This week I’ve turned my blog over to my dear readers. Twelve of you are sharing your gardens with us today.

Each garden and gardener is different, each space, each story. But joy is the connecting thread woven through them all. This is so important, especially now.

I hope you’ll enjoy getting glimpses into these beautiful spaces. Thanks so much to each of you who invited us through your garden gate.

Sue G.:

This is a photo from the small garden I made last year, summer 2021, in memory of my mom. My mom died in November, 2020 at age 93 from covid. She loved coming to my house to see what was happening in my yard.

I winter sowed many plants for the first time in the winter of 2021. In fact Anne, you sent me some calendula seeds with an order I placed and I winter sowed them too. I placed them here in her garden. Along with some bachelor buttons, lupines, dahlias, Heavenly Blue morning glory, forget-me-nots and a variety of sunflowers. I have never had luck planting sunflowers because the critters always got to the young plants first or the squirrels knocked down the seed heads and hauled them away. Last summer as you see in the photo, my sunflowers were huge, and there were many more here than I planted thanks to the birds and squirrels who took the seeds from my bird feeders and distributed them all over my garden and yard.

Lurline Gatling:

We use raised beds in our garden to grow so many delicious things. This year, the garden is more of a salsa garden with tomatoes, herbs, and green chili. There are visiting critters that show up in the yard from time to time. Butterflies, dragonflies, roadrunners, lizards, and squirrels. An occasional cat ventures into our yard to look things over, making sure all is in order in the garden. I had never seen a neon green grasshopper until this one turned up on the purple basil. His neon color blends with the neon green in the leaves. He is outfitted in good camouflage. 

There are several Rose of Sharon bushes with white and hot pink flowers growing around the backyard. Some volunteer Holly Hocks appear wherever they desire. The pretty maroon one popped up in our lawn.  The lawn is of Buffalo grass and is thick and lush to walk on, making a nice picnic area and beautified with these flowers.  When the grass gets a bit long it will tassel into little half inch, reddish orange blooms that look like tiny trumpet vine flowers.

The last area of our yard is of the Petrified Forest where a tree has fallen and is lying on the ground with ground cover, Butterfly Bush, and Rosemary. These plants have delicate purple blooms which are a nice accent to the white and red pieces of petrified wood we have in our little forest. Often, a roadrunner can be spotted in this forest, pausing for a look-see about the yard before he continues running and flying up and over the wall to continue his adventures in the neighbors’ yard.

Our garden is everchanging and brings lots of joy to us and the critters that visit there as well.

Connect with Lurline on Instagram: @lurlinegatlingart

Marilyn Heneghan:

We have about 4 acres and we use native plants and shrubs in Northern Illinois. This is a picture of our prairie.

This shows our little gate and some of my favorite plants. This is a photo of another year since these plants aren’t blooming yet. The white flowers on the left are Culver’s root. When first blooming the spikes are more prominent. The pink flowers in front are cone flowers (echinacea). To the left are bergamot flowers which don’t show up well in this photo. On the right are milkweed plants in bloom. They are the only plant monarch butterflies will lay their eggs on. There are programs that promote plants that will help the monarch butterfly population.

We also have a wooded area with shade plants and we have what we call a sample garden with a selection or sample of different plants so we can see from our deck. It also has a little pond for our frogs.

Over the years we have seen so much wildlife, birds and insects which has been an enjoyable experience. We have often seen the doe and her fawn which is always a joy. The birds have been as small as a hummingbird and as big as an owl.

Right now we have an abundance of spiderwort plants and when they bloom they are alive with bees and bumblebees.

We have been members of a native plant group and we have hosted a number of yard tours over the years.

Pat Herkel:

We started our garden in 2004. We built the rock wall because the yard slanted down to the road. Then we put down cardboard from the move here and added excellent dirt and compost. Planting started that fall and continues nonstop.

There are paths and I'm slowly reclaiming them.

Except for a couple days last weekend, our days are still lingering in the 60's here. Summer officially starts for us on July 5.

Happy gardening!

Connect with Pat on her website.

Karen Houlding:

This photo shows my very small square patch of garden in the Pacific Northwest which only gets 4-6 hrs. of sunlight per day so greens & herbs do very well here, in addition to the weeds & ferns!

We've had such a cool, overcast May/June that I had to plant our tomatoes in pots on a sunnier side of the yard!

I love when some plants start flowering, like the kale, or the chives in the foreground - the flowers are pretty and attract many bees!

We discovered a small white spider (goldenrod crab spider) that was living on the chive flowers and catching the bees for its food -- see the small inset on the right of the photo! It stayed there for several days and became a fun, daily check on the garden to see if it was still there!

