After months of planning, seed starting, and patiently waiting, the garden is finally beginning to take shape. Every year looks a little different as I become more experienced and ambitious, and this season I’ve added a few new plants while continuing to grow many of the flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables that have become favorites.

As always, my garden is a mix of beauty and practicality. I love filling the space with flowers for cutting and selling bouquets, as well as attracting pollinators. I have a special place in my heart for herbs and I have been trying to incorporate more vegetables and food for our family (and chickens). This year feels especially exciting because I’m trying a few things for the first time and expanding some of the plants I’ve fallen in love with over the years.

Flowers

Flowers make up a large portion of my garden because I started out just wanting bouquets for the home, and that transformed into creating bouquets to sell to the community. I have also noticed an increase over the years in hummingbirds, butterflies, and pollinators as I have added more and more flowers.

One of my biggest gardening adventures this year is growing dahlias for the first time. I have always been a bit intimidated and finally decided to give them a try. I’m excited to see how they perform and to learn more about growing and storing the tubers for future seasons.

One of the main flowers I started from seed is lisianthus, which is always a bit nerve wracking. Anyone who has grown lisianthus knows they require a lot of patience and attention, but their rose-like blooms are worth the wait.

This week I’m also expecting lisianthus flower plugs that I ordered from Burpee. This is an easier way to ensure early success with these picky plants. Thankfully, I was able to successfully germinate 40 lisianthus myself (out of 45 cells!), but I quickly decided I wanted even more of these beautiful blooms. Flower plugs are essentially the small seedlings with the dirt from their original seed trays that you are able to “plug in” to your garden beds and continue growing. I can’t wait to get them planted and watch them fill out the garden beds.

Other flowers growing in the garden this year include:

• Celosia
• Stock
• Strawberry Sunflowers
• Morning Stars
• Snapdragons (both seed starts and volunteers that re-seeded themselves)
• Multiple varieties of poppies
• Multiple varieties of zinnias
• Gomphrena
• Nasturtiums
• Eucalyptus
• Mullein
• Violas
• Gerbera Daisies
• Bachelor Buttons
• Baby’s Breath
• Aster

One fun surprise this spring was discovering that some seedlings I thought were volunteer poppies actually turned out to be larkspur that re-seeded from last year. They look very similar to poppies when starting out, but then they kept getting taller and taller, which made me take a closer look!

Vegetables

Every year, I try to add a few more vegetables to the garden. I’ll admit- vegetables aren’t my thing. I am much more successful with flowers. However, I’ve been trying to be more intentional about growing vegetables that we can either eat fresh or I can preserve for the pantry.

I’m growing:

• Multiple varieties of tomatoes
• Multiple pepper varieties
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Butter beans
• Carrots
• Onions
• Lettuce

I always look forward to summer meals built around whatever is available in the garden.

Herbs

Herbs are scattered throughout my vegetable beds, flower gardens, and borders because they are beautiful, useful, and attract pollinators. I absolutely love that my herb plants come back bigger and stronger each year, which really fills in the borders.

This year’s herb collection includes:

• Basil
• Dill
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Mint
• Thyme
• Sage
• Lavender
• Catnip
• Yarrow

Many of my perennial herbs came back beautifully this spring. My feverfew, lavender, catnip, yarrow, thyme, and sage all survived the winter and are growing strong. Even so, I started additional lavender and yarrow plants to tuck throughout the borders around our home. I love being able to step out the back door and grab some herbs to throw in dinner or a drink.

Strawberries and the GreenStalk

One of the biggest additions to the garden this year is strawberries.

This is my first year really focusing on growing them, and I’m especially excited because for Mother’s Day from my husband, I was gifted a GreenStalk planter (not sponsored). I’m using it specifically for strawberries to hopefully have a large harvest to turn into jams and desserts. However, no strawberries have made it into the house yet with a 3 year-old helper eating them fresh off of the planter!

I love finding ways to maximize growing space on my 0.25 acre, and the vertical planter seems like a great option for keeping the berries accessible while saving room in the garden beds.

The Raspberries

One of the blessings of moving into this home has been inheriting an established raspberry bush. The raspberry canes are currently flowering and getting larger every week, which means berry season isn’t too far away. I tend to harvest a pint of raspberries per day when they are in full production.

Rhubarb Season Has Come and Gone

My rhubarb gave us a wonderful harvest this spring. We’ve already finished harvesting for the season, and now the plants are focusing on storing energy for next year.

Rhubarb is one of those dependable perennial crops that asks very little and gives so much in return. I’m personally not the biggest rhubarb family, but my family loves it so I am more than happy to share!

Looking Ahead

This year is shaping up to be full of colorful flowers, fresh vegetables, fragrant herbs, and hopefully plenty of berries.

I can’t wait to see how everything grows and to share the harvests, successes, and lessons learned along the way here at The Gentle Harvest.

Do you have something new you are growing this year? I’d love to hear about it below!