I love sharing photos of our flower gardens here on the farm. All the compliments I get on them make me smile, but they also make me feel a bit guilty at times! The truth is that all the big flower gardens here, and all of the perennials, were started by the previous owners of our home.
We got lucky to find a home with so much beauty already in place. I don’t think I could have found the time or money to create what they did. In addition, the flower gardens pretty much take care of themselves; or I let them anyway. I believe the previous owner selected a lot of plants for their ability to draw in bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, which we greatly appreciate. We need those bees for pollinating our vegetable garden!
I pull a few weeds here and there, and I’ve pulled a few plants I didn’t like, but mostly I’ve just let them go. Honestly, in a lot of cases I don’t know what’s weed, what’s wildflower, and what was planted by them. The gardens are quite overcrowded and some things might be getting pushed out. I just kind of let them fight it out amongst themselves and go with the flow (as long as my favorites aren’t getting crowded out)! I’d much rather, and need to, focus my time and energy on the vegetable garden and my herb garden.
However, I do still enjoy some annual flowers, so I’ll usually start some of my own from seed or buy a few at a local garden center to put in pots. I wanted a pot of flowers on the front steps, so I bought a few plants for that. Calibrachoa has long been a favorite annual of mine, but it’s not something you can find seeds for. All the local nurseries have the plants though, and they come in many different colors.
I forgot to buy petunia seeds, another long-time favorite, this year so bought a few of those as well and put them in this pot along with some alyssum.
The herb garden is all my own, though the original thyme plants were left behind by the previous owners, next to the patio. I moved a small amount to this existing bed and look what happened! There’s second year parsley in there as well, which I let go so I could harvest it for seeds. I use both parsley and mint in my organic dog cookies so like to grow my own. Most of the herbs are perennial as well, except for the basil, which I started myself from seed. One year I planted dill in there, and though dill is an annual, it always leaves seeds behind and springs up on its own the next season.
I also have my memorial garden, where our girls are buried, but I’m waiting for something special to add to that and then I’ll share that with you. I started an herb garden outside the chicken coop too, to help keep insects from going in the coop, and for “the girls” to munch on when they want. That garden needs some weeding too, and I’ll share that when it’s come along a little more. Our cool weather in late spring slowed a lot of things down, but now that summer is really here, things are growing much faster.
My herbs and some flowers are not just for show, I use them for many things: the birds, for my dog cookies, and for Luke. Many herbs are good for both chickens and dogs. I add parsley to some of Luke’s meals, I cut herbs to put in the chickens’ nesting boxes to keep them fresh, and I have a pot of lemon balm on our deck where we sit to help repel bugs. If you are interested in that type of thing, read my post “8 Dog Friendly Plants That Repel Bugs”.
The joy of maintenance free flower gardens is that it leaves more time for the beneficial gardens. I wouldn’t want to be without the beauty of flowers either though, and luckily even some flowers have other purposes; repelling insects for instance. I started many more marigolds from seed, and they are now planted down by my tomato plants to help keep destructive insects away. There are also nasturtiums in the vegetable garden, they also repel some insects AND they are good for chickens too!
Gardening is something I enjoy, and I love that it benefits the whole farm and family too! It can be a time consuming hobby, and as long as I can find ways to make a little money from it (or simply save on our grocery bill), it can be a job too. Hopefully we’ll have enough vegetables this year for us and a few to sell as well. For me, that’s a dream come true!
Thanks to our friends The LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop. Please visit them and other blogs through the links below!
You have such gorgeous gardens. I love that purple flower – wow! And I didn’t know that marigolds can keep away destructive insects. I don’t know if they’ll grow at my elevation – I’ll have to check it out!
Thanks for the beautiful post!
Thank YOU! I love sharing the beauty we have around us, as I know you do as well. ♥
Your garden is just exquisite! Besides, I’m gonna go with Mother Nature was the real gardener at your farm. 😍
She can be moody, but sometimes she knows what she’s doing. 🙂
Wow! Your gardens are incredible. How in the world do you have time to take care of everything?? You must stay busy from sun up to late at night. I am so impressed with all that you do.
Well, I try! Thank you so much. Usually by the end of summer things are out of control though! 🙂
You place looks amazing and so special, and so do you Luke!
Thank you, Brian! Luke’s black and white fur is the perfect complement to our colorful flowers – or vice-verse. 🙂
Your garden is beautiful! Even if you didn’t start it, you’re taking care of it and that counts! My inlaws inherited their “garden” from their previous owners and they let it go. It was really pretty before.
Thank you so much for saying that! I just hope this one doesn’t get away from me! 🙂
What a gorgeous garden! I’m much more into photographing gardens than working in them LOL
And you do quite well at that!!
Everything is beautiful. Are the ferns in the first photo the kind you can eat when they are fiddleheads? My hubby spent a lot of time trying to find some this year and definitely picked wrong.
I don’t think that those are those type of ferns. We do have some around the yard though, I remember seeing them in the spring. I’ve never tried them myself, but I know they are a popular thing in New England!
Such pretty gardens and flowers!! Luke is pawretty darn handsome too. We hope you has a pawtastic weekend!
xoxo,
Matt & Matilda
Luke is definitely the best looking thing in the yard. 🙂
Beautiful garden and handsome Luke. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. Scritches to Luke. ♥
You are absolutely right about that! ♥
Your gardens are just gorgeous and we too, love marigolds!
Thank you! I’m glad to hear there are other marigold lovers out there!
So much beauty, I could only hope one day my gardens would look like that.
Sometimes if you just leave them alone, you get lucky. 🙂
Ah, Jan, you have such a green thumb! I’m jealous! Mine are both blacker than coal – I even, somehow, managed to kill an aloe plant that my mom had on the windowsill of our home! About the only thing I haven’t killed are the weeds!
Weeds are impossible to kill….LOL. And the truth is, when it comes to indoor plants, I do not do well!
your garden is THE place to be… a book a blanket and a cold lemonade in the middle of all this wonderful nature…. aaah that’s the life
It sure is!!
It all looks great. Mom does not enjoy gardening or maintaining the plants we have. Everything always needs trimming or weeding and she has no interest in any of that. You are lucky you have lots of gardens you love, and you enjoy working with them. You really found the right place to buy when you got this home.
We sure did. We got lucky, and our realtor was really the one to thank for finding this place. When I first saw it, I passed on it, but she insisted we look at it!
Your Mom’s flowers are doing quite well considering she doesn’t like gardening! 🙂
I’m so jealous. Tulips are my favorite – but I’ve tried several times to grow them and spectacularly failed. Your gardens are gorgeous – and I like that you don’t have to spend hours caring for them each week.
I often say that gardening is not as easy as it should be; it is very challenging! There are so many factors to consider – weather, insects, soil….it goes on and on!