#6 Did You Make Your Garden All at Once?
20 Common Questions about my Immersive Garden
“Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day,
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work…”
🌿 Wendell Berry, Sabbath poems from 1979, X
Welcome back to my series on some common questions that people ask about our intensive, immersive garden in northwestern Pennsylvania zone 5. Today we will talk about how we worked at our garden making:
#6 Did You Make Your Garden All at Once?
Long-term vision
My garden, Havenwood, is located in northwestern Pennsylvania, zone 5/6. It is one-acre divided into many different garden rooms with an emphasis on creating different growing conditions so that I can grow a large diversity of plant types. Successional planting means there always something interesting going on, even when our snowy winter weather (like this year!) lasts for many months.
But how did we create this one-acre garden in Pennsylvania?
Did we make this garden all at once?
We have made all of the gardens at Havenwood one puzzle piece at a time over the last decade. While considering the whole, and working towards the best ecological and economic decisions, we have cut down our mowed area from a full acre of lawn to just a few paths and a rectangular patch in the back for croquet.
Though ecological choices are the least expensive in the wider economy, I find that on a domestic level, they go very well together! If you are lacking in funds, then you are ready to make a truly great garden that will be good for the environment too.
The key is to slow down…
Forty year plan
Our garden is in the middle of what we call our 40-year plan.
Since we are making it ourselves, with only our muscles and man hours, we have to pace ourselves. There are no instant make overs here, though sometimes it can feel that way when it all finally comes together after many quiet years of gathering materials and planning. While it would sometimes be easier to just pay to have things down quickly, I find time and again that when I am forced to slow down in the process that I make better, more informed decisions, and create more sustainable gardens.
Enjoying the journey
The brilliant part of thinking of your garden as a long-term plan is that it frees you from the panic to have to do it all at once! There is no need to rush through the beautiful and creative process of garden-making to some Instagram reel conclusion. It is messy along the way. There are “ten thousand days of work” as Berry says. But during the work we realize that it is the doing, the active participation of gardening, which makes it so rewarding.
Whether you also have one-acre, or if you have a smaller area, the time we spend to work at our canvas and participate with nature will be a beautiful way to spend our lives, and will create something to give to others as well.
Where to start?
A good guideline for deciding where to start in a large (or small!) garden scheme is to ask:
Which area will matter the most to you everyday?
Perhaps it is at the back door entrance?
Near the driveway at the front of your property?
Maybe it is along a sidewalk that you use everyday to walk to your car?
There are no right answers, but it will be motivating to continue when you can find some joy in your work! When you plant flowers and get to enjoy them, then you will be more likely to keep going for another 38 years.
We chose to start in the front yard by adding yew hedging to divide the long front space into two separate rooms, the Cottage Garden (above) and the Birch Walk (below).
How to start?
There are many gardening tricks to start a new border, and we have used them all here. But the easiest can be seen in the Birch Walk above—simply planting trees, perennials, and bulbs right into the lawn.
In my video class, Gardens as Sacred Spaces: Part 3, I talk about a dozen important tips for getting started with various design ideas in your garden in the coming year. I give some advice about: what to pay attention to in the beginning, what to plant first, how to make your garden sustainable, and many other details.
“But I have questions…”
If you need some more personal help and answers to some nagging questions about your garden for this year, then I would love to have a chat with you! Fill out my Garden Owners Form at JulieWitmer.com to get started with a private teleconference with me from anywhere in the world.
Thank you for sharing these helpful guidelines, Julie! We, too transformed our dull yard into a beautiful space that we really enjoy, one year and one garden at a time. Our little five acre farmstead had a small grove of old trees, but not a single shrub, ornamental tree, plant or bulb in sight! Our first winter on the property I drew up an overall plan and formed one garden at a time. The hardest space was a 30' x 30' Potager, but it is a view that we enjoy the most, every single day!
Beautiful and such a comprehensive guide.