There are many designs on Matthew and mine’s dream garden list. Each year I think more ideas get added then checked off, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Two designs that have lived on that list since we created our first garden are a lavender and poppy pathway and a courtyard garden.
At our old house we had talked about doing the lavender and poppy lined pathway, but we never found the right time to create it. Then when we found the house we live in now and realized the setup of the front garden, we knew it would be perfect spot to do what we’ve always dreamed of.
Our kitchen door has a path that leads up from our driveway to our porch and on the left side there was a flower bed that we did do work on in our first year. We ended up scattering some poppy seeds in that flower bed and they looked great but did tend to take over the other plants.
On the right side of the pathway, we had a small patch of grass that could easily be made into a courtyard garden. The first year we placed a birdbath in the center and called that good until we could really start the true vision.
This is the beginning of the third summer at this house and I can finally say that we are fully focusing on this project. The first summer we wanted to see what plants came up, the second summer we had other maintenance work to do and now we can center our attention on the design and putting it in.
For the courtyard garden, Matthew has already dug in the beds and put in the gravel work. We have decided to have four beds in the corners of the courtyard with a water center piece. Each corner bed will have an ornamental grass in a raised pot, a rose bush in front of the pot and surrounding that will be more lavenders.
In the back corner where the mudroom and kitchen meet, we have a wisteria that grows in that corner of the courtyard which we are hoping to re-trellis this year so it can grow over the mudroom window more effectively. At the corner closest to porch steps, we also have a climbing rose which is only just starting to get establish but I’m hoping it’ll climb this year.
So far, we have planted the lavender in the courtyard and need to get more for the flower bed on the other side of the pathway. Once we have those in, we will scatter more poppy seeds. I am hoping to get the rose bushes this weekend since it is Mother’s Day weekend and there are always good sales on flowers those weekends
We are looking for the right grasses to put in the pots as Matthew saw them online and we haven’t been able to find them online in seed form. Ornamental grasses can be hard to find here in NH because of the zone we are in so we are not banking on finding them at a nursery, but that would be awesome if we did.
I cannot wait for this project to be done and grown in a bit – I know it’s going to be spectacular! When we have a new update of this project, I will definitely share it with you. Fingers crossed it is within the month of May.
