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My Garden Wish List

by Dawn
wildflower meadow

Or, What I Would LOVE to have in my Garden if Money Were no Object!

As gardeners, we’re constantly looking around and thinking “Ooh, I could put something there” or “what could go in that corner?“. We always have ideas about what could make our yards and gardens better if only we had the time…or the money….or both.

Let me share what I’d love to have ~ maybe it will give you some wonderful ideas for your own garden!

My Garden Wish List

  1. An Orchard
  2. More Fruit Bushes
  3. Pussy Willow Trees
  4. Beehives
  5. A Backyard Pond
  6. A Greenhouse
  7. An Entire “Lawn” of Clover & Wildflowers

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An Orchard

Ok, well, a mini-orchard, I don’t really have the land for an *actual* orchard.

You can see I already have a mini patio peach tree. This is the specific variety I have.

I bought it early in the spring of 2018 and kept it in the house because it was too cold to put a non-acclimated greenhouse plant outside. It started to blossom, so I hand-pollinated it.

Oops! Apparently I was a bit TOO good at hand-pollinating, because the poor thing ended up COVERED in peaches. Like, a 2 foot tree with hundreds of peaches.

Bonfire patio peach tree
My little peach tree

Funny enough, the tree apparently knew that wasn’t going to work and every. single. peach. fell off. Every one. <<sigh>>

Fast forward to this year. It’s in the ground in the garden and the bees took care of the pollination. It has a MUCH more reasonable number of peaches on it, so hopefully some of them will develop. If it does well, I might add a few more of these trees since they don’t take up much room.

little peaches on tree
The little peaches on my tree. I’m so excited!
Hoping I’ll get some for eating this year

I also have two bush cherries, and when I was taking pics for this post, just noticed that they have little cherries on them. YAY! This is also their second year, so I haven’t gotten cherries yet. Looking forward to seeing how they taste. I could always add a few more of these too…..I believe this is the variety I have.

cherries on bush
Here are the little green cherries

The section of yard in the picture below is awfully empty, and I think it would look really good with several fruit trees on it, don’t you? I’m thinking maybe a few crabapples (there were a couple of apple trees there when we moved in, but they were so neglected and unhealthy that we took them down). I’d also love to have a paw-paw, a few cranberry bushes, and a couple of quinces.

side yard
Way too much grass, it needs fruit trees!

Did you know you don’t actually need to grow cranberries in bogs? They’re grown in bogs because the bogs can be easily flooded for harvest, when the cranberries will float to the top and can be skimmed off. However, cranberries can be grown in regular garden soil. This variety is hardy where I am and doesn’t take up too much room. Hmmm….now to dig a bed to put them in……

I saw a quince tree for sale at my local grocery store (of all places!) and fell in love with it. They’re so pretty! My guess is that it was a flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa), grown more for the flowers than the fruit, but Cydonia oblonga varieties have edible fruit. I’ll probably check out the cultivar ‘Rich’s Dwarf’ as it only gets 8 to 10 feet tall if I decide to get one for its fruit.

More Fruit Bushes

I already have a sizable black raspberry patch, as you can see from the pictures. These bushes keep my whole family in berries for the entire year!

raspberry bushes
My raspberry bushes
raspberry fruits
I think it’s going to be a good raspberry year!

My Arctic raspberries were just planted last year so haven’t produced any berries yet, but I think I might get a couple this summer. If you’d like to grow raspberries (or Arctic raspberries!), you can read my post on growing raspberries here.

Arctic raspberries
Some of my Arctic raspberry plants

I really want to add strawberries and blueberries next year. We have the space for them, just ran out of money and time this year to install the boxes. Next year, for sure! In the long run, it will definitely be cheaper to grow our own as we spend sooo much money each year on strawberries and blueberries!

If you need some specific information on how to grow strawberries, check out my Growing Organic Strawberries post here. When you sign up for my email list, you’ll also receive access to my FREE Resource Library that includes a free printable cheat sheet for strawberry growing. Get more info here.

Pussy Willow Trees

stone wall

This spot next to my stone wall is soooo empty, it NEEDS something (don’t you think?)! I love pussy willows (so do the pollinators, check out my post here for more info on that!)

Logee’s Greenhouses has a pussy willow collection (you can see it here) that includes one each of a white, black and pink pussy willow. I’ve never seen black or pink pussy willows, but I definitely need to own them! I think they’re next on the list for this summer since they’re not too expensive.

