If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this little statement I made on October 5.
Yeah, well… I just finished.
That’s the cover and a sample page. There are 28 plants listed, and (unless I forgot about one) every perennial flower, bush, and tree in my garden is represented.
I culled photos and information from Monrovia, Nature Hills, Spring Hill Nursery, Michigan Bulb Co., and yes, even Wikipedia. I noted the source of information at the bottom of each page.
If you’re curious and would like to see the crazy project I spent way too much time on, you can download the PDF by clicking on the banner below.
[download#1#image]
34 comments
Jen N.
Nicole,
You inspire me! My husband and I just bought our own little bungalow just outside of Denver. I would love to adapt some of your outdoor thoughts into our own space. Is this pdf still available somehow?
prosesh
How can I download the pdf?
Jess
Do you still have the PDF available anywhere? I just recently discovered your blog, and have been reading from the beginning. I’d love to see more on your garden!
Coopers+mama
Did you take down the reference. I had bookmarked this page and was planning to come back and check it out. Preety please ‘reactivate’.
p.s. i LOVE reading your blog.
moderneve
i desperately want a green thumb, but my backyard has literally been covered in plastic for 6 months. i don’t even know where to begin with the landscaping. i have been following th evolution of your backyard for some time now, and am always so impressed. i love this book and wish i some of my own plants/flowers/tree to catalog.
knittinglizzie
I passed this along to my mother who is a fabulous gardener–
I printed this off and I am going to start mine this weekend! I love this! Love, Mom
Thought you’d enjoy that!
Ashley S
Hey sis, that guide beautiful! However, being the little sister that I am I feel that it is my duty to inform you that on the lily of the vally page I caught a typo! Lol, no biggie, just thouht you might want to know since it too you so long to make. In your mini-description you put “teh” instead of “the”. K, that’s all! Keep on being awesome!
xoxo
Lori M.
Something to aspire to! And here are a few things to look forward to in the spring…
The Oak Park Conservatory has a plant sale – maybe in early May? I went crazy there buying lavender and herbs and other plants I found I couldn’t resist. I also went to the Cheney Mansion plant sale – late spring, early summer. I bought tons of Sweet Peas and built a little tower out of bamboo sticks for them to grow up. What a sweet, old-fashioned scent they had.
If you like bulbs, I’m very taken with the Old House Gardens heirloom bulbs (www.oldhousegardens.com). They have the dates different cultivars were introduced. I was thinking of getting bulbs only from the 1920s, when our bungalow was built.
Miss B.
You so need your own show or something, lol! I can not wait to have a garden of my own, this is well…lovely!
Nicole Balch
Ooh, so many good ideas! I have a sketch of the garden from awhile back – it wouldn’t be very difficult to make it into a garden plan.
Janice, the fonts are Archer and Scriptorama Hostess.
And yes, it’s totally insane. And I’m a nerd. ;)
Jessica
Ok Nicole. This is insane. And oh so wonderful.
Anne (in Reno)
This is a great idea, but make sure to keep it updated, those things can get away from you really easily, especially if you plant lots of different stuff! I keep meaning to do something similar but I have so much stuff in my garden now that I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up!
Amy I.
What a great idea! I just came across your blog (and added you on twitter).. your style is impeccable, i’m inspired just looking at your blog’s design :) Looking forward to following along.
Elissa
Beautiful! This sounds like something I would start and then never finish. Congrats on getting it done! I’m just starting to lay out where everything will be in my garden- let alone compiling it all into a guide. Keep an eye on that Obedient plant, though- it’ll start popping up everywhere.
Keren @ ChicTip
How do you find the time???? I love your graphic designs – I think you are very talented!
One day my blog might make enough money to hire you ;)
Meghan
I loved looking through your plant palette, I have one for my parent’s house that I did over the summer. I love the Coreopsis rosea, but they aren’t always reliably cold hardy. I planted 3 in Naperville, IL and 1 died, 1 struggled and lived, and the other was perfectly happy the whole time. Also, I hope that you plant the false dragonhead someplace with restrictions because it’s other name, Obedient Plant is like a horticultural joke as it is anything but that. Anyway, good luck with the landscaping, it’s going to be beautiful!
Vica (Flying Umbrellas)
That is very beautiful idea :) Each time I go home, I love to spend time in my mom’s garden full of beautiful flowers and taking photos of them. I dream of my own garden too and definitely your nice guide will be a very good starting point :)
Thanks for sharing your great ideas with us,
Vica
Erin
What a great guide! You did such a lovely job with it.
Sandra@Botany's Desire
Love Love! How inspiring. I may attempt to do something like next spring. Thank you for shairing.
Janice
This so amazing! Very pretty. Though I dont have a garden of my own, it’s inspiring! Love the fonts u used for the headings….if you dont mind sharing, what’s the name of the fonts used?
Katy
Thats so great, you must have a beautiful garden, you should get it bound into a book. What a great idea…
Krysta
omg, you ae such a nerd. And I am exactly the same way!
This is really very cool (and beautiful I might add). Congrats on finishing the project!
Carrie
this is so fantastic! i have thought about doing something similar every time i plant new things but haven’t ever gotten around to it. seeing yours is really inspiring, great job!
Kylie
This is the best idea ever!! You’ve inspired me to plant more things in my backyard, I just hope we have them in Australia. I’m sooo envious that you have a peony bush, they are one of my favourite flowers.
Erin
Very cool. Makes me want to do this for my own home. The design is so lovely though, it makes me wonder if you could re-work it into a fill-in-the blanks and picture style workbook and sell it? I think you’d probably have a lot of takers! Time to start a new publishing outfit with all that extra time you don’t have… :)
Ryan
I have been thinking of doing this same type of project for the last few years because I can never remember things like when I should prune (fall or spring) how much (just the shape or to the ground) So I just call my mom and ask – but I keep asking the same things year after year ’cause I don’t remember. Since we’re both zone 5 I might steal part of your book as a jumping off point for mine. I agree with Marisa that a planting diagram is probably a good addition. And if you want to get super obsessive in the future a diagram that notes which areas get more sun, or less water, or what plants you find don’t do well.
Becki
This is a gorgeous book which will be really useful to you and any future owners of your home. You may also want to add the date that the plant/tree was planted especially for those plants that require dividing, etc. Beautiful job.
Marisa
That’s wonderful – and SO useful! And a great inspiration.
One thought: do you have a garden plan/diagram? I think that would be a solid addition to the garden book, especially when you are thinking about ordering plants while everything’s still buried under the snow.
Kate
Beautiful, of course. This totally inspires me for a cookbook project I’m working on using my Great-Grandmother’s recipes.
Nicole
So amazing! We’re house hunting & I can only hope that the place we end up with will come with something like this… so I at least have a chance of not killing anything already there!
Samae
This is a fantastic idea! I should totally do this when we redo our yard this coming summer. Thanks for the inspiration. This is also a great idea for all those recipes that linger in my kitchen. As a designer, too, I can do this I just get lazy once I leave the office.
BTW – I read your blog all the time. Its great! I never comment but thought I would this time. Thanks for sharing all your fun, creative ideas.
kealoha
What a beautiful and inspiring project! Thanks for sharing!!
jill
That’s really quite inspiring!
Comments are closed.