Connect with Karen at her blog: I Am Chasing Butterflies.

Aleta Jacobson:

This is just a small part of my garden. These are my raised beds with flowers and veggies too. I have not done this forever but this year I made up my mind I’d fill these beds with life.

I feel pretty good that so much is growing and doing well. I really get some peace and relaxing from gardening.

Connect with Aleta at her website: Aleta Jacobson Artist

Kathleen:

I hesitated to send a picture of my “bird” garden because of the state of destruction that it’s in, but here it is.

During the pandemic when it was difficult to buy bird seed for my many feeders, I concluded that the solution was creating a bird garden that would provide seeds, nectar and berries for birds and pollinators. This was supposed to be cost-savings as well… Well, my local deer had other ideas.

I love this garden anyway even if there are no berries again this year. At least not until the Beauty Berry berries this fall. The bees and hummingbirds are at least able to enjoy it. 

I also attached a picture of the early stages of the garden and accompanying deer. You also get a glimpse of my albino one outside the fence!

We tried to buy deer-resistant plants, but clearly we failed.

No matter, I love sitting here on my screened porch watching the wildlife that visits, tending to the new additions and hope that they grow before the deer get them, and enjoying the serenity that gardens provide.

Karen Lowry Reed:

Here in the Green Mountains of Vermont, we have a relatively short growing season. In our deep and cold winters we look to our resting gardens and hoop house to remind us that hunkering in is part of the growing cycle.

Reading seed catalogs and planning our next crops and bringing food up from the root cellar are all part of the fun of the "off season". And when I sew projects with fabric dyed from summer flowers, it feels like I have magic in my fingers. The stitching, the cooking, the planning, the reading...they are all manifestations of hope, and I am so very grateful for each and every season here at our bit of earth.

Connect with Karen at her website: Sew and Sow Life

Stacey Rook:

I thought I'd share with you a photo of our summer solstice "tree" - a sunflower that volunteered in our yard, which is now over 7 feet tall. We did a photoshoot with it on the Summer Solstice, to show our appreciation, capture its beauty and I jumped in to demonstrate its size! It is in front of a 7 foot wall of passionfruit, which our neighbors planted last year and which we get to reap the rewards at the end of summer!

Other gifts are the orange and tangerine trees and our neighbor's avocado tree that hangs over our yard. Poppies that the gopher didn't eat and the dandelion that I am keeping the gardeners from mowing down. Other little miracles here and there, love them all! (We're in Southern California, so our yard is hot and our climate is dry and  gardening has been a challenge, to say the least.) I have a few garden beds of vegetables that I had beginners luck with that now, a couple seasons later, are just doing so-so. The one thing that is doing really well is our strawberries, which makes me happy! 

The vegetables are mis-shaped or stunted or slow-growing. The calendula I planted is suffering, the sunflowers I planted are doing so-so. Sweetpeas finally survived, third time's the charm, but they are barely hanging in there. The strawflowers I planted ended up being a type of turnip (mix up with seed company)! I am slowly getting the message to just let nature do its thing! Though it probably won't stop me from trying! I just bought some ginger rhizomes and just received the heliotrope I ordered and don't know where to plant! Oh and I just planted some sweet potato slips - hope springs eternal!

Annie Sharman:

This is a corner of my garden in Somerset UK. It tends to be quite wild as the weeds threaten to take over at every opportunity. 

The deep pink flowers are called Angel's Fishing Rods & they lift my spirits every year. 

Ginny Talbert:

I have 600+pics taken in the gardens just since late March!! It was SO hard to choose. But I did and here it is.

This pic encompasses three areas of my side gardens: the Pergola Garden (new last fall) at the front, the pergola patio and the Gated Garden behind (10+years old), with South side of my house at left. The pic was taken mid May, so 100s of tulips, daffs and other spring bulbs are done. Irises, alliums, and other mid spring flowers are beginning. I laid the path stones myself. It's a magical season and I spent time sitting in this area just absorbing good vibes from my gardens and delighting in what I've created. It fills me with joy!

Laura Trotchie:

My garden is my happy place. I’m a relatively new gardener and my plants were all gifted to me.

I’ve been taking time to nourish them and finding joy and inspiration in the process.

Thank you, dear readers, for being here. For sharing your joy and enthusiasm. For encouraging me and each other. We all need this.

I may do another tour of reader gardens later in the season, so if you missed out on sharing yours you’ll get the chance. I’m also thinking about other ways to get you involved. If you have thoughts, let me know.

Photos in this post are © each gardener