Julie Witmer Gardens Newsletter

Julie Witmer Gardens Newsletter

Building a Border Backwards : Part 1

How To: Garden Design that Thinks in Reverse Seasonal Order

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Julie Witmer
Aug 06, 2025
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Building a Border Backwards class by Julie Witmer

Benefits of Reverse Seasonal Order

Learn how to create a perennial mixed border that will give you year-round beauty while also creating a positive ecological impact every month of the year. The “border backwards” technique will explain the benefits of thinking in reverse seasonal order to include a variety of plants into a low-maintenance, long lasting border display.

Today we will talk about:

  • how new gardeners usually go about making a garden (like Mary Quite Contrary)

  • how to avoid the temptations of the James Taylor border

  • what in the world is a “backwards border” anyway?

Julie Witmer in her online gardening class, Building a Border Backwards
Julie Witmer in her online gardening class, Building a Border Backwards

JWG online Gardening Classes:

This class is just one of several here on Substack, all of which can be accessed for just $6. There are several hours of video lessons plus handouts. I want these classes to be available to anyone who wants to create amazing layer-packed gardens, and I hope they will inspire you to get planting this year!

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Havenwood Cottage Garden, which is featured in the Building a Border Backwards class
Havenwood Cottage Garden, which is featured in the Building a Border Backwards class

©All content, photos, designs, handouts, plans, and lessons by Julie Witmer 2025

Join me for part 1 of Building a Border Backwards…

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