planting and transplanting perennials for the year. Free time was scarce and it was getting dark earlier so I ended up planting one of the new additions, a button bush, illuminated by headlamp one night. With the help of my friend Ashlynn, put down a fresh layer of mulch too. The fall bloomers were in their full glory.

In bloom: Sedum “Autumn Joy”, Mission giant yellow marigolds, assorted dahlias, agastache, salvia “Victoria Blue”, Japanese anenome “Honorine Jobert”, assorted mums, volunteer tomato plant (I transplanted from a crack in the sidewalk).

October

In early October, I harvested the last flowers and herbs of the year. I hung herbs and strung marigold blossoms to dry on the pegs in our dining room. In the cooler temperatures, the snapdragons flushed a second bloom. The weather was so beautiful, Sage and I got to spend a lot of days outside and we watched the garden slowly began to fade.

In bloom: sedum “Autumn Joy”, salvia “Lighthouse purple” & “Victoria blue”, white snapdragons, rudbeckia “Sahara mix”, french marigolds, amaranth “Coral fountain”, assorted dahlias (grown from seed), Japanese anenome “Honorine Jobert”, Bobo paniculata hydrangea, hardy geranium “Rozanne”.

We didn’t get a killing frost until well into November. Even now in December the weather is still relatively mild and plenty of the hardy perennials are still hanging on. I’m just now planting tulip and daffodil bulbs and I have a a winter sowing project planned for late January. I am ready for the break of winter - a chance to rest and reset just like nature does. But I’m also looking forward to next spring. I know by the time March rolls around I’ll be chomping at the bit to do it all over again.