A YEAR IN THE GARDEN
The seasonality of a garden is one of my favorite things about living in Pittsburgh. We get four strong seasons and the garden is able to look different throughout the year. There are a couple of different ways you can plan out your garden:
If you want a garden that stays pretty much the same year-round, I recommend planting mostly evergreen conifers (trees and shrubs) and annuals. The evergreens will be your consistent color throughout the year and the annuals will provide a bit of summer interest.
If you want an ever-changing garden, add a mixture of deciduous trees & shrubs, and herbaceous perennials. This will give you different blooms and colors on an almost weekly basis if you plan it out accordingly.
Of course, many people combine both approaches above to have the best of both worlds - consistent interest with a succession of blooms throughout the year. This is what I’ve tried to do in my garden, but I tend to be a bit more heavy-handed with the “ever-changing” elements. I took pictures of my backyard garden each month throughout 2024 in order to show you how a garden can change and have different areas of interest throughout the year. My goal when planning out a garden is to have something visually appealing in each area at all times.
A few things to note, if you’re new here:
A majority of this garden was created in 2022, so it is still a fairly “young” garden. You can see more about the creation of the garden beds here.
2024 was a bit of a crazy weather year in Pittsburgh with a ton of rain in the spring followed by a hot and dry summer. You can see the stress on some of the plants in the September and October pictures.
Overall, I’m very happy with the amount of colorful displays and interesting blooms that come up in my garden throughout the year. The garden definitely has a different feeling in each season, with various foliage and bloom colors taking center stage. Typical of Pittsburgh gardens, the biggest differences come in April/May, July, and October.
I will forever have gaps to fill in, weeds to pull, and plants to move around - but that’s the joy of a garden, right? I hope you all had a wonderful gardening year and are excited to move into 2025!
If you’d like to see additional angles or close-ups of the garden, they are included in my monthly updates on my gardening Substack, Grow Your Garden. You can see more photos of each month by clicking here. Feel free to subscribe if you want to be updated in 2025 (these posts are included in the free subscription) or if you want gardening reminders for your own garden!