My 2025 Garden Plans

I’m currently on year three of my five year MAJOR garden plans — which are always evolving and changing. I had very grandiose plans before we even closed on our new house in Carolina. (We thought it would be our forever home. It’s not. But that’s a blog post for another time.) And while I’ve greatly modified my five year homestead plan, I continue to move forward.

I live by the Wisconsin motto of “forward.” So even if this isn’t our forever home, I’m still going to set it up as a functioning and sustainable homestead for the short and long term. That’s just how I roll. And what I’ve done at my prior homesteads.

And, just to be clear, whether you own a home or rent an apartment or condo; you can still have a homestead in my opinion. Homesteading — at its heart and core — is about living sustainably, preserving food and goods, and being as self-sufficient as possible. This can be a goal for anyone and is often inherent for many of us due to necessity. But I digress. Let’s talk about Year 3, 2025.

Shifting Gears

After a LOT of conversations, hubby and I realized we plan to move on. We want to have something custom built or move. So I know it doesn’t make sense to continue with my previous plans. So I scaled down the main garden plan. Which, honestly, is probably for the best. We also found out from our cul de sac neighbors that the leach lines laid in everyone’s yards weren’t done in the best way possible. And, while I originally only planned to add some perennials, light path gravel and grass in the leach line area … I am now way more concerned about coming into contact with leach lines that were potentially not planted low enough or with ideal materials.

So between having a better understanding of the literally underlying situation AND knowing we don’t plant to stay here more than another four years-ish at most, I made some pretty big changes to our overall plans as you can see in the comparison pics.

This Year’s Goals

I always have to set goals for each year. Most of the time I meet them. Sometimes I get ahead. But having my general outline helps me set my annual goals. (See my outline pic at right based on updated goals.)

This year, I have some big primary objectives that are already well underway.

• Create a Moonlight Pollinator Friendly Mini Garden (to support bees and birds … and also address a weird gap that happened)
• Put in our Fire Pit
• Build a better lawn (where we want it) with sustainable, low-height seeding
• Establish Perennial Garden #1
• Plant second and third Fig Tree Guilds
• Clean-up, maintain and build on existing garden elements
• Start outlining the primary garden with concrete paver edge

The Moonlit Pollinator Garden

Despite all my efforts to carefully design and create a garden to scale … there are imperfections that inherently occur. l think this is most likely because of my “circle linear” design approach. There ended up being an awkward gap between my Belle of Georgia peach tree and Red Rome apple tree. The area is difficult to mow and encourages weeds. My solution (I hope) is a Moonlit Pollinator Garden.

My overall color scheme for the garden is purples, pinks, whites and yellows. But at the very front of the house, I have a palette of just white and green. I want to echo this in the backyard as well as tie both areas together so a moonlit garden seems like the perfect solution. I found a design and plant collection called Moon Garden at White Flower Farm and I think it’s going to work great into my design and filling that spot.

It includes beautiful perennials like anenome, daisies, irises, baby’s breath, liatris, delphinium and echinacea. The collection also includes strawberries. So not only will I be creating a visually beautiful area, but I ‘ll also be supporting pollinators, AND adding an edible element with the berries. I am a huge fan of foodscaping so this is perfect. I’m excited to make this addition to the garden and clean up that awkward spot.

Put in a Fire Pit

Putting in a fire pit is definitely on our must do list but just hasn’t come into fruition yet. This is the year! I just ordered this fire pit kit from Lowe’s and am excited to finally get it set up. I originally wanted to have that area in my design be laid out with pavers or stone of some type. Then I thought maybe gravel. But our county has rules about “permeable” and “impermeable” surfaces and how much you can have on your lot. And my husband says he actually doesn’t mind having some lawn there and mowing it. So we’re just going to try to build up the turf there and keep it green so it will hopefully feel nice under people’s feet as they sit around the fire.

Build a Better Lawn

Building up the turf is the next focus for this year. I actually hate lawns. I despise them. There are numerous reasons not to have them and it boils down to the environment and sustainability. But, I do also see the value in having something to walk on, especially in an area where people will be gathering. When we purchased our home in North Carolina a couple of years ago, the builder only installed sod in the front yard and so the backyard has just been a battle of weeds.

I ultimately want something low maintenance and eco-friendly. So I’ll be trying to convert the weeds to “no mow dwarf grass and clover with the No Mow Lawn & Microclover Seed Mix from American Meadows. It’s probably going to take multiple applications over the next few years but hopefully I can improve the backyard situation in areas where we want lawn.

Establish Perennial Garden #1

Most of my backyard landscape design focuses on fruits, vegetables and herbs. But pollinator friendly perennials is also part of the plan and will help with plant food production on our homestead. I’m also going for a Mediterranean vibe and want to frame up my design in an aesthetically pleasing way with flowers and shrubs. Two circular perennial gardens with a crescent moon design incorporated into them will serve this purpose.

I found a beautiful garden plan called Inviting Patio Garden Plan from Garden Gate. I did have to purchase the plan but I found the pricing to be reasonable. I’m modifying the plan greatly to better fit my overall design plans but I just love the plant selections and the plan is serving as great inspiration. I am choosing some different plants and varietals based on what I’ve been able to find and what will work best in my region and climate. For example, I’m subbing in Pink Cloud Muhlygrass (which is native to my area) for a grass in the plan that was not native and can be potentially invasive.

Here are the plants I’ll be using in my revamped design:

• ‘Pink Cloud’ Pink Muhlygrass from Bluestone Perennials (A)
• ‘Chantay’ Delphinium Delgenius from White Flower Farm (B)
• ‘Popcorn Drift’ Rose from Burpee (C)
• Blue Fescue (which I’ll be starting from seeds) from Burpee (D)
• ‘Max Frei’ Geranium (aka bloody cranesbill) from Bluestone Perennials (E)
• ‘Pink Potion’ Veronica from Bluestone Perennials (F)
• ‘Graham Blandy’ boxwood from The Tree Center (G)
• ‘Hush Puppy’ fountain grass from Bluestone Perennials (H)
• ‘Bloodstone’ sea thrift from Bluestone Perennials (I)

I’m excited to see it all put together. I would love to mix in some berries or herbs in this design … but this perennial garden and it’s matching partner (which will get put in next year) are going over septic leach lines. So it would not be safe to do anything edible in these spots. Perennials, grasses, and small shrubs are safe to put in, though, and will help with the rain water surface run off we often get on our lot.

I’ll also be doing a light layer of gravel and possible some sculptural element in this mini garden. Perhaps a bird bath or sun dial? I can’t quite decide yet but there’s no rush on that. I also am having trouble deciding if ai want to do white gravel or tan.

Plant Additional Fig Tree Guilds

A couple of years ago, at the end of the growing season, I randomly bought an Italian Honey Fig tree from Stark Bro’s. Last summer i got to taste one of the first figs from this little gem and I instantly knew I need more of them in my garden. So I added two more fig tree guilds to my landscape design.

Food Guilds are a great way to have plants that support each other by suppressing weeds, adding nitrogen to soil, combating diseases and undesirable insects. For my fig tree guilds, I’m pairing the fig trees with marigolds, garlic and tarragon. (Last year I surrounded my first fig with sunflowers and rosemary.)

Garden Clean-up & Maintenance, Starting Edging

Those are all my big plans for my garden this year. Beyond that, it’s the usual clean-up and maintenance. Weeding seems to be a never ending battle for me. And, if my budget permits and I somehow have the extra time, I may start to outline the backyard garden with concrete edging. This will help give me a cleaner edge and give a visual cue to my hubby of where not to mow. (We had some “run ins” with the mower last year.)

What are your 2025 garden plans? Will you be incorporating any foodscaping elements or pollinator friendly perennials? What are your favorite sources for plants and landscape elements? Let me know in the comments below! And, if you’re looking for more garden inspiration, you can check out my post encouraging us to Bring Back the Victory Garden.