Saying Good-Bye To My First Minnesota Gardens

Please join me as I reminisce and say good-bye to my first Minnesota Gardens.  In August of 2016, we sold our home of 19 years.  During those years I transformed the quarter acre yard into beautiful flower gardens combining both perennials and annuals, as well as an area with raised veggie beds.

Over the years of blog following and reading, I read about gardeners that sold their home and started over in a new place.  Not me, I thought, I would never leave my gardens, my labor of love, my babies… Until, of course, I had a grand baby.  We started thinking, it should would be nice to be closer to the kids, so we started tidying up, getting rid of junk, painting and the list goes on and on.  If you’ve ever sold a home, you know what I mean.  So after a couple of years of thinking about it and preparing for it, we finally sold our home (and my gardens) and moved across town to be closer to our grand baby (and the kids too).

This post is dedicated to my former gardens and some pictures to show the highlights over the years and the constant changes.

2009 – I always loved this combination of Asiatic Lilies and Becky Shasta Daisies.  I’ve never been able to find pink lilies like this after purchasing these in 2007 or 2008 and I don’t remember where these were purchased.  For several years they just got bigger and better.  If you know where I can find bulbs, please leave a comment and fill me in.

2010 – Not a great picture, but this was the best patch of lupine I’ve been able to grow.  I believe the foxglove in the background were also the tallest I’ve ever had.  It must have been a good year.

2011 – Sometimes I love to go out and take pictures in the evening.  Obviously, my photography skills need work, but I still like this grouping of liatris, phlox and black-eyed susan.

2012 – I love the color combination in this picture of the happy returns daylilies and the Jacob Cline bee balm.

2013 – I was always rearranging this area trying to get it just right, but I love this picture, even if the veronica needs to be moved closer to the front of the border. I constantly have to remind myself that a garden is never perfect and that’s part of the beauty of it.  A friend gave me the silver lace vine that’s growing on the left side of the trellis many years ago. I believe in some areas it’s considered invasive, but it always behaved itself in my garden.

2014 – Look at all the pops of color along the back border.

2015 – This was one of my favorite vignettes over the years.  You’ll see more of this wheel barrow that I scored at an estate sale.

2016 – Since our house was going on the market, I basically paired way back and just kept it simple.  Pretty sure I don’t know the meaning of “simple” but I did try. I used very few of my junk garden decor and kept to very minimal decor.  The flowers had to shine on their own and they did.   I was afraid my gardens would scare potential buyers away, but our home sold in 3 days.  Twice as a matter of fact, but that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for stopping by and taking my little walk down memory lane and through my beloved Minnesota Gardens. Please take a few minutes and have a look around Gingham Gardens. Come back soon!

Happy Gardening,
Joanna

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