Today we’re visiting with Karen Holmen.

A few years back I sent in some pictures of my garden (From Wild to Wonderful and Made for Shade ). Since it always looks different to me—plants die, grow, pop up, get moved or replaced—I decided to send in an update.

I live in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and have worked with my property since 1985. When I first moved here we had a lot of old oak trees, several old cottonwoods, buckthorn, various shrubs and weeds, weeds, and more weeds, Some of the trees have died, the buckthorn is gone, and over the years I have developed a small front yard garden, a backyard garden—all within view from inside the house—and a “wayback” garden off by itself. It has been fun creating some order and color in the first two areas; the wayback area is a bit wilder and has a bit more shade to deal with, which has always been a challenge.

In the “wayback” garden, I typically pull up a lot of the blue bellflowers (Campanula rapunculoides, Zones 3–9) each year, but I do love them and have decided to let more grow in the years to come. Their clumps are stunning.

It’s amazing to look back at earlier pictures of our yard compared to today. We made many of the changes because of the huge deer problem we have. I have taken out so many daylilies, which I hated to do, and many hostas have been replaced with more deer-resistant plants. Plants the deer still like to graze on, that are near the house, I continue to spray with commercial products and even a homemade recipe I tried for the first time this year. They are working pretty well, as long as I am diligent about spraying.

Here’s to all the gardeners in the world who create beautiful retreats for themselves and others to enjoy, including all the critters out there!

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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