Hi GPODers!

Over the years, it has become a bit of a tradition to get a year-in-review from Melina Mantey in Washington (Check out some of her submissions from years past: Melina’s Seattle Area Garden, Looking Back on Last Year and Ahead to This Year, and A Love/Hate Relationship With the End of the Season). This year’s reflection is particularly special, as the beginning of the 2024 growing season coincided with the birth of her first child. However, this incredible blessing came with some heartbreaking challenges that gave her a whole new perspective on her time in the garden.

Sometimes we need our gardens more than our gardens need us. I say that as someone who lives in an area of the country that gets almost no rain in the summer, and over-plants most of her garden beds. I know my garden needs me, especially right now as I look out at borders and lawn littered in long brown pine needles. It’s a sea of brown in desperate need of a clean-up. And when the wind and rain die down I will be out there with a rake, but for now a little background on my 2024 gardening season.

I gave birth to my first child, a daughter, on March 14th of this past year. I underwent an emergency c-section and my daughter proceeded to have two stints in the NICU in her first 3 weeks of life. The first immediately after birth, and the second two weeks later (She is know 7 months old, and has passed all checkups with flying colors).

But for anyone who has had a c-section, you will know what that conversation sounded like with the discharge nurse: “Here is a list of things you can’t do, including driving and your basic household chores.” Now, I’ll give up vacuuming for as long as you need me to, but it was March and I’m a gardener. I remember looking at my husband and looking back at the nurse and saying: “Give me something I can do out in the garden. I need something.” She lined out some parameters that I felt like I could “mostly” stay in, and I thought “OK. It’s a starting place.”

I needed my garden this year; my soul needed the garden. I was a first time parent whose daughter had almost died twice in her first weeks of life. I was also heavily entrenched in postpartum depression, and trying to make sense of the situation surrounding my daughter’s birth. The list of chores was long, as it always is that time of year, but my need for it was bigger. So I took it a day at a time and tackled little bits here and there. Some things got planted super late, like my dahlias—and therefore failed to really thrive—but overall I look back and can’t believe everything I accomplished out there. Adding new landscape, drip irrigation, growing my own tomato plants, planting up pots and hanging baskets, weeding, etc. It all got done. And don’t worry, I’ve healed up just fine from surgery. I did everything under the watchful gaze of my husband and baby daughter, but more importantly my soul has done a lot of healing along the way. I’ve looked out my windows this year at my garden and seen it through the lens of what I was able to do rather then what I couldn’t do, and it has been a refreshing change from the person who usually critiques the blank spots and struggling plants. I hope you are all equally as proud of yourselves this year, no matter what did or did not get done, because the journey matters just as much as the end result.

Now we are back to that long list of chores that come as we all get ready to put the garden to bed for the season (although as a zone 8b/9a gardener my season is quite long), and I am so ready to get started…just give me a rake, a rain jacket, and a nice long nap from my daughter. Enjoy the chores this fall season! I hope they bring you peace, healing, very dirty hands, and perhaps a new plant or two (wink, fall sales, wink).

Here are a few standout plants in the photos below: Feather Falls™ sedge (Carex ‘ET CRX01’, Zones 6–9), Eclipse® hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmacseven’, Zones 5–9) (I used the “I had a baby” line to convince my husband to let me get it), Endless Summer® hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’, Zones 4–9), All Gold Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’, Zones 4–9), Ukigumo Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Ukigumo’, Zones 5–9), Autumn Joy sedum (Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’, Zones 3–11). And the following Proven Winners® annuals: Campfire® Marshmallow™ bidens, Supertunia Vista® Jazzberry® petunias, Superbena® Raspberry verbena, double impatients, and Supertunia® Saffron Finch™ petunias.

Melina calls these her “fall standouts”, and I absolutely understand why. Pink is always a winning color for the autumnal season, and this bed is absolutely bursting with it. On the left side you can see the classic Autumn Joy sedum that she mentions above as a favorite from this year.

There is plenty of shade in Melina’s garden, but she finds plenty of lush and colorful plants to bring interest and life to those dim corners. This lush bed features a hydrangea focal point with All Gold Japanese forest grass, hostas, and a mix of other foliage plants.

The Eclipse® hydrangea was absolutely worth every bit of convincing Melina had to do. The gorgeous blooms and black foliage make it a winner in every garden.

The bountiful blooms Blue Endless Summer® hydrangeas is another sure-fire garden stunner.

A garden pond in her garden is absolutely covered in gorgeous plantings. Ogon grass (Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’, Zones 5–11) is a great centerpiece, but there are so many great foliage plants here. I also love the addition of a Japanese maple in a beautiful blue pot, and the contrasting pink begonias on the opposite side.

Another area in the garden that gets accented by excellent grasses is another shady bed. Feather Falls™ sedge gets paired with bunches of pink, orange, and peach impatients and begonias as well as an abundance of other shade-loving plants.

Melina also creates sensational annual containers with incredible color. This overflowing post has her favorites: Superbena® Raspberry verbena, Supertunia® Saffron Finch™ petunias, and Campfire® Marshmallow™ bidens.

Another great container combination. Two shades of pink double impatients looks perfect with purple nemesia and pops of white sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima, annaul).

The last container Melina shared is a bountiful hanging basket. Bursts of frosty New Look dusty miller (Senecio bicolor cineraria ‘New Look’, annual) are a fabulous contrast to the bright Supertunia Vista® Jazzberry® and Supertunia® Hoopla® Vivid Orchid™ petunias.

And one final view of Melina’s garden, we see a lovely border bed full of incredible late-season interest. Pockets of pink flowers are a great pairing with a Ukigumo Japanese maple (another one of Melina’s stand-out plants).

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.

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