A Year Into a New Garden Space

Lynda Truelove is sharing her new garden with us today.

I am an avid gardener, and we moved to our new home on a 7000-sq.-ft. unlandscaped lot a little over a year ago. I have enjoyed Fine Gardening magazine and certainly get lots of enjoyment and ideas from the lovely photos.

I thought I could share my little garden with other gardeners. We live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, which is Zone 8 and gives me lots of flexibility with choices of plants.

Pink flowering dogwood (Cornus florida, Zones 5–9) blooms over the birdbath.

Despite being only a little over a year old, the garden is already looking remarkably full and mature! A small footbridge crosses the gravel dry streambed.

The dry gravel streambed even has fish in it—elegant, blue ceramic fish that look perfect half-hidden by an ornamental grass.

A planting of shade-loving perennials dominated by hostas (Hosta hybrids, Zones 3–8) adds greenery to this seating area.

Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima, Zones 7–10) makes an airy cloud in the foreground with a hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus, Zones 5–8).

As this is a new garden, there is plenty of room for the trees and shrubs to grow and fill in to their mature size, with perennials providing color and texture in between in the meantime.

A very happy-looking pig luxuriates under a hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla, Zones 5–9) nearly completely covered with blooms.

These chairs provide a spot to sit and enjoy the garden, and their bright blue color means that they also serve as a beautiful focal point for this part of the garden.

The little gazebo looks like a perfect spot for a morning cup of coffee. Zonal geraniums (Pelargonium hybrid, Zones 8–11 or as an annual) provide a blast of color in the foreground.

It’s hard to believe this garden is just over a year old! It already looks amazing, and will just get better as it matures.

A final look across the little foot bridge in the garden path

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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