Brenda’s garden is up today. As you’ll see, she’s created quite the garden from virtually nothing!

We started with an old hayfield full of weeds that was subdivided into 5-acre parcels in northwestern Montana. My husband and I bought the property in 2006 and moved here in 2013. We did all the landscaping ourselves in four short summers. I grow all my own plants from seed in the greenhouse, then move them into the yard. I am a Master Gardener and have been gardening for over 40 years (36 of those were in Alaska). As you can see from the photos below, I LOVE lots of color! Everything is on drip irrigation, and we used “subsurface” irrigation tubes under the lawn, which have a zero evaporation rate. The entire yard is fenced in to keep the deer out.

This is the “before” photo—truly a blank slate, but with some incredible views.

The garden has come a long way since that empty field! By repeating the same plants down this long border, Brenda keeps this planting looking cohesive and intensional.

Another part of the garden, again with plants and colors repeated throughout the design to draw the whole planting into harmony.

Brenda’s greenhouse, where she grows her own plants from seed.

Inside the greenhouse, which is packed with perfectly grown plants. A greenhouse like this is a bit of an investment, but I’m sure Brenda has saved a lot of money by growing her own plants here. Growing her own plants from seed also makes it easy for her to get the large numbers of plants she uses in her displays.

It isn’t just flowers. Check out these picture-perfect cabbages in Brenda’s vegetable garden.

The wide-angle view of the vegetable garden.

A wonderful mass of various-colored yarrow (Achillea hybrids, Zones 4–9). View our plant guide to yarrow here.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

If you want to send photos in separate emails to the GPOD email box that is just fine.

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