My Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Garden Plans: 2024

I am really excited about this growing season because I have the most space I’ve ever had to grow – 14 beds in total + my landscape beds in front of the house. I am branching out and trying some new to me varieties in three different categories; flowers, fruit, and vegetables.

Flowers

• Allium – I had some big beautiful purple allium pop up in my strawberry bed this Spring, that was a wonderful surprise!
• Amaranthus ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ – This variety has bright magenta seed heads that dangle from the tops of 5′ tall plants. Amaranthus looks so beautiful draped on the fireplace mantle (see image at the end of the post) and is an excellent dried flower as well.
• Bells of Ireland – This variety is excellent in fresh bouquets and has green, bell shaped bracts on 2′ stems with tiny white flowers.
• Chamomile ‘German’ – This is an edible flower that is well known for being used in tea but it can also be used in fresh bouquets and dried arrangements. It attracts beneficial insects and pollinators.
• Cosmos ‘Little Princess’ & ‘Sensation’ – This is one of my absolute favorite flowers, a huge bouquet of wild cosmos makes my heart happy.
• Hummingbird Cerinthe ‘Pride of Gibraltar’ – Indigo violet flowers dangle from bronze blue bracts above rounded leaves and are a favorite for hummingbirds and honeybees. This flower is native to the Greek Islands and grows to 2-2.5′ tall.
• Hummingbird’s Choice ‘Color Fountains Cleome’ – Large clusters of long petaled blossoms crown 4-5′ tall plants and are beloved by hummingbirds. We have several hummingbirds around our property so it will be fun to see them enjoy these two hummingbird varieties.
• Nasturtiums ‘Little Firebirds’ – This variety has coral, pumpkin, and burgundy flowers that float over lily pad shaped leaves. This is an annual variety but I have several perennial varieties around the garden.
• Peonies – I added four new peonies this year to the front landscape beds, they are my Mom’s favorite so I add some every year. My current plants are just about to bloom!
• Roses – These are my very first roses! After quite a bit of reading and research I chose three David Austin varieties – Boscobel, Claire Austin & Gentle Hermione. Boscobel is an English shrub rose that will grow 4′ tall by 4′ wide that have large coral pink rosettes and has a strong fragrance of elderflower, pear, and almond. The Claire Austin is an English climbing rose that will grow up to 12′ tall with medium creamy white flowers with the outer petals perfectly arranged in concentric circles with a fragrance of vanilla. This variety is growing on a arch trellis so when you walk into my garden you’ll pass under the roses (totally dreamy). And the Gentle Hermione is an English shrub rose that will grow 4′ tall by 3′ wide that has large light pink, paling to soft blush on the outer petals.
• Strawflowers – I chose a semi dwarf bouquet mixture and I look forward to using these on my everlasting wreath projects.
• Tulips – Every Fall I planted 100+ tulips in honor of my Mom. In Fall 2023 I did this in raised beds on the back deck so they wouldn’t get eaten by the bunnies. It was such a treat to have a sea of tulips on the back deck to enjoy.
• Wildflowers – Pacific Northwest Mix & Bee/Pollinator Mix – These mixes have 18+ varieties of annuals, biennials, and perennials in them and it’s so fun to see what grows in these beds over time.
• Yarrow – I have two perennial yarrow plants in my garden that are magenta in color – we will see how well they bloom this season. This is year three.
• Zinnia ‘Purple Prince’ – This variety has intense rosy purple large flowers that are great for bouquets. I’ve not had the best luck with zinnias even though they are considered an easy to grow flower.

Fruit

• Apples – We have a big apple tree in our backyard and we always look forward to picking apples to make Amazingly Simple Apple Butter!
• Asian Pears – Our asian pear tree is pictured above and it is gorgeous in the Spring. I’m still not quite sure what to do with the fruit, if you have ideas or recipes be sure to leave a comment below!
• Suyematsu Red Raspberries – These were planted last year so they should produce their first fruit on the one year old vines. My daughter’s favorite jam is red raspberry so I hope I can make her a jar or two – we only have one 4’x8′ patch. Want to learn how to make red raspberry jam? Check out my Red Raspberry Jam recipe.
• Sugar Pumpkins – These were given to me by a dear friend and coworker in March at a work meeting. We did a seed swap after the meeting which was really fun!
• Suyematsu Strawberries – This is year three for our strawberries and the plants have a lot of flowers on them since they produce in June! My Mom and I always made strawberry jam together so be sure to check out my Farm Fresh to Favorite Recipes: Strawberries.
• Watermelon ‘Cal Sweet Bush’ is a compact watermelon plant that reaches only 14-18″ and produces two to three 10-12 pound watermelons.

Vegetables

• Heirloom Runner Bean ‘Painted Lady’ – These tall vines have coral and cream flowers that hummingbirds love and it also produces edible beans – win win.
• Lemon Cucumbers – My friend introduced me to lemon cucumbers in 2023 and they are so delicious pickled. I plan to share my pickled lemon cucumber recipe after my harvest.
• Mexican Tomatillos – We love Mexican food in our family and I like to make Chicken Enchiladas Verde. I chose the ‘Two Color Fiesta’ variety that has a purple skinned variety and a green skinned Toma Verde which is imported from Mexico (just like our rescue pup, Pico)!
• Pickling Regal Cucumbers – This vigorous variety provides a continuous harvest of 4″ long sweet crisp cucumbers.
• Radish ‘Sparkler’ – This radish is half white and half red and is very crisp. My #1 favorite recipe on this site is the Build Your Own Sticky Rice Bowl and I love to thinly slice the radishes and then sprinkle them with salt, it makes a great snack too!
• Sugar Snap Peas – I have many many rows of sugar snap peas since they are my favorite fresh from the garden treat. I double up on them in my Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry recipe.