Join me for a virtual spring garden tour with a cuppa. See what’s blooming and get planting inspiration for your flower garden!
If you’re seeking planting ideas and in need of some garden inspiration, look no further! My early spring garden tour promises to be a beautiful visual feast for nature lovers and gardening enthusiasts alike.
As you stroll through my meticulously curated gardens, you’ll be treated to an incredible display of what’s currently blooming, from delicate crocuses and cheerful daffodils to fragrant hyacinths and exquisite tulips.
But that’s not all!
You’ll also get a sneak peek into what’s to come, as I’m sharing my plans for the upcoming season and giving you a glimpse of the budding beauties that are just beginning to unfurl.
So come tour the gardens with me.
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Welcome to My Spring Garden Tour 2023!
While my property is pretty expansive with 10 acres of land, not all of it is maintained. About 5 acres are what we use that includes several garden rooms and areas that include:
- front porch garden
- potager garden
- front yard gardens
- front pond garden
- formal garden
- zen garden
- pool garden
It’s a lot I know! We won’t be touring them all today, as not as much is happening in some of the gardens just yet, but I’ll share some sneak peeks at the end of this post so you can get a glimpse of what’s to come.
And for those of you that are new to my blog, we recentlly moved here a little over a year ago from our family home of 23 years.
I used to have gardens covering that half acre of property and we totally ran out of room! LOL
We were fortunate to find a beautiful 1850 farmhouse with all the things we wanted in a home and decided to make the move.
It’s been nothing short of amazing and I can’t wait to bring you around the gardens to see what’s blooming today.
The Front Porch Garden in Early Spring
Because the front porch is one of my favorite places to be, we’ll start our early spring garden tour there.
This garden is truly one of my favorites. From the breathtaking views of the property to the new flowers I planted last year, I love this pretty garden.
Chris and I always wanted a covered front porch with a swing too. And there’s no better way to view the property.
From the front porch, we can see the flowering crabapples that are just STUNNING while they are in bloom. When they first flowered last year, I was in awe of their beauty.
So this year, I’ve been waiting for them to bloom and they did not disappoint.
New to the view this year, are the spring flowering bulbs that I planted along the stone wall. Aren’t those tulips something? They are called ‘Pink Perennial’ and the color on them is really striking.
The pansies are just starting to wake up in this bed and will brighten up this spot as we move into May.
I also added a new planter that I potted up with some pretty pink pansies and sweet alyssum.
And let me tell you then scent is amazing! I can smell it from the porch rockers and love the aroma.
The front beds just outside one of the front entrances is covered with vinca and ajuga. It’s really pretty when it blooms, but I’m not a fan of it the rest of the season.
It does help cut down on the weeding and mulching so I’ve kept it, but I’d love to do something else here at some point.
The daffodils in this garden are finished blooming so it’s time to deadhead them to keep them from going to seed and neaten things up.
As an aside, it’s really important you leave the foliage of spring flowering bulbs until they yellow because they are storing energy for next year’s blooms.
The tree scultpure is really a work of art. I still can’t get over how someone carved it from a tree.
I can see this view from inside the family room so it’s a joy to see it from both outside and inside my home.
Those crabapples are really amazing, aren’t they? I know I said that before but Gah!
The Front Yard Gardens
While the front yard gardens are planted with thousands of daffodils, the dominant color we see are whites.
From the beautiful daffodil blooms to the flowering crabapples and baby’s breath spirea, it’s a jaw-dropping display of flowers.
I remember the first time seeing all of these daffodils emerge from the ground last year. It was exciting then, and it is equally as exciting now.
I never knew how wonderfully fragrant daffodils are until enjoying them planted en masse. The aroma you get from the garden is heavenly!
So if you’ve ever considered planting daffodils en masse, this is your sign to do it. To get a longer bloom time, plant a mix so they’ll flower for more than a few weeks.
One of the reasons I started a cut flower garden years ago, was so I would be better at cutting the blooms to enjoy indoors.
And wouldn’t you know, even with the thousands planted here, I have to force myself to cut them.
