Our 2023 Farmhouse Garden Tour
THE FARMHOUSE
Welcome to the Farmhouse garden! Every year around this time I share a tour of our fenced country garden to show what we’re growing and how we’re using the space. This year I’ve kept the casual furnishings from years past and selected plants that are low maintenance and easy and varieties I know well. All that to say, I’ve been a bit of a lazy gardener, but it’s working for us! Let me show you around…
sources at the bottom of this post
That pic might be my favorite view of the garden this year. Now that we painted the Farmhouse white, I can’t get enough of seeing the house in the background! I actually contemplated not sharing a tour this year (we didn’t change much in here) but we’ve shared one every year and a tradition is a tradition. So I whipped out the camera and snapped some shots last week.
Can you believe that this is our fifth summer gardening in this space?! You can see the original renovation and 2019 reveal here. It’s been fun to watch this established garden grow well this year, despite my hands off approach. I basically planted in the spring, added some compost and manure, set the timer to water automatically, and then just let it go. Hardly any weeding or succession planting has gone on and only a little deadheading. The longer we’ve had this garden the better the soil and the easier gardening has become!
the garden layout
The garden is laid out with 6 raised beds plus containers, fruit trees, and a row of raspberries. It’s plenty of growing space for us! We also have a patio with outdoor furniture, a dining table, and a sink out here - it’s our outdoor living space and garden all rolled into one! Here’s a plan of the space…
For anyone interested, I also shared what we planted in each bed in this post.
The plants
Like I mentioned, I went with the lazy approach this year and stuck with flowers, veggies, and herbs we’ve grown before. It’s meant no big surprises, which is okay in gardening I think. The one experiment was bed #4, which I gave to the kids to plant, tend, and play with this year. Growing up my mom gave each of us 4 kids a little plot of garden and I have fond memories of selecting flowers to grow and tending my little space (though looking back I’m pretty most of the tending fell to my mom). I hope my kids grow up with a similar positive outlook on gardening and a sense that it’s doable even without much experience!
Here are some of the plants we grew…
Dahlia
St. Johns Wart
Cosmos
Zinnia
Grapes
Dahlia
Hydrangea
Herbs
Pears
Hydrangea and grapes
Can you believe that rhubarb plant (in the foreground of the pic above) has been in the family for 10+ years?! It came from Nana’s last house and she very kindly dug it up and gave it to me when they moved to the Porch House. I love it’s delicious fruit and rich green color and it’s big leaves feel whimsically Jurassic to me ;)
outdoor living
We use this space as our outdoor living and dining room in addition to a garden. A large table sits just inside the garden gate and we use it all summer long. Garrett and I built this beast sometime around 2010 from hefty fir beams that we found at a salvage shop in Seattle. We planed them down with a rented electric planer that we used so heavily it eventually caught on fire. Thankfully we had opted for the tool insurance (always always!) but what a memory. The table weighs a TON and yet we’ve moved it to 4 houses - we’re obviously attached :)
The chairs are some of my favs. They’re replicas of Tolix bistro chairs popular across Europe and made of indestructible metal. I have a few sets now and also have these chairs in our dining room as well as our Seattle Airbnb. I’d guess this set in the garden is at least 8 years old and the chairs look almost as good as new. I do try to store them inside during the winter and just stack them and put them in the basement. Low maintenance is my love language!
Sources
Here are some of the things we have and love in this space!
1 // striped pillow
3 // willow pyramid trellis (I use them as tomato cages)
4 // shade umbrella
6 // LED string lights
7 // galvanized tray
8 // pavers
10 // charcoal grill
11 // gathering basket
12 // sectional (similar)
One more photo of my favorite view from this summer. It reminds me that this house and property have come a long way in the past 7 years…and so have we :)
That’s a wrap on our 2023 summer garden! Did you grow anything this year?
