Summer Garden Update: What’s Working, What Isn’t, and Where I’m Going Next

This summer garden update has brought more change to the garden than I think I realized while I was in the middle of it.

There have been new pathways, raised beds, arches, plantings, rearranging, digging, hauling, leveling, and more than a few moments of wondering why we started something and continued working on it in the middle of the hottest part of the year.

I would love to tell you I had a perfectly thought-out plan from the beginning, but that would be giving me far too much credit.

A lot of this garden has evolved one decision at a time. And now that I can finally step back and look at it as a whole, I can see two things very clearly.

It has come a long way.

And it still has a long way to go.

The Bones of the Garden Finally Took Shape

For a long time, this garden had plants, but it didn’t really have much structure.

This year, that started to change.

We added concrete pathways that made the garden easier to move through and helped define the different spaces. We added raised beds, arches, and more intentional planting areas. We also leveled sections of the garden and worked on drainage, which is not exactly the glamorous side of gardening, but it has made a huge difference.

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And when I say “we,” I very much mean my husband too.

Around here, he has earned the nickname Mr. Frizzled, and he has been the muscle behind so much of this garden.

We have literally worked through sections of soil shovel by shovel, pulling out Bermuda grass and weeds by hand. We have dug, hauled, leveled, built, moved things, changed our minds, and sometimes moved them again.

There are plenty of garden projects I probably could have written separate blog posts about along the way and simply didn’t.

But all of those little projects have added up.

They are the reason the garden finally feels like it has a foundation.

What’s Working

The structure is probably the biggest thing that feels right.

The pathways have given the garden a sense of direction, and the raised beds and arches have created stronger lines that help everything feel more connected.

I’m also beginning to understand how much repetition matters.

Repeating plants, colors, and foliage throughout the garden has helped separate areas feel more like they belong to the same space.

And then there are the plants that I think have earned permanent spots in my heart.

The ones that bring pollinators.

The ones with interesting foliage.

The ones that bloom for weeks instead of days.

And sometimes, the ones that are simply so pretty that I have to forgive them for being a little too needy.

Those are the plants I want to build around more intentionally.

What This Summer Garden Update Helped Me See More Clearly

This is the part I’ve been trying to figure out all summer.

The garden is neater.

It is more organized.

It is more functional.

But some areas still don’t quite feel like the garden I have in my head.

My goal has always been a country cottage garden.

Not a perfectly manicured cottage garden, because I’m not sure I’m capable of maintaining one of those even if I wanted to.

I want something relaxed and full of flowers. A little wild, but still intentional. Something that feels as though it has been growing here for years instead of looking like everything was planted last Tuesday.

And I think I finally understand what is missing.

The bones are here.

Now I need to soften them.

I Haven’t Added the Country Charm Yet

One thing I haven’t really started adding is the personality.

I love vintage garden pieces, old containers, weathered wood, and those little collected things that make a garden feel personal.

Right now, some of the newer areas are still very new.

The concrete pathways are practical and I love what they have done for the space, but they also need something to soften them and give them a little more character.

I would love to add gates at the ends of the pathways.

Maybe I’ll build something that looks old and cottage-like.

Or maybe I’ll find the perfect vintage gate somewhere and immediately know it belongs here.

That is part of the fun for me.

I don’t want everything in this garden to look like it came from the same store or was added in the same year.

I want it to feel collected over time.

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Bringing Back the Flowers That Feel Familiar

I keep finding myself drawn back to the flowers that feel familiar. Hollyhocks, daisies, marigolds, phlox, rudbeckia. The kinds of flowers that make me think of old gardens and places that feel lived in.

Flowers that feel familiar and a little nostalgic.

I love trying new plants, and I always will, but I don’t want this garden to lose that feeling of walking into a space that reminds you of your grandmother’s garden or an old country garden you passed years ago and never quite forgot.

I think those familiar flowers are going to be an important part of softening all of the structure we added this year.

Learning to Let the Garden Take Time

This may be the hardest lesson for me.

Perennial gardens need time.

I know this.

I understand this.

And yet, when I see an empty patch of mulch, a little voice immediately starts saying, “You know what would look good there?”

I’m trying to ignore her.

At least occasionally.

A lot of the perennials I planted this year are still young. They haven’t reached their mature size yet, and the garden is going to look completely different after another season or two of growth.

Some plants will spread, some will get taller, and some may surprise me.

And some will probably be moved because I have accepted that “plant it once and never move it again” is apparently not part of my gardening personality.

I’m trying to give everything enough time to show me what it wants to become before I fill every last opening.

The Garden Has Become Something We Share

One of the sweetest parts of all this has been watching our family and friends become invested in the garden too.

People now stop by and ask what has changed since the last time they were here.

Sometimes they come out just to walk through and see how everything is growing.

I love that.

And as the perennials mature and need dividing, I’ve started sharing plants with family and friends too.

There is something special about knowing that a plant growing in someone else’s garden originally came from here.

Gardens have a funny way of spreading beyond their own boundaries.

Sometimes quite literally.

And I think that may be one of my favorite parts of growing one.

Where I Want to Go Next

Going forward, I want to be more intentional about the feeling I’m creating rather than simply filling spaces.

I want more layers. More repetition. More flowers woven through the garden and more movement.

More old-fashioned favorites. More vintage pieces and little touches of country charm.

And always more plants that support the pollinators that make this garden feel alive.

I don’t think the garden needs to be reinvented.

It just needs to keep becoming.

The Barnside Border Became My Starting Point

One of the first places where all of these thoughts really came together was the Barnside Border.

It had become overgrown and difficult to manage, and for quite a while I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it.

Once I finally cleared the space, it felt like an opportunity to start fresh.

This time, instead of choosing plants one at a time simply because I liked them, I wanted to think more carefully about how they would work together.

I wanted flowers, pollinator value, repetition, and texture.

And most of all, I wanted the planting to feel like it belonged in the country cottage garden I’m slowly trying to create.

That became the next chapter in this garden.

Still Growing

When I look back at where the garden started and where it is now, I’m proud of how far it has come.

Not because it is finished.

It definitely isn’t.

But because it finally feels like it has direction. The paths and raised beds gave it structure., and now the flowers, vintage pieces, gates, trellises, and all the little details that come next will hopefully give it soul.

And I think that is what I’m looking forward to most. Watching the garden become more itself, and probably changing my mind about a few things along the way.

That part seems inevitable.

Next, I’m sharing how I transformed the Barnside Border using an EZ Scape planting recipe and a combination of Proven Winners perennials that felt like the perfect first step in this new direction.