Peace After The Storm

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It took 30 seconds for the wave of realization to come over me as I watched the hail came down.

“No…no…noooooo!!” I quietly whispered as I stood at the bedroom window. It went on and on…gaining intensity for 8 more minutes.

I knew. I knew the large soft sunflower leaves couldn’t withstand it. I knew the tender trails of cucumber would be no more. And my heart sank.

I rushed out to the garden the second the hail stopped…with the rain still coming down. And I cried out when I saw the devastation. I walked and sobbed and touched the broken zinnias, the snapped off cosmos, the flattened squash flowers…along with all the foliage scattered about. It looked like a bomb went off. I knelt down and gathered the leaves into my arms and started making piles.

I had to cut back so much of the squash, zucchini, and pumpkins…that there wasn’t much left. The tomatoes were still standing, but they were looking defeated. The morning glories lost half of their volume across the arch and the beans are salvageable but smashed.

I’m happy to say that the flowers will make it! Many buds and blooms were lost…but many were saved too! Some of my favorite flowers that I’ve been waiting patiently for were untouched.

The irony in all of this is that we leave for a 10-day road trip to Colorado today. It was planned in the cold of winter when I just wanted to escape. And of course now that summer is here, I’ve been dreading it…vowing to never leave again during the height of garden glory.

I’ve been stressed and anxious about leaving the garden…even under the loving care of capable family members. Because…no one knows it quite like I do, and I tend to be quite particular. LOL! I even tried to hire a local flower farmer to come out and check on it…but she came down sick the morning she was supposed to come tour it.

I’ve prayed daily for months for God to bring peace and teach me how to surrender this. And yesterday, as I was getting the RV ready…I glanced out the window toward the garden and prayed again.

This time, I heard the Holy Spirit speak SO clearly.

“I don’t need any help with the garden, Sara.”

It was said in a sweet jesting tone…like when a Father gently teases his daughter when she is being silly. And when I recognized his voice…I started laughing.

Joyful, non-stop belly laughter…at the thought that the creator of the Garden of Eden (and of the entire EARTH) would be unable to watch over my small garden while I was gone. I immediately had peace. A flooding peace that brings a knowing that all is well.

A few hours after my giggle session with God, the hail hit.

I don’t know the ways of God. I don’t know why things happen the way they do. But what I DO know is God’s character.

He is trustworthy.

He is wise.

He is all-knowing.

He never changes.

He is kind.

So so kind.

And everything he does is for my GOOD. Even the hard things.

Especially the hard things that help me loosen my grip on the things of this world.

Nothing happens in my life without his divine approval. I am hidden under his wings.

“He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”Psalm 91:4

The moment I walked into the garden after the storm…I felt God’s deