My floral sanctuary
Published on HivePostify by @plantfuljourney · Thu Jul 09 2026
After many weeks of planning, research, learning, and hard work, I am happy to show you the progress that we made in our garden at home. For those who don't know, we have two gardens - one is an allotment garden where we plant our vegetables, and the other one is around our house which we are trying to turn into our own little paradise.
When we moved in we only had bare soil which was mixed with garbage from the construction site that gave this project another dimension. It took us ages to clear it and we're only half way through. Honestly, we didn't even want to start this year as we have enough to do as it is, but we needed some colours around the house, so we decided that we will do at least two parts and the other two we will leave for next year. However, knowing us, I wouldn't be surprised if we started in the autumn already 😊
At first, I wanted to ask a garden architect to help us, but then I somehow couldn't make myself to contact one. It's our garden, so let's design it ourselves. I knew it would be challenging, but I was ready to do it. We agreed with my husband on some sort of a layout and then it was up to me to decide what we will do. My husband is the manpower and I'm the architect in this project.
I set a few conditions and started my research. The goal is to enjoy it in the future with only little maintenance in the spring and autumn, so we needed perennials. I also got a few strong annuals as winters are becoming milder and milder, so I want to try overwintering them to see if they'll come back or not. If not, I'll replace them with more perennials next year. I also got some self-seeding annuals that I know will surely come back from their seeds spread by wind. Another very important condition was that the flowers must be attractive to insects, and I'm happy to say that I keep seeing dozens of bees everyday on every single plant. It's so satisfying!
The garden is not ready at all, but I'm already happy with what we've created, so let's have a look!
I have included a few meadow flowers because they remind me of summers during my childhood when we were running around fields full of Daisies and other beautiful flowers. Daisies reseed rapidly and also spread via rhizomes, so there will be many more to come.
---- Rudbeckia is a little more complicated as you can call it a short-lived perennial or self-seeding annual. I can't wait for them to come back next year, and I hope they will multiply well. It's the newest addition to my collection, so I have set a reminder not to forget watering it every day to make sure that it establishes a good root system.
----- Veronika is my favourite plant in our garden. It creates tons of these spiky purple flowers that are loved by bees and bumble bees. They are almost finished and I want to cut them, so that there will be another set of flowers this summer, but I can't do it as they are way too many bees on them all day long. Next week, we should have some rain, so then I might get a chance and remove the spent flowers.
---- I have tried planting Agastache Apricot Sprite a few years ago and we loved it. It's difficult to describe its scent, but it's something between mint and anis. It's simply delicious. I added it to my elderflower syrup which was a great hit. It has these orange flowers all summer.
---- This is also an Agastache called Blue Boa. I have tried it for the first time and I'm happy that it's a perennial and I don't have to buy it anymore. I love the combination of purple and orange.
----- I fell in love with Dreameria - Sweet Dreams and got 5 plants. They don't grow too big, so I have them in front of the flower bed, but they have these spectacular pink ball-like flowers. They are pretty when the flowers fall off too as then you're left with pink 'balls' that you can dry and use in flower arrangements.
---- Achillea got me with its impressive size. Mine is about 80-90 cm tall and more than 1 m wide. It attracts insects of all sizes and I have even seen hummingbird hawk moths that is so rare where we live.
----- It's not all wild though 😊 We have created (in my opinion) a beautiful elegant Hydrangea and Hosta bed along our house. This was a two day job as in this place we had the worst situation with the remains from the construction works. The soil was as hard as concrete, and we used tons of special soil to enrich it plus I don't know how many litres of mulch to keep it nice and tidy. It's the right location for this shade loving plants, but we still have to protect them with sun screens because of the heatwave that we're facing.
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23ynSX8uEMFmLtVETmSWsP5yB3odbPzyrpNcqA5bTMJ5ZiHVDhqc4fvg1aTMXciUcRndf.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23wgQ82ZCLWgaFxE3WgovqZaZb7HmH4QT3pAiEYazQ4nPSXMuGHQLWkJiJj8bpiGym5cz.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23wX3VCKA3trQHuuWvf2aFoMFSzwXLziyrqZyYvuyvRMdH186w7LnLsD6rhuTzhKCVVMX.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23tvpoggYuF5oTqTWav9jtKAaLS1QC7RJSZ357ushjh4cQHcbVHFDTX33L5cJy3vykHcs.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23y8x6sYk72UYwRHCkgnP2rBFaqwSkZauiTrcLTPq2XeRATsjYVNbCJCi8RpwVXcUuxGH.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23uQpD7JV3CFnzV7e8ARBdpudQ5XMWjh6wFxFu7TmNNP3XnY3yC92pZShhUcuHcjh1i5x.jpg ---- This hydrangea can tolerate full sun, so we put it in the location that gets sun until approximately 4 PM and it seems to love it. When we got it a month ago it had only leaves and today the flowers are almost open. There are also various insects enjoying it. I let the nature do its thing, and so far there are no damages.
----- Here we have Veronika when it was in it's full bloom, and Dreameria to see its size. They are very compact and clean which makes it easy to remove the spent flowers.
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23ywsBged9mH4HT3i64vsfqYFqqN81fPybHxJqWY4e5vU6j6YvYoypGahc6vjMy4VqB8Q.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23xp47CPaSw3rdsNYFPFgUoe396xJm826AYoiKkxwqUekUY9S7NqLaV2vXmfbyUwEEkye.jpg --- Felicia Amelloides has these tiny blue flowers that need to be cut down after flowering, so that the plant pushes more flowers one more time. Verbena is probably the easiest flower to grow. Give it full sun, good soil, and enough water and it will flower all summer long. It looks like little clouds towering above smaller plants.
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23w2oGenL9j1aLBv8H99hLrZyorRULkpiqspQHHZxJqKuATXYpyhsY3BMi3LGQs2oKgZd.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23x19JKNEtwhgREU3a59ysVNWZZQYeLqrS15aKpVfuynJ87tGJLPTDgLADs4osUqFyjK6.jpg ----- Craspedia Globosa is perfect for bouquets. You can use fresh flowers or dry them as they keep their bright yellow colour. This is the only annual that I got because I just couldn't let it in the shop. Achillea can have various colours. It can be white, pink, orange, yellow and even purple.
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23ywwcXfCXhPi94qZSzMQJTK3gbwQfekZtKUgKwudh9QGmf8LeDJQGsUW4hC3gN67Q5Nx.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23xAXgFyUUf4xPWvR6Ur8S3kwxrGbaEebrxnsYM5D8vVKJAKkr2pTcEPtDVVECT6Gufbh.jpg ----- And this is how we come home every weekend this summer. Lots of various plants at least twice a day because not everything that we need fits in the car. I often wonder what our neighbours think as we're working on the garden behind the house, so they can't see the progress. They only see new plants coming in every Saturday 😊
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23w2qUvrcgFJEup4j8Upo7gENikeyX9tqpfHTuntj6J3VuWbqQpsmzuHug8ZqjkxtQb44.jpg
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/plantfuljourney/23xVPP8yRE5TWB2FnS4wVjxZzz3aTmstZ2zcaf31kHBmH6qPbxt1zHJB4K6Md9HChmS3j.jpg ------ Thank you for reading!
Until next time...
Tags: #photographylovers#hivegarden#photography#lifestyle#waiv