I’ve never had a flower garden before. My husband and I had an agreement early on that the inside was mine, and the outside was his. While I contributed to a few decisions, the backyard was mostly his vision, resulting in trees, shrubs, grasses, and a small amount of lawn. No flowers.

I love our backyard. It has become a place for our family to spend time in and to entertain, whether a quick moment on the deck, an evening in front of the fireplace, or an all day hangout on the sectional, we enjoy our yard to its fullest.

I’ve never taken, nor had the time to plant flowers, however I do love what they offer a garden. Last year, I decided to add a few layers to the yard with planters and greens. I had a lot more time on my hands and relished in watering them and watching them grow over the summer.

This year, I’m trying my hand at planting seeds and growing flowers. It’s a big step! I love the look of English gardens, and would love to have a backyard with a similar look and feel. While the look of an English garden is not possible in its entirety, I’m planning to incorporate the relaxed, long stem, cut garden feel, container style.

Here’s what I’ve selected:

Calgary is in Zone 4a so I selected flowers with that in mind. I’m fully prepared for this to be a trial and error process, but I think that’s what makes the creative process fun and a real learning experience. In addition to zone, I selected flowers based on the following criteria:

Colour
Height
Size of flower

I purchased my seeds from mygardenseed via Etsy.

I took the creative process one step further, organizing the flowers and planters with scaled sketches. This was helpful for planning, to have an idea of how the heights would relate to each other, as well as the colour combinations.

For years we’ve had a neutral colour palette in our outdoor space, both from the perspective of furniture, as well as flowers (or lack thereof), and foliage. I’m excited to add more colour!

In addition to an English container garden, full of colour, I’m planning an update to our outdoor sectional. New seat, and back cushions to add colour, and further elevating it with a mix of patterns. The black and white graphic is for the seat cushions, with the two patterns either side, along with a few solid fabrics, as the back cushions.

I’m excited to change things up, and bring some colour into our backyard. I realize I may be a little late to the game with just planting seeds now, but I’m going to go for it anyway. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have flowers by late summer, early fall, which I certainly won’t complain about!