Happy Monday GPODers!
The spring countdown has really begun now! If you haven’t already, it’s time to start brushing off those cobwebs, getting outside, and at the very least doing some serious planning if you’re still dealing with the last bursts of snow and ice before spring’s official arrival. Serendipitously, today’s submission is the perfect dose of inspiration and motivation for the spring chores and projects to come. Maria Nieuwenhof from Richmond, Québec, Canada has shared the process of building new garden beds for her son and his young family last year. After some major life changes and a move to a much smaller property, she utilized plants from her old property while passing on her gardening knowledge and love to future gardeners in her family. The story and photos of these gardens that follow are not only heartwarming, but a testament to what can be created in one growing season.
Maria sent in lots of fabulous photos that did an excellent job in documenting this garden transformation. Today we will be focusing on the construction process and tomorrow we will be back in Québec to see how these new beds continued to transform throughout summer, fall and winter of last year.
Hi there! I am Maria from Richmond, Québec, zone 4b. Late 2023 and 2024 have been two very busy years for us. We were blessed with the arrival of two beautiful grand-daughter’s late August and early September 2023, my oldest and youngest son had their babies 16 days apart! They are added to my middle son’s son and step-daughter. All three live at least one and a half hours away and this prompted us to contemplate moving. This was a huge decision for me because number one I grew up in the area of Huntingdon, Quebec and number two I loved our home and gardens. I always thought we would grow old there together.
So yes we did move and we moved from a country home with 8.5 acres to a 15,000 square foot property in a small country town as they call it here…a first for me! And so far we love it. We found a beautiful home and we live 15 minutes from my youngest son. I have been helping out there quite a bit so this was a perfect place for us. Only down side is that all the gardens at my place need lots and lots of love, basically they need to be redone. So this summer was a planning one for my own gardens.
Since I was not gardening at home my two sons got help with making new gardens at their places and here are some photos of the process. These are from my youngest son’s place where only two small beds exist in front of their balcony. I started from scratch and just put the rot0tiller through the grass and look how it all came out. Needless to say that I brought a whole trailer load of plants from my old home to fill in the new beds. My daughter in law helped out a lot with a watching eye from my 9 month old grand-daughter. It was fun and teaching my daughter in law about gardening (what I know anyways) was a lot of fun too.
I love gardening and it’s my place to empty my head, observe nature and I garden a lot instinctively by trial and error. I have a friend that tells me all the time “you just plant stuff and it always looks great!” Pictures of my oldest sons gardens and eventually of my own will follow another time.
So hope you love the pictures.
As Maria mentions above, the first step in this project was adding more garden beds. The rot0tiller makes light work of tearing up that lawn and making these new areas for planting.
It’s just as important to work around the structures we don’t want in the garden as it is the ones we do. Ironically, a utility pole cannot be utilized in the garden like an arbor, arch, or even fence can, but there is still an opportunity to beautify it a little bit by building garden beds that surround. Just ensure you are following local regulations around planting distances, don’t plant anything that will obstruct access for workers, and select plants with roots that won’t damage underground cables.
A beautiful bounty! I absolutely love that Maria was able to save so many plants from her old property and share them with her family. While you can’t dig up and save every plant from a garden you have to leave behind, sharing some plants, divisions, or cuttings with family and friends is a fantastic way to keep a slice of a departed garden with us.
And then the planting process begins!
A lovely yellow hedge in the making (potentially forsythia?). When grown in, this row of plants will not only add some interest to the front yard, but will provide privacy for their backyard. We love to see a garden bed that does double duties.
While the yard was only an expanse of lawn, there was this fabulous bed built against the house that is the perfect spot to add color to the entryway. However, there was still a lot of work to be done to bring this bed to life.
Maria also decided to add some additional planting space at the side of this bed. The down slope of the front yard as well as this gutter placement made it the perfect spot for a little rain garden.
I can imagine water can flow pretty intensely from that downspout, so a little stream bed is the perfect addition to slowdown the speed of the water and give it a chance to soak into the soil. It also adds some stone to the landscape that matches the beautiful stonework of the house.
From basic driveway to soon-to-be grand garden entrance. The planting possibilities in this long driveway border are absolutely endless, and there is still plenty of lawn left for growing children to play as well as garden expansion in the future.
The first plantings around the utility pole getting a thick layer of mulch.
All of these fabulous plantings needed some whimsy and art added to the mix! A little family of raccoon sculptures look right at home amongst the new plants.
Lots of plant growth and even some first-season flowering!
Lastly, the view from the front steps as all these new plantings are already starting to shine.
Remember, we’ll be back with Maria tomorrow to see how these new garden beds did throughout last year. If you’re looking for even stronger inspiration and motivation to finally invest in some new beds this spring, just wait until you see the color and interest Maria created in her son’s front yard in one growing season.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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