Beehives

Have you ever thought about beekeeping? I have! I’ve been thinking about it for years. The problem is, darling hubby is hesitant. (Don’t tell anyone but I think he’s a little afraid of them, even though he won’t admit it!)

We all know that bee populations are declining worldwide due to pesticides and other unknown causes, but do you know what a precipitous decline in bee populations would actually look like from an agricultural standpoint? Check out this article from Yale if you want more information. Warning: It’s not pretty!

I know my little beehives wouldn’t do much to reverse declining bee populations, but if I have a few and you have a few, and your neighbors and mine decide they’re cool and they have a few, pretty soon maybe we can make a difference.

honeybee on flower

Never underestimate the power of small things (especially bees)!

I don’t have any personal experience with beekeeping, so I’d like to take some workshops before even attempting it. A friend of mine took this seminar and said it was helpful, fun, and informative. As a bonus, it’s only a couple of hours from me and the price is really reasonable, plus, they let you actually work with the hives. Road trip! Anybody wanna join me?

The man who runs the above workshop also has a book (here it is!) I bought it and really enjoyed it. It’s a great read, chock full of information, and gave me a good idea about the benefits and challenges of beekeeping before I dive in for real.

A Backyard Pond

frog and butterfly in pond

I can’t even begin to describe how badly I want a pond! We had a small one at my old house and I just loved it. I talk about it a bit in my post on Attracting Dragonflies here.

We have a much bigger yard now and I have a nice empty hill that would make a great place for a waterfall and pond not too far from the back patio. Again, money and time are the issues (aren’t they always??)

We used to have a garden center close to us with tons of pond stuff, but I just visited them this week and they have almost nothing for ponds anymore. I’m so bummed!

However, I did find this resource for all things pond online. This all-in-one kit means I could have a good-sized pond for under $700. Yup, yet another thing to add to the wish list. Hubby says we have to get a friend over here with his backhoe to dig it. He doesn’t want to do it by hand. Gee, I don’t know why…..

A Greenhouse

upper side yard

This is probably the holy grail for most gardeners. This side yard above the garden is just begging for a greenhouse, don’t you think?

Although it’s in the shade in the summer, the trees are, of course, leafless in the winter and early spring when the greenhouse would be getting the most use, so I think it would work perfectly.

Of course, if money were no object, this would be my greenhouse. However, since I’m not independently wealthy and have no ailing rich relatives (that I know of), I think I’ll probably have to settle for something a bit more modest.

This recycled pallet greenhouse was supposedly built for under $300. I could definitely “settle” for that! Hubby can get pallets from work, so if I could find a source for old windows, I’d be all set.

Have you considered buying or building a greenhouse? Do you already have one? I’d love to see pictures of it! Send me your pics ([email protected]) and I’ll add them to this post for inspiration.

A “Lawn” of Clover and Wildflowers

If money were no object (wow, I’ve been saying that a lot today), I’d love to have someone come in and scrape all the grass up and plant clover and wildflower seed. Can you imagine the bees and beneficials that would attract?

wildflower meadow

And the best part? No more mowing!! I have my eye on a few smaller areas I might work on while I wait to get wealthy enough to do the whole yard.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my wish list today. If you had all the money (and time!) in the world, what would you love to have in your garden? Please share in the comments, I’d love to know!

Don’t forget to pin one of the below images on Pinterest, and, as always, have a crazy organic day!

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What I Would LOVE to have in my Garden if Money Were no Object!

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5 comments

Chocoviv 06/22/2019 - 9:58 pm

I love the gardens!

Reply
Dawn 06/23/2019 - 8:35 am

Thank you!

Reply
Linda Carlson 06/22/2019 - 11:52 am

Love it. Have had some of those things in various places we have lived.. A small pond once. A big greenhouse once.. I always wished we could have taken that greenhouse with us..

Reply
Nikki 06/21/2019 - 1:16 pm

Your dreams are my dreams. LOL I guess most gardeners dream for the same thing. I too want a pond and a greenhouse. Those are my top wishes. Oh and a wildflower meadow… hahaha
🙂 gwingal

Reply
Dawn 06/21/2019 - 9:20 pm

I think you’re probably right! It’s definitely not a lack of dreams, just a lack of money!

Reply

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