Spring is on the way, and today I’m sharing our plans for turning our backyard garden bed into a beautiful English country border garden with a modern twist!

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Happy Friday, friends! Spring is on the way and we’ve got lots of plans over here for our outdoor spaces this year! The biggest project outside is likely to be a large border garden I have planned for our backyard garden bed. Today I thought I’d share what our plans for this space are, some inspiration photos, and some plants I’m looking at for the border garden!

Current State of the Garden

As you can see in the photo above, we have a large row of bushes back here next to the deck. Our plan is to rip these out and extend this garden bed around the corner of the deck to the right. We have already planted a section of Joe Pye Weed, and will extend the border garden fully into this area as well. I may also trail it down the stairway as well, but we will see how far we get this year first!

Inspo for the Border Garden

My “vibe” for this space is an English countryside border garden with a modern twist. I want to focus on a color palette of greens, whites, pinks and purples and create a cohesive look that will hopefully look beautiful throughout the spring and summer season, with plants flowering at different times. I say “hopefully” as I am by no means an expert gardener, so y’all will be coming along on this adventure with us for the first time! I’ve done a bit of research and found some inspiration photos though, and started researching plants that will work in this space in a gardening zone 6a.

Plants I’m Loving

I’ve done quite a bit of research so far and already started planting some seeds indoors to jumpstart the process! Here’s what we are looking at for plants in this space:

• Sedum have lots of different varieties available, and this is perfect for shorter ground cover in the front of the border garden.
• Astilbe have lots of varieties available and I love the feathery plumes this plant gives to a garden!
• Ferns and hostas give a luscious greenery to a border garden and can come in lots of different varieties, sizes, and heights.
• There are so many gorgeous types of Carex grass and I love the height and breeziness it adds to a garden!
• The color of Russian sage is absolutely perfect for any border garden, and I love the shape of these plants, plus, it’s deer-resistant which is perfect for our neck of the woods!
• I love the idea of adding boxwoods throughout the border garden as they can stay green throughout the year.
• Veronica (speedwell) is a super hardy plant that is low maintenance and also tends to be deer-resistant. Plus, you can’t beat that color!
• I absolutely love the color palette and heights on these ajuga plants! This is another good ground cover option for the front of the border garden.
• I love the beautiful flowers of Siberian-tea, also called borgovia cordifolia, such a beautiful color! These are a good intermediate height as well, to give some depth and variety to the garden.