It’s gardening season and Terreeia and I have been working with MaryAnne White (my favourite landscape designer) to finalize the plan for our greenhouse and vegetable garden area. I’m so excited to see this come together!
The foundation for our greenhouse has been installed, I wanted it to be visually close to the tall Poplars in our neighbours yard.
The original garden plan
Plus the first few designs were basically varying versions of something that looked like this:
I just couldn’t nail down the design in my head because it just looked like a room because we kept thinking it had to go inside a fenced area. And that’s the part that bothered me, so even after a few rounds I kept thinking something was missing.
Thinking outside the fence
And then I realized our last garden wasn’t completely fenced off (we don’t have issues with rabbits or deers) and there are technically fences all around this area anyway because it’s a narrow property (below), so finally I asked MaryAnne for a design that included the area leading up to the split rail fence. That won’t stay forever, but it will be there for now.
I sent her these inspiration photos and said “I want it to look like it’s been there for years but I want it planted now 🙂
So here’s the design she sent me last week and I love it! The big tree on the bottom right is our Honey Locust tree which is just starting to get some leaves but it’s the best part of the back of the property.
I also love the way she continued the garden bed from behind the pool into this area!
Falling in love at the greenhouse
Moving onto the rest of the plant material. Last Monday I headed out to the nurseries to select the bigger trees and shrubs and when I saw the actual trees MaryAnne had specified I cried for about 15 minutes with pure joy as we walked form shrub to shrub.
It was cold that day, I was grateful for my vest!
Here’s how the front looks right now:
Here’s how it will look eventually. . .
Here’s a pic of my inspiration garden again
What it will look like in 5 years
Oh I can’t wait!
Well, what do you think of my veggie garden plan? I’d love the gardeners to chime in!
Psssst! Last chance to get in on this week’s virtual Create Your Dream Home course this Friday and Saturday! We have only 3 spots left. Sign up today so we can overnight your class materials!
Need a really good garden design? MaryAnne does it remotely! You can find her here.
Related posts:
My Landscaping Project and Favourite New Garden
First Rule of Design: Boring Now Equals Timeless Later
Fifth Rule of Design: Don’t Panic, Trust the Plan
Always listen to your gut! Your vision is beautiful. And the front has turned out so pretty.
Maria – I can’t hardly wait to see your garden area .
It will be fabulous!!!
Oh, Maria, I love your garden plans! When you wrote of your 15 min. of joy, when I read that to my husband, I cried too!! I so love your enthusiasm!! Love ya, Candy❤️
Thanks Candice, I love you too! Maria
It will be wonderful! I love the greenhouse, veggie, boxwood garden. I can’t recall if the red barn is also on your property. And will it stay red?
Will you be able to pull the red into the back garden? Or are you trying to block that view? Personally, I’d incorporate it as a feature.
I will not be pulling red into the plant material but it will stay red because Terreeia likes the classic red barn! Maria
Such a fabulous design. I love the added curves. And small raised beds are the best way to go for veggies. You might want to an arch or two (or four) linking the raises beds. Gives your tomatoes or peas or baby pumpkins somewhere to climb and provides some shade for the tender herbs and lettuces. Good luck! Nothing better than picking dinner up from the back yard!!!!!!!
Oh my, it’s going to be breathtaking! You and I love the same style of garden, so I can’t wait to see how this fills in over the next few years.
Hello Maria and fellow garden enthusiasts! So happy for you to be able to have the garden of your dreams! Great comments and ideas here!
I’m very jealous right about now! We moved into our house after a 4 month renovation ( thank you for all the great tips along the way!!) and now the outside is desperate for some landscaping but of course we have run out of money :-0 My husband has finally agreed to allocate $1,000 for starting so I have all my gorgeous inspo pictures (very similar to yours BTW) and I will start this weekend with the front bed and back patio. We live in GA so it’s full on spring now and if I wait any longer it will be too hot. So, thank you for the motivation and progress photos now and how it will look in 5 years – hopefully ours will be looking decent by then too.
Oh Maria your landscaping is outstanding. When it is full grown it will look like a botanical garden. I just love your enthusiasm. You could charge admission!
Oh Maria! It’s going to be stunning! I’ve been excited to see this and am overjoyed with the plans and inspiration! I am green with greenhouse envy too!
It’s a very good plan. A couple of suggestions: there is an excellent line of sight directly down the center of the pool continuing between the little red barn and large tree and then on to the shoulder of the ridge in the distance. Make sure the planting emphasizes and complements this line of sight. Also, there is a natural place for a path just left of the cement pool surround that could lead through the flowerbed, to an ornamental gate in the existing fence, and then on to the path that runs at right angle to the entrance to the greenhouse. At the end of this path place a statue or showy shrub. This would encourage exploration and ease of access from the pool area to the more distant parts of the garden. Thank you so much for your blog and all that you share.