The yard through the season — garden scenes, bed compositions, and every plant tracked individually. Click any image to expand.
Pollinators, butterflies, caterpillars, and other garden visitors.
Year-over-year comparison — garden overview, bed compositions, and reference shots from last year.
Click any plant to see its full season timeline






















The shaded hosta layer is fully filled in now, with clean green leaves, cream margins, and enough chartreuse to brighten the lower border.
The cucumber has broad healthy leaves and fresh top growth starting to grab the cage, right on schedule for the June climb.
A tiny blue/azure-type butterfly showed up on the catmint, small enough to disappear into the flower spike until the pale wings caught the light.
The elderberry is settling into a small airy patio-tree shape, with clean chartreuse cutleaf foliage and the brightest new growth at the tips.
The entry has crossed into full summer-room mode, with grapevine growth overhead and the redbud glowing beside the gate.
From under the arch, the garden opens into a layered June view: grape leaves overhead, redbud to the side, and the raised beds beyond.
The back beds are fully packed now, with orange milkweed, purple bloom, tomatoes on the fence, and the Lemony Lace elderberry holding the patio edge.
The Rising Sun redbud is still holding a bright yellow-green ceiling over the back garden, even with the lower planting now fully filled in.
The raised bed has gone hot orange, with milkweed flower clusters open across the front and more buds still waiting in the wings.
A large carpenter bee-type pollinator is buried in the orange milkweed, dusted with pollen and catching the light on clear wings.
The speedwell is in its strongest purple flush yet, with upright flower spikes open across the plant and fresh pale buds still waiting at the tips.
The orange milkweed has shifted from late-May bud to full early-June color, with bright clusters open and plenty of buds still queued up.
The Rising Sun redbud is still holding the garden's brightest overhead color, with yellow-green leaves and amber tips shining above the filled-in path bed.
The front planter is doing strong foliage contrast now: Pugster butterfly bush dense and green in front, Orange Rocket barberry red and upright behind it.
The side-house foundation bed has settled into a clear late-May rhythm: chartreuse, burgundy, red maple, striped liriope, and open mulch between the young pieces.
The speedwell is still blooming hard below the aucuba, with fresh purple spikes and small pollinator activity in the flowers.
This path view shows the redbud turning into a bright canopy over purple salvia, hostas, and the shaded layers leading toward the grape arbor.
The foundation bed is reading as a real layered shade-edge composition now, with rhododendron structure above and hostas, heuchera, sweetspire, and bright shrubs filling below.
Little Henry has opened its white racemes, shifting from quiet green mound to a clear bloom moment along the bed edge.
Sunshine ligustrum is carrying the bright middle layer, while the variegated liriope starts to make the front edge feel deliberate.
The arbor and gate have turned into a green threshold, with Rising Sun redbud glowing on the left and grapevine leaves pushing hard across the right lattice.
The front raised box has tightened into a strong little composition, with Bobo hydrangea bulking up behind heuchera and purple salvia still blooming at the edge.
The raised mixed bed has moved from spring recovery into real late-May mass, with Pugster foliage, milkweed buds, speedwell, and sedum each holding a distinct layer.
Purple speedwell spikes are carrying the lower layer while the Gold Dust aucuba throws bright variegated growth above them.
The garden is reading as one dense late-May room now: redbud glowing, grapevine softening the lattice, and the lower layers filling every edge.
Vegetables settling into the raised boxes, white rose blooming on the fence, and coreopsis lighting the front edge after rain.
The shade-edge planting is filling in under the larger structure, with variegated hostas, dark heuchera, and bright new shrub growth making a layered front corner.
The whole foundation line is reading brighter and more connected, with Shaina upright against the brick and the chartreuse ligustrum lighting the front corner.
The Sunshine ligustrum is at peak chartreuse against the brick, with the loropetalum holding the dark counterweight beside it.
The garden is starting to feel enclosed and lush now, with grape leaves framing the path and the Rising Sun redbud glowing on the right.
The Pugster butterfly bushes are back to dense green mounds, while the middle of the raised bed is starting to layer up around them.
By mid-May the vine is spilling over the gate, turning the arbor from bare structure into a living threshold.
The full yard in mid-spring push, everything leafing out and filling in at once.
The dwarf peach holding court in the brick-edged bed, Pugster and salvia building the lower layer.
Another angle on the layered peach bed with purple aster in the foreground.
Limelight hydrangea pushing up behind the variegated aucuba — two different greens in easy conversation.
The aucuba filling in with hostas underneath, speckled variegation handling the shade beautifully.
Hydrangea backdrop with astilbe and alliums pushing through the front of the bed.
Early spring structure still visible before the perennials fill in — the bones of the garden showing clearly.
White flower spikes rising clean above the foliage, still pushing new buds at the top.
Salvia taking over as the main color in May, the whole bed shifting into bloom mode.
Orange Rocket starting to ember up against the green backdrop of the side foundation bed.
Sunshine ligustrum lighting up the corner, purple loropetalum providing contrast behind.
The Shaina maple from the side bed perspective — dark red against warm brick.
The full side foundation bed in late April, everything finding its place in the layering.
Fat buds forming, the rhododendron holding the shady side anchor.
A gold-purple-green three-layer composition that reads as a completely designed vignette.
Foundation bed in full May push, rhododendron blooming and everything else catching up.
Vibrant pink-purple trusses lit up against the dark evergreen leaves, speckled throats and long stamens on full display.
Tight on the flowers — speckled petals, curved stamens, translucent pink catching the light.
Big trusses of pale pink finally opening against the dark evergreen foliage.
The whole shrub lit up pink, hosta and heuchera filling the understory beneath it.
Sunshine ligustrum blazing chartreuse, purple loropetalum holding the contrast, liriope filling the front edge.
The rhododendron owning the corner, heuchera and hostas filling the understory beneath it.
Purple salvia spikes, golden creeping Jenny spilling over the edge, hostas holding the backdrop — this bed has it all.
New variegated leaves pushing from bare stems after a hard prune — this shrub doesn’t quit.
White roses starting to open against the fence, buds stacked up behind them.
Tomatoes and cucumbers in the ground, vine already climbing the cage, a new season underway in the veggie beds.
Another angle on the full shrub in bloom, the pink mass reading loud from across the yard.
Bright yellow flower spikes rising against the lattice, compound blue-green foliage holding strong underneath.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers in the beds, daylilies and sedum along the edges, sunshine ligustrum lighting up the corner.
Bright yellow daisies packed tight, still budding out — this plant is just getting started.
The vine just beginning to cover the arch over the white gate — structure becoming threshold.
Tiny clusters already visible on trained canes — the promise of a real harvest taking shape.
Barberry embering up in May, the full side bed composition gelling.
A compact three-layer perennial composition coming into spring focus.
Still sparse, but the bones of the layering are already there, waiting to fill in.
Bright red berries still visible on the aucuba in spring before the new growth covers them.
Buds fattening up, the rhododendron building toward its late-spring bloom.
Getting close — the bud clusters tight and ready, the foliage looking strong.