One of my favorite, and stressful, things is to build a new garden. I get so excited about all of the possibilities of plants, how things will grow together, the colors, and imagining just how it will look years from now once the perennials grow up completely!

Our backyard patio has been a very long labor of love (and maybe the occasional hate) for Nathan. He designed and built 90% of the patio wall himself over three years – and it’s finally done, which meant the fun part was turned over to me to decide on plants/fixtures! I’m so excited to show you what it looks like – and to look back at pictures at the end of the season once the annuals have really come in.

I wish I had taken pictures of the “before” of what the back of the house looked like before we undertook this project, but it was so unremarkable, I think the only pictures I have are the ones from our inspection. Here are those inspection pictures:

I have planned sometime soon a full tour of the back patio – or “partio” as Nathan’s named it. It’s truly AMAZING how much has changed!

For the new garden path, I went with a color scheme of purples and pinks – incorporating both perennials and annuals. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out – now just to wait to see how everything performs throughout the year and make tweaks next year!

Over the arbor, I planted a clematis and climbing rose. The rose hasn’t grown enough to be intertwined and bloom.

Can’t wait to watch everything grow! What’s your favorite plant in the garden?