Our Small Backyard Garden for Cut Flowers and Family Life

The Goal

For the last five years, I have dreamt of uprooting the grass and having rows and rows of blooms to wander through in our small backyard cut flower garden, but I could never settle on a layout. I think deep down, I always wanted a shared space for both flowers and entertaining.

It has taken actually living in the garden more to realise what I want from it. We have been so unlucky with taking turns getting sick and, between the three of us, I think we have been sick for almost an entire month. There are only so many places we can go, so we have ended up spending much of our time in the backyard. And strangely enough, it has given me a much better understanding of how we use the space and what I want our garden to become.

What it looks like right now...

Here are my top must-haves / nice-to-have for our new backyard plan:

1. Room to roll around

Amelia has discovered rolling and has been rolling around on the grass, so I want to keep a nice big area for her to stretch out and play. I may even look into upgrading our grass. I am dreaming of picnics in spring and plenty of room to run around.

2. More growing room for our small backyard cut flower garden

I would love more raised beds, as well as two island beds to help divide the backyard. I plan to grow a mix of perennials and annuals and work on companion planting throughout these beds.

3. A ground-level fire pit

We built our current fire pit when we first moved into the house. It was previously a pond, and for some reason we decided to pour concrete over it and turn it into a fire pit (so many regrets).

We didn't consider that heat rises, so having the fire elevated means it tends to warm our faces more than anything else when we sit around it. It is also huge and takes up far too much of the backyard.

This time, I would love something at ground level that feels more like part of the garden.

4. A mini orchard / flower border

The border that receives the most sun is currently overgrown with a climbing vine, grass and Erigeron. I would love to turn it into a little orchard with miniature fruit trees we can pick from, underplanted with a mix of flowers.

5. A greenhouse

This one is more of a nice-to-have, but I would love a greenhouse where our current shed and undercover area are. At the moment, it mostly accumulates garden tools and pots.

I would love to turn it into somewhere I can actually use for growing, potting and starting seeds rather than somewhere everything gets dumped.

I want to grow more without losing room to live amongst it all.