20 Garden Favorites: The Best Projects, Plants and Ideas from My 2022 Garden
When I’m planning my garden for the year I always like to consider my garden from the year before.
What worked? What didn’t? Which projects were my favorite? Which projects didn’t I get to?
I often start planning, at least in my head, during the gardening season. If there’s something I especially love or something that was a complete flop or something I missed out on growing, all those thoughts come to me while I’m gardening.
I kept meaning to write a post last fall about my favorite things in my 2022 garden, but I never got around to it.
Now, as I’m hungry for green and flowers and dreaming of the coming gardening season, looking back at my favorite things from last year is just what I need.
Maybe you’d like to look back with me, too?
20 of My Favorite things from 2022’s garden (in no particular order):
1. Daffodils
In the fall of 2021, I actually got around to planting some bulbs!
Most years I forget to plant them. I think part of it is that I try to put off the arrival of fall for as long as possible. Which, I know, isn’t possible.
In 2021 I ordered bulbs almost as soon as the catalog arrived in the summer to be sure I didn’t miss my chance.
Seeing them begin to bloom last spring was such a joy. In addition to daffodils, I planted sweet species tulips, a few varieties of allium and some snowdrops (which never bloomed*).
Last fall I didn’t plant any new bulbs, but I’m looking forward to the return of what’s already here, including this older patch of daffodils (which began as bulbs forced inside).
I’m just beginning to see the first tips of my bulbs coming up. I love walking around the garden discovering them once the snow melts.
2. Cherries
A few years ago I planted a Juliet bush cherry. Last year was the first year I had a good-sized harvest.
The plant was covered with flowers in the spring and when they ripened I was able to pick handfuls each day (even sharing with the birds).
If I hadn’t been such a glutton and hadn’t shared with the birds, I probably could have preserved some. Perhaps this year.
3. Peaches
My little Contender peach tree also had a good year. I began growing it in a pot in 2019 (you can take a look back at the baby fruit trees in this post).
The little tree gave me a handful of peaches in 2020 but none in 2021. Last year’s was a bumper crop.
I wish I’d weighed the fruit when I harvested it in September. I think there were 44 peaches and most were huge.
I froze a lot of them which we only just finished eating. I’m curious to see how this year goes.
4. Cucumbers
And speaking of delicious… 2022 was my first good cucumber year. Usually they succumb to diseases spread by cucumber beetles.
I grew Picolino and Silver Slicer and both were wonderful.
5. Garden Harvests
Walking around my garden picking dinner is one of my favorite things to do.
Tomatoes are my favorite food from the garden. I grew Indigo Pear Drops, Lucky Tiger, Sungold, Green Zebra, Purple Zebra and Cherry Falls. I wish I’d liked Indigo Pear Drops and Lucky Tiger more, but a garden tomato is a garden tomato and I can’t wait for this year’s!
I also grew two kinds of eggplant, Patio Baby (below) and Millionaire (which I don’t have any photos of).
Patio Baby was very prolific (and really pretty in pots), but if I didn’t pick them young the fruits got very seedy and the skin became tough. Millionaire was delicious all season long and I plan to grow more this year (I just started the seeds).
Of course, I had plenty of other things to harvest all summer long — radishes, lettuce, arugula, spinach, kale, carrots (which weren’t great last year), herbs (so many delicious herbs!), peas, beans… it’s making me hungry thinking of it all.
6. Painted T-Posts
To support my tomatoes in two of the beds I used tomato spirals supported with t-posts. I painted the t-posts with paint leftover from our front door and shutters.
T-posts are very handy supports in the garden, but they aren’t very pretty. Painted blue they make me so happy! They’re still out there and all winter long they provided a fun punch of color.
7. Fire Pit Raised Bed and Mulch Paths
On that same side of the garden, I made a few other improvements last year.
I found a metal fire pit ring discarded on the side of the road and rescued it to make a quick raised bed. I added a cedar teepee support for tomatoes and cucumbers.
I also replaced the grass on that side of the yard with mulch paths.
I wish I’d done it sooner!
8. Lauren’s Grape Poppies
I’ve been growing them for years and they’re still one of my favorite things in my garden.
They’re so easy to grow. I let them self-seed and I also save seeds and scatter them where I want them (and share my saved seeds with family, friends and my customers!).
Although they don’t like root disturbance, I usually have so many volunteers that I don’t mind taking the risk to transplant them. Quite a few of my transplants usually survive.
9. Blue Planet Ageratum
I’ve grown this plant on and off over the years. It’s so pretty. A lovely addition to the garden and beautiful in flower arrangements. I start it indoors and it’s definitely worth the effort.
