Since becoming homeowners, Husband and I have decided to try our hand at gardening. We have a not-small-and-not-big plot of land, with plenty of yard space on all sides of our house. We are lucky that our home came with beautiful landscaping; stone-lined flower beds abound, and we were excited to see azaleas, rhododendrons, tulips, and lilacs burst into bloom our first spring at the Cottage.
As a girl who has been known to inadvertently kill every house plant she’s ever come in contact with, I greatly appreciate the flowers that re-appear each spring all on their own, with little to no help from me. Like these dark purple irises. Bless those resilient little suckers.
Admittedly, Husband approaches gardening with far more enthusiasm than I do. I like the idea of gardening, but not so much the hard work it involves. At least, not after a certain point. I don’t like bugs — HATE bugs — so there’s only a short period of time in which I can work in the garden without fear of running into something creepy-crawly. Once the hot weather hits at the end of May, I’m out of commission until about October.
Luckily, Husband is aware of the woman he married and is very good about not (outwardly) rolling his eyes when I run away screaming from a spider the size of a quarter (which is big, right? BIG.), and he takes up most (okay, all) of the slack with the yard work during the summer months.
The one part I do love about gardening is the FLOWERS. I stumbled across Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden: Grow, Harvest, and Arrange Stunning Seasonal Blooms pretty soon after we moved to the Cottage. Country Living magazine had excerpted the section on peonies, which I had recently become obsessed with since seeing them all over the place at my friend’s wedding in England. I started reading the peony excerpt, and I was amazed at how simply it broke down taking care of these plants — how to plant them, when to plant them, when to pick blooms, everything. And, the gorgeous pictures with the article didn’t hurt! I was convinced that this was the book I needed in order to grow my own peonies — and anything else I wanted to try not to kill.
After several debates with myself (am I really going to look at this more than once? What if I hate gardening? What if a spider bites me and I never set foot outdoors again?), I clicked the BUY button and had it shipped right to my door the minute it was off the presses.
It’s a beautiful book, but most importantly — it’s HELPFUL. And, like, super easy to follow. I’d tried reading about gardening and plant types and planting schedules so many times before, either in large gardening books or online articles. Everything confused me. The information either seemed too bare-bones or, more oftne than not, way too overwhelming.
I bought this book expecting to read it once and then have it be a coffee table book, but I actually go to it several times a year. I often turn to certain flower sections (tulips, peonies, roses, etc.) when I want to refresh my memory about when to plant or harvest something, and then I flip through the whole book a few times a year to remind myself of what other flowers and plants I might want to try, and when the ideal time for planting them is.
This year, following the wonderfully easy instructions of Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden, we planted tulip and daffodil bulbs along our stone garden borders, and were rewarded with gorgeous blooms, just as we were told we would be.
The Cottage also came with a rose bush that yields deep red, velvety flowers. The past few years, we’ve had maybe one or two roses bloom for all too short a time. This year, after reading Floret Farm’s tips on rose care, we were rewarded with so many rosebuds, we didn’t do what to do with them all!
The rose care guidelines also worked well with our climbing tea rose bush, which has grown wildly and beautifully out of control.
The peonies were my Big Risk — after meticulously reading the excerpt that had encouraged me to purchase the book, I bought two bare root peony plants online from Gilbert H. Wild and Son in the fall. I chose this company because they will ship your plants to you at the correct time for planting them. Totally makes the whole gardening thing easier for someone like me. When the peonies arrived at my house, I planted them according to Floret Farm’s instructions…and waited.
Tick, tock. Months passed. Snowstorm after snowstorm passed. A blizzard came through and wrecked the backyard and stole our power for one awful day (I know, I know — some people had it way worse, but it was still pretty awful). Finally, one day in April, I started to see little green shoots poking through the dirt where (I was pretty sure) I had planted my peonies. It took me a little while to determine if they were just weeds (which grow with great fervor in our yard), but after some quick Googling, I let out a whoop of joy — not one, but both peonies had made it through the winter!
Ladies and gentleman, I introduce you to Sarah Bernhardt. (Only the most celeb-worthy peonies make it to Cottage. Obvi.) I also planted a Lady Alexander Duff peony, but I wasn’t able to snap a photo of that one before it ran its course.
I’m so damn proud of not killing these plants, though. And it’s all thanks to Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden.
So, if you’re thinking about diving (or tentatively wading) into the world of gardening, I highly recommend this book.
I’ve also found that Southern Living‘s”Grumpy Gardener” gives some pretty helpful tips on gardening. I like to browse through that magazine, along with the various other plant and flower catalogs that come pouring into my mailbox when I’m outside under my pergola. Nothing like being in nature to inspire you to plant more!
Did anyone else have a proud gardening moment this year? Share below!
I have 2 peonies that come back every year. To my disappointment, the blooms last 2 weeks and I’m left with an ugly green mess of a plant.
Thanks to my girls (chickens) I have a flourishing vegetable garden. Just picked 2 zucchini that are bigger than my forearm. A bunch of cucs just about ready to be picked and just waiting on the tomatoes to turn red. I think I may have planted some peppers, but the tomato and zucchini plants have grown so large I can’t see what is going on in there. Note to self for next year – expand garden or plant less. Who are we kidding? We are expanding!!!
That sounds like a huge garden!! I’m jealous. We did well with flowers this year, but the veggie garden’s success remains to be seen. We planted three tomato plants, which are growing sky high and have a few fruit on them, so we just have to wait and see with those. We also planted one zucchini plant and one cucumber plant. The cucumber mysteriously disppeared after a few days; it’s like it just upped and walked away. The zucchini plant is yellowed and wilted, and while it won’t completely die, it refuses to respond to our attempts to revive it. I agree, though — when in doubt, expand! 😀