Designing and Growing Our Dream Garden: A Continuous Story
Discover how a 2-1/2 acre blank slate became a lush, evolving garden filled with trees, daffodils, and lessons learned over 20 years.
Submitted by: Beth & Dave Clark, Hudsonville, MI, Zone 6a
Our budding interest in gardening was a major reason we bought a 2-1/2-acre lot and built our dream home. This blank canvas allowed us to become the designers, planters, and caretakers of our personal botanic garden. It is filled with a variety of trees, transforming the space over 20 years from full sun to a lot of shade. We are approaching 1000 daffodils, and have plenty of shrubs and perennials.
To ensure tall annuals for cutting and vegetables get the sunlight they need, we intersperse these plants throughout the property and use raised beds. Containers play a big role in our landscape, especially on the deck and patios. Many tropical plants spend the summer outdoors and then transition indoors for the winter.
As gardeners, we discover lessons every day, whether outside working or inside reading and observing. Looking back, the biggest lesson we’ve learned is what one garden author called the “continuous story.” We kept our initial hand-drawn landscape plan, not realizing it was just the starting point. Hundreds of hours of effort have been invested, and the rewards have paid us back many times over.
Annabelle hydrangeas enjoy their location on the south side of the house, getting some shade. They all started out as container plants in various locations.
The front yard is covered in daffodils with varieties starting in early April and going through May. The statuary was made by a local artist.
Alliums are a favorite throughout the yard as are shrubs in containers, like this lilac.
A stone path connects 2 well-used patios. The green man is surrounded by a honeysuckle vine that provides fragrant blooms on the deck above.
The sign marking the start of this path was made by a crafty friend.
Read more garden stories and see inspiring gardens from around the world.