If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you have seen me "teasing" about our side yard and garden that we have been working feverishly on! I am super excited to tell you that it is now complete! We finally have our side yard landscaped and our garden planted and I can't wait to show it off to you today!
We put a lot of work into this area...and a lot of time. But we love how our yard has turned out and we are thrilled with the results that we are already getting from our garden.
So come and see our Secret Garden!
While putting the finishing touches on our garden, I discovered an amazing new resource for gardening: HGTVGardens! And I was very excited when the gardening experts at HGTVGardens.com asked me to share a little more about their site with you today!
HGTVGardens.com is an interactive community where you can post photos of your own garden, ask questions or give advice in the garden community area! You can also look up specific plants and research what will grow well in your area as well as find a wealth of useful information and entertaining articles about outdoor living and gardening!
Since my husband and I are novice gardeners, it was fabulous to find a site as in-depth and full of useful information as HGTVGardens.com. We can definitely use all the help we can get and their website has proved to be a great resource for us!
I especially love looking up plants in the Plant Finder portion of their website! Although I have a bit of a black thumb (thank you hubby for keeping all of our plants alive), I could seriously spend hours reading about different types of plants on their site! I love learning about plants and flowers so this is a portion of the HGTVGardens website that I particularly enjoy!
I was so proud of our gardening and landscaping adventures that I couldn't resist becoming a community member on the HGTVGardens website! It was so simple to do and I love that I now have a place to interact, ask questions and share my own garden photos on their site! Come and see my photos on My Profile page.
And not only can you check out my photos but you'll have to visit the Photo Gallery section of their new website too! It is stock-full of amazingly beautiful outdoor photos! It is truly outdoor eye-candy at its finest! And I am utterly amazed and humbled by some of the fabulous gardeners out there!
Another thing I love about the HGTVGardens website is that it is fully mobile! This means I can access their website easily from my iPhone (or Andriod) while working outside in my garden!
I can't wait to share more about the building of our garden with you soon! From building the arbor and planter boxes to selecting and planting all our own fruit, vegetables and other plants this project took a lot of work but we absolutely love how it turned out!
We planted "mostly" vegetables in one of our planter boxes and all fruit in the other one. We have even had a few strawberries ripen already!
We finished off our side yard by planting 10 additional bushes and plants. Whew!
And after laying down 5 yards of new mulch over the entire landscaped areas in our yard...our yard is finally fully landscaped including a garden! We are thrilled!
Oh and if you are curious, we call it our Secret Garden because from the road, with all the landscaping in front of it, you would never know the garden portion of it was there! It is actually a pretty secluded little nook of our backyard!
My husband and I love our little Secret Garden area and our children absolutely love checking our plants daily! Our children help water the garden too which gives them a great kid-friendly chore to do each day and it is helping them learn to work and care for plants!
All of our bushes and plants are already starting to bloom and grow! We truly find joy in a landscaped and beautiful yard and we love how ours is turning out!
So if you have a yard or garden or are considering planting a garden (no matter how big or small), visit HGTVGardens.com with me where you can find all sorts of information on gardening and landscaping!
If you enjoyed this post, you should check out these ones too:
- How we Stained our Secret Garden in under 30 minutes
- Outdoor and Garden Projects 2013
- Starting our Garden
- Flower Tower
How to Get Rid of a Wasps Nest
I would love for you to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest and via email.
I participate in the link parties found here.
cindy the cottage chick
Landscaping and plants are definitely not my forte...my sister got my mom's genes on that account 😉 Your yard looks amazing, and after our home is built, I will head back to this post and the info from HGTV for inspiration! Congrats on the feature!
Ashley Phipps
Thank you so much Cindy!! We've had so much fun landscaping our first home...it's been a learning experience but we really do enjoy it!<br /><br />Good luck with building your home!!! :)<br /><br />And thanks so much for stopping by!<br />Ashley
Kelly Dixon
Woahhh!!! Stunning work! You are so inspirational!
Ashley Phipps
Oh thank you so much Kelly!! You are so sweet!<br /><br />Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Have a lovely day!<br /><br />Ashley
Annie
Awesome! What are the dimensions of your planter boxes?
Ashley Phipps
Hi Annie!<br /><br />I will be posting more on the planter boxes soon...but ours ended up about 5' x 2'. This is definitely something that can be customized to the space that you have though!<br /><br />Thanks so much for stopping by!<br /><br />Ashley
Stacy Risenmay
So beautiful Ashley!!! I love it 🙂
Ashley Phipps
Oh thank you so much Stacy!!! <br /><br />And thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely day!<br /><br />Ashley
Jill @ Create.Craft.Love.
That is amazing! I love the arbor and all of your beautiful flowers! So jealous! Can I hire you to do landscaping next summer when our house is finished? 😉
Ashley Phipps
Thanks so much Jill!! You are so sweet :)<br /><br />I'd LOVE to come and help you with your landscaping haha! Good luck with your house!!!<br /><br />Ashley
Annesphamily
Oh how I wish I had the budget for this! This is so beautiful and very peaceful! Love the color!
Ashley Phipps
Annesphamily,<br /><br />Thank you so much 🙂 And thanks so much for stopping by!<br /><br />Ashley
Gena Rae
love your garden and appreciate all the hard work it takes. can you tell me what the red flower/shrub is, is it a perennial and does it do well in zone 6? thanks
Ashley Phipps
Hi Gena!<br /><br />Thank you so much :)<br /><br />It is actually a bright purple flowing bush. It's a Rhododendrum bush. According to the HGTVGardens website I am in zone 6a and yes, Rhododendrum is a good plant for this area! <br /><br />Check out my link above, you can look up all sorts of plants that will work well in your zone!<br /><br />Thanks so much for stopping by! And good
MomHomeGuide.com
I love your secret garden -- especially the trellis and the cute garden bench area!
Ashley Phipps
Thank you so much MomHomeGuide.com!! And thanks for stopping by!
Sara Croft
You have a very beautiful home!
Ashley Phipps
Oh thank you so much Sara! You are so sweet 🙂
Shauna@Satori Design for Living
Love how functional they are, yet they look fantastic. Great idea incorporating them within your other plantings!
Ashley Phipps
Oh thank you so much Shauna!! And thanks so much for stopping by!<br /><br />Ashley
Barbara Hiatt
Love this Ash!
The Hardjono
Ashley, Did you build the planter boxes or did you buy? I am looking to get my side yard done this summer... I love your boxes :-)<br />Flo