Pocket Gardens: (Flower Challenge)

This is our second summer in our new house. Last year we put in a lot of work on the garden: We tore out some sod and created two flower spaces, or “Pocket Gardens”… one I call “The Woodland Garden,” and the other is “The Cottage Garden.”

The woodland garden is nestled under the cedars and hemlock and there are lots of natural plants that find their way in! Huckleberries and forget-me-nots! The cottage garden is dense and peppered with flowers for cutting.

Looking back, they actually did pretty well for a new garden. My freshly planted peonies gave me a few flowers, this year it is double!

Scott built some planter boxes for veggies last Mother’s Day, and this year he got a beautiful waterfall maple that I hope will bring some rich fall colors.

When eyeing these pictures… please remember, this our very first garden! We lived on a steep wooded lot before with shrubs and rocky landscapes. I was a master of container planting – “The thriller, the filler and the spiller.” Boxes with bright geraniums and frothy frondescence… but this is my first, in-the-ground, battle the slugs, pull ALL the weeds and make ALL the mistakes kind of garden. I am culpable -in spite of warnings from my gardening friends, I planted things too closely and this year, when they came in thickly it was obvious. I will be digging up and moving things next spring. Yes. Deer love hosta and tulips. Bears WILL break into your greenhouse and eat all the fertilizer with a dessert of Sluggo.

Honestly? We have found the garden to be a lot of work! But when work is crazy and the winter days are long and gray, it brings succor to step into the greenhouse, where even the weakest winter sun can make it cozy and toasty and pore over seed catalogs, wishing and planning!

SUMMER 2019 – Brand new!