Inspiration for Creating a Farmhouse Garden

Hi, I’m Ashley Schoenith, the founder + lifestyle designer of Heirloomed. I’m on a mission to keep heirlooms around for another generation and gardening is one of those keepsake skills that I believe everyone should learn about and try their hand at.

Over the next few months I will be sharing my journey of how to create a Farmhouse Garden with you as part of an on-going story here with The Home Depot and their Garden Club. My goal with the Farmhouse Garden concept is to be able to effortlessly incorporate a garden into your everyday life with hearty fruits and vegetables, plenty of fresh herbs and even some beautiful flowers of your favorite varieties. Bringing these elements back into your home with farm-to-table recipes and gorgeous floral arrangements you can put together at a moments notice helps to keep your homesteading with your family all season long.

Creating a fresh garden isn’t quite as daunting as it may sound. Really.

In fact, while I had two container gardens last year, this year I’m creating a bigger garden area and also incorporating edibles into my landscaping as well. Fresh rosemary, wandering mint, blueberry bushes, a fig tree and lavender are all elements of my front yard that may seem a little unexpected at first but I’ve found it to be a wonderful way to really maximize your garden from a beauty, functionality and cost perspective. So be sure to think outside the walls of your garden plot.

And if you’re still not sold and you have kids just remember, creating your own garden is such a wonderful way for them to learn, help out AND be more interested in trying and eating new vegetables for dinner. That’s a win/win in my book.

Here are a few tips for creating a Farmhouse Garden of your own.

GET INSPIRED:

Listen, I may have said creating a garden isn’t as hard as you may think, but please don’t mistake this for the fact that you must put some time and love into it to make it flourish. For that reason, I love to start any project with a fresh jolt of inspiration.

For me, I grew up with plants all around me. My Great Grandmother (Nana) had a beautiful rose garden that she tended to constantly and my daughter’s middle name is “Rose” as a subtle nod to her fondness of the beautiful bloom. My Grandmother and Mom both carried on the “green thumb” gene and I suppose I inherited the bug as well.

Having your own inspiration will help this garden project really come to life and enable you to really create a tailored garden. Many folks head to Pinterest these days for a little creative inspiration (I know I do). You can check out the “Garden + Shed” board I created to curate images that really felt like the kind of garden I wanted to bring to life. The Garden Club also has a wonderful board filled with inspiration that you can follow here with lots of tips and projects.

If you’re still lacking in inspiration, head back to the classics. I mean, who wouldn’t be inspired by a Peter Rabbit type garden?

DO YOUR HOMEWORK:

Once I put together my dream garden mood board I had to get down and dirty in the details.

I started by going out to my new garden plot and taking it all in. I took measurements of the space and made some notes thinking through how many stones it might take to frame it, how much dirt I may need and what areas get the most all-day sunlight. My area was covered in weeds and not-so-healthy dirt so I knew I was going to need to really give it some TLC before it was ready to go for the season.

In planning your garden, you’ll also want to be sure you know what Zone you live in. The Home Depot has a handy map right on their site so you can find your region and figure out which plants grow the best, planting and harvesting suggestions and what conditions you’re dealing with in regards to weather and soil conditions.

You will also want to take a mental survey of your garage or garden shed to determine what tools you may need to complete your project. Having the right thing for the job will make your garden project a lot easier in the end. The basics like some good hand tools, gardening gloves, a wide brimmed hat, a hose and some pots are just a few essentials for properly tending to your space.

There were a few items that were only available online, like these fantastic Garden Fences, so planning ahead also allowed me to go ahead and order things like this and have them arrive without delaying my planting.

Once you’ve done your homework, then you’re ready to get started in really bringing your Farmhouse Garden to life.

SKETCH IT OUT:

I’m a very visual, hands-on person when it comes to projects like a garden. You can be guaranteed that where I start and where I end will more often than not be very different places but in the end my vision for the project will be in full bloom.

After I analyzed my garden space and my needs I started by making a list of all the plants I wanted to be sure to include in my own garden. Remember, one of the best things about starting a garden of your very own is that it can be exactly what you want it to be.

Because my Great Grandmother loved them, I knew roses were something I wanted to always have as part of my garden in some component so taking a mental note of plants + flowers that are meaningful to you and that you love will help you to love your bounty even more. I also included a few other nostalgic touches for my three young children that stemmed directly from my own childhood.

Blackberries grew in the woods next to my childhood home and I loved picking and enjoying them with my friends without having to bother with going inside for a snack. My husband and kids absolutely love Day Pickled Cucumbers so I knew having a variety of cucumber plants and herbs to pickle them, as chives and dill, was a must.

When plotting your space you’ll also want to take into consideration such things as plants that work well next to each other, such as marigolds next to your tomato plants.  I visited The Home Depot’s Nursery before I planned out my space to ask a few questions of the experts and to scout out what plants they had in stock which gave me even more options and ideas. It also helped me to further visualize how big the plants were and read up on the planting instructions for each so I could determine such things as plant spacing and if I would need to trellis or stake anything.

Putting pen to paper really helped me in bringing my garden to life. I took the measurements, newly acquired knowledge of the plants and my own inspiration into consideration and sketched my little Farmhouse Garden. After several iterations, I was ready to begin.

Coming up, I’ll be sharing more on my Farmhouse Gardening adventures as I’ll be preparing my space, shopping for plants and getting the garden all planted. And just in time for the season.

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