10. Coleus
When I was starting seeds inside last spring, I threw some potting mix and coleus seeds in an upcycled fast food container. The seeds were a few years old and I’m not even sure why I planted them. I don’t think I had a plan for where they’d go.
The seedlings grew beautifully and I tucked them here, there and anywhere I had an empty spot.
I’m so glad I did! I love the way they mixed with my other plants.
11. A Colorful Mixture
The coleus and ageratum combined beautifully with zinnias, foxgloves, amaranth, dill, lady’s mantle, dahlias, coneflowers…
So many colors and shapes and textures. The wild mix of all those flowers and plants made me happy all season long.
12. Raising Butterflies
My mix of plants also helped attract and feed garden visitors. And after years of thinking about it, I finally raised caterpillars indoors last summer.
I fed monarchs butterfly weed.
Which is another of my favorite plants. It’s a beautiful type of milkweed.
I also raised black swallowtails.
It’s one of the reasons I planted so much parsley and why I let so much dill and fennel self-seed, too.
13. A Wood-Fired Pizza Oven
This one was Matthias’ project.
We’ve always made our own pizzas and he’d dreamed of an outdoor pizza oven for years. This one is portable, wheeled out from the garage when needed. It uses wood or propane but he had such fun using wood that he never got around to trying the propane.
I can’t wait till it’s warm enough for the first outdoor pizza of the year.
14. The Poet’s Wife Rose
In my previous garden, I grew so many beautiful roses. When I moved here, two hardiness zones colder, I was sad that I had so many fewer rose options. But I did lots of research and began planting hardier rose varieties.
And then the Japanese beetles showed up.
Each year after the first beetles made their appearance has been worse and I’ve been slowly decreasing the number of roses I grow.
So far The Poet’s Wife has survived my shovel. The yellow flowers are lovely and they smell delicious, rose mixed with lemon.
All of the roses in my garden bloom before the beetles show up, so at least I get to enjoy the first flowers unmolested.
15. Dahlias
The fewer roses I grow, the more dahlias make their way into my garden. I wrote about dahlias last month, but had to include them here, too.
I’ll be starting my Bishop’s Children seeds soon and I’m planning on potting up last year’s tubers next week. My mom gave me Eveline for my birthday and I have a few more new-to-me varieties on order from Swan Island Dahlias.
I’m excited at the thought of them all!
16. Lilies
Lilies are another of my favorite flowers.
Along with the spring bulbs, in 2021 I added a couple of lily varieties including this sweet Sunny Morning Martagon lily.
I’m not sure why, but the flowers were tiny, maybe only an inch and a half. I’m curious to see what they look like this year.
The Orienpet lily (Anastasia) was shorter than it will eventually be, but the flowers were normal size.
I’ve added quite a few lilies over the years and when they’re all in bloom it’s glorious.
I especially like the fragrant varieties, but enjoy seeing butterflies and hummingbirds visiting them all.
17. Moonflowers
Moonflower, a night-blooming relative of the morning glory, is one of my mom’s favorite flowers. Last year she gave me a couple of seedlings she’d grown.
I tucked them into a bare spot without much thought for how big they’d get.
They didn’t bloom till late in the season, but when they did I was glad I let them take over.
The flowers were big and fragrant and there were so many of them.
18. Comfrey
I grew comfrey from seed a few years ago and I was delighted to see it flourish and survive the winter.
It’s a very healing plant and I’ve always wanted to include it in my garden.
As I’ve been devouring gardening books this late winter and early spring, I’ve come across multiple mentions of using comfrey (and/or nettles) to make a natural fertilizer. I’m excited to try it this year.
19. Tulsi
Tulsi, also called Holy Basil, is another very healing herb and one I welcomed into my garden a few years ago.
It self-seeds easily, smells delicious and attracts pollinators. It makes a lovely, soothing tea, too.
20. Enjoying the Garden
I remember reading in a gardening book that benches and seats in the garden are just for decoration because a gardener never has time to sit down.
That’s not the sort of gardener I am.
One of my favorite things about my garden is spending time in it. Enjoying it.
Yes, I love to dig in the dirt and I often get pulled into gardening tasks even when I don’t plan on it, but it’s important to me to spend time just being in the garden. (Even better when I have my garden helper with me soaking up the sunshine, too).
I could go on listing more and more of my favorite things, but I think 20 is more than enough. Looking through these photos and thinking and planning for this year’s garden has me eager to be out there digging in the dirt.
Soon.
What about you?
I’d love to hear what you’re dreaming and planning for your garden this year.
What was your favorite part of last year’s garden? What challenges did you face? What successes did you celebrate? What are you most looking forward to?
*I’ve never had luck growing snowdrops from bulbs. I’ve recently learned that the best way to add snowdrops to your garden is to add them as plants. Here’s a bit of inspiration from Mona and from Claus Dalby.