About this time of year, I start planning out our garden. This year though, we are doing something a little different.

I’m going to be honest. When I started gardening, it was something special I did with my Uncle Art, and since he has been gone, some of the joy has gone out of it for me. So this year, I am mixing things up. Instead of a vegetable garden and a wild and carefree flower bed, I am going completely the other direction. Well, not completely. I will never be a formal gardens type person. However, the vegetables are out this year. I am just not growing them. And my wild flower garden is going to be tamed, both in the front yard and in the backyard.

Let’s start in the front. That makes sense right? We already pulled out everything that was in the main bed, all the lavender and yarrow and whatever all else I had thrown in there because it was pretty. Our lavender border is coming out as well, but we may replace it and move it further back from the sidewalk and line the sides with rock or gravel. It had been growing out over the sidewalk, which was pretty but also hard to navigate, and then the actual yard grass started to overtake it and it became a big mess. So that absolutely has to go and be replaced.

As for that main bed, we are going the traditional, neat and tidy route. I am not sure yet what will go in there quite yet, but I know I want simple, and maybe a small little evergreen type tree/shrub. Maybe some hostas? Definitely a few little flowers for color but just a few simple ones, here and there. Like sprinkles.

The backyard is also getting a big change. We are pulling out the old stump, and where the old tree used to be, we are planting a stand of birch trees, because I love them. I also hope to plant a few conifers in the back as well, somewhere. I realize it will take time for them all to grow up and be real trees, but, I am good with little baby trees right now.

Then, I am going to slowly make a rose garden. One new rose plant a year, as a Christmas gift. A few years ago I splurged on a David Austin Munstead Woods rose, and it is so beautiful. It is in our yard now and getting bigger every year.

This, I have already taken steps with. I have some Christmas money and I ordered another David Austin rose today. It will ship in April, and I am already so excited to watch it grow. It is the Ebb Tide rose, and is a deep purpley plum color, so very delicious looking. It is a super fragrant variety, according to the David Austin website, and the scent is that of clove and citrus. I love this description:

A wonderful variety with double blooms of a striking, smoked, deep plum purple. It has an attractive, compact, rounded habit and is very healthy. The fragrance is strong – a wonderful combination of clove and citrus blossom.

Photo from Spring Hill Nurseries

Then, Billy wants to grow a cut garden, full of zinnias, dahlias, nasturtiums, and those Dr. Seuss looking flowers, alliums. And maybe some Mexican sunflowers because I think they are beautiful. I will probably have to keep some rue around in case the Black Swallowtails come back, because their caterpillars eat it. And then that is it! Although this free photo I found is charming and now I want this scene recreated somewhere in my yard.

So, I am dreaming of spring, in a very different way this year. I am excited to see how it all comes together!