They look so pretty in the beds it’s hard to cut them, but I’ve gotten much better with it lately because it really is a joy to bring them inside!
One of my favorite stunners this spring, is this baby’s breath spirea.
Isn’t it beautiful? I love the tiny white flowers and how they cover each branch.
If you decide to plant one of these, give them room to grow so you don’t have to prune it as much. The natural shape of the baby’s breath spirea is really pretty as it is so give it room and prune to maintain plant health.
The Potager Garden
This garden room has been a work in progress since we first moved in. If you are new here, the area used to be a basketball court.
And that was kind of cool, but my kids don’t really play basketball and they are young adults now, so no one will really use it for that.
Despite their protests, I turned this space into a small vegetable garden with an outdoor dining space. I wasn’t sure how we’d like to use it for this purpose, but it was worth giving it a go.
First things first, the basketball hoop had to go. But we left the post up in case we wanted to string lights from it.
When we moved, we took our self-watering raised garden beds and decided to temporarily set them up here until we figured out what we wanted to do.
And they did well. The potager garden receives full sun so it’s a great spot to grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
But our dining table felt dwarfed in the space and I wanted to grow so much more.
So my husband Chris helped design raised beds and we got straight to work this spring. It took about a month to finish them, but they look amazing! And I’ve already started planting them.
The arbor in this garden was completely rotted, so we bought a new arbor, painted it green to match the fence, and it looks like it has been there forever with the lonicera growing on it.
We had to carefully untangle it when removing the rotting arbor and then took our time weaving it onto the new arbor.
Stay tuned to see how this beautiful garden room evolves over the next several months. Because it will be amazing!
The Zen Garden
Not much is happening in the zen garden yet. But I have big plans for all of the containers back here.
Instead of potting up designs for each one, I’m going to really try to restrain myself and only plant one variety per pot.
The struggle will be real but I am doing it this year as I regretted not planting them that way last season.
If you recall the weeping larch succumbed in the heat of summer last year, so I will need to figure out something for this space.
There is a pipe that goes up the stone wall that was concealed by that tree. So I’ll need to plant something large enough in it’s place.
And this year, I am running drip lines to each container so I can set them on a timer and walk away. If it’s really hot out, I may need to supplement, but the drip irrigation system should do most of the work.
I’m also happy to report that all five of the koi fish survived the winter. And they grew quite a bit.
The Backyard Garden
The backyard gardens are just coming into bloom now. The hellebores, virginia bluebells, brunnera, and dicentra are all flowering and I LOVE the color combination.
We can see this patch by the small pond in the zen garden and it just brings me joy each time I admire it.
The daffodils are also blooming in the gardens and the Japanese maples are just starting to leaf out. My hostas and astilbes are all breaking ground and leafing out as well.
But I’m most happy about the new garden I planted last year in fall because it is starting to fill in.
Before the gardens were completely dormant, I dug and divided some hostas, astilbes, hellebores, ligularia and huecheras to relocate in a section of the garden that had nothing at all.
Most of those plants returned and are filling in quite nicely. I need to fill in a few spots over the next few weeks, but overall I’m really happy with how it looks.
And it cost me nothing! Which I love even more.
The Formal Garden at Sunset
Since we are wrapping up our garden tour, what better time of day than to share the formal garden at sunset?
And yes, I still pinch myself every day that this is real and we live here.
While I haven’t done anything in these gardens yet, it is absolutely stunning in spring as the daffodils bloom and trees start to bloom.
The formal garden is one of our stops on the property wine tours and this one evening was truly spectacular.
I’m hoping to start planting these beds in fall, but we’ll see how the growing season goes before I make a decision on that. Because it may be something I work on the following year instead.
More About My Early Spring Garden Tour
What is your favorite garden from the tour? Do you have a particular early spring garden flower you love? I would love to know more in the comments below.
Want to See How the Gardens Bloomed Last Year?
If you want to check out my new gardens throughout the season you can see them here:
But I also share weekly pics of the gardens in my Sunday updates.
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Thank you so much for following along.
Enjoy a beautiful day! xo
