I recently posted an update about the Native Garden that we are planning for the courtyard we have in the front of our home. This new garden project has also pushed us to complete phases 2 and 3 of our cut flower garden project. Our cut flower garden was started in the spring of 2022 and I wrote a long post about it at that time.

Now, I am excited to share some updates!

As a refresher, or incase you are a first time reader, the plan with our cut flower garden was to create a garden that would allow us to have fresh bouquets all spring and summer. We removed a bush and bulit raised beds because our soil quality is not great.

This photo shows the garden currently (in its dormant state) and how the space looked before we started our new projects.

This will be our third season with the cut flower garden and I think it has been pretty successful. One major change we made this year was to move the down spout so that it runs rain water into the garden beds. We built a box to hold the down spout, then poked holes along the underside and laid some rock to help with dispersion and drainage. The downspout sits in the box at an angle, allowing the water to run along the length.

I am really pleased with how this downspout project came together. It will help us to make better use of runoff rainwater. It also helps to water the back third of the garden, that is under the roof, when it rains.

Phase 2 and 3 of this garden project were always part of the plan. Originally, I thought we would complete them all in the same season. However, as we began I quickly realized it was a bigger project than I thought so we decided to divided it up.

Phase 2: After the garden beds, I wanted to build a trellis that was attached to the house and would kind of frame the window for climbing plants.

Similar to this quick sketch.

We held off on completing it mostly because our house needed to be painted and wanted to complete the painting before adding the trellis. Last spring I painted and now we are ready! The plan is to grow hydrangeas on it, but I am still deciding on the variety. I will choose one that can handle part shade.

This is how the completed trellis looks. I was originally thinking wood, but we ended up going with this coated metal. We have black accents on the house already, so I liked the added contrast. This metal trellis will also be pretty maintenance free, we didn’t have to build it, it’s less weight to attach to the house and more affordable. The smaller squares will be more ideal for a climbing plant as well.

Phase 3: This part of the project deals with the area opposite of the cut flower boxes. This side space:

My original plan included garden beds on both sides of our gate and a walking path that starts at the gate and wraps around to the front of our house. We decided to pause on this because the cut garden beds ended up being very large and I was not 100% sure how I wanted this section to look, or what plants I wanted to use.

Last season, we placed some plants in our courtyard that we liked, but they are not doing well. The are different kinds of ground covers that we were hoping would spread but the soil in this area is heavy clay and we realized that if we want plants here, we need to amend the soil.

We also realized that to get the look and function we wanted, we probably needed some professional assistance with the courtyard. After deciding on a Native Plant design, the plants we put in last year need to move. They will be moving to the new garden bed we built for phase 3.

The area for this new garden bed is kind of awkward. Our neighbor’s fence runs a little beyond the corner of our fence. Stopping the garden bed at the end of their fence line felt right to me because it helped that weird corner make more sense but would also keep it feeling open. I started with a square garden bed but it felt too heavy. After playing around, I ended up with a square that has one clipped corner.

Something like this super professional pink post-it is illustrating:

Thankfully my husband usually understands how my brain works, and after providing him with dimensions, he built this.

As with the cut garden beds, we built this box from cedar. Cedar is more expensive, but will last a lot longer, is beautiful and doesn’t require maintenance. Before placing the box, we laid cardboard over the grass to kill it. We lined the bottom of the garden bed with small wire mesh. Once the box was placed, we laid more cardboard. Soon, we will add a layer of sand and then a layer of pea gravel to help with draining before finishing with our compost and soil mix.

Along with the plants we are moving, I will add some perennial flowers to expand on my cut flower garden. I can’t wait for the weather to get warm enough to start planting!

We still need to create the path, but will probably not get to that project this year.

I will post an update picture once everything is planted and growing.

Thank you for following along!

Do you have any spring garden projects planned this year? Let me know in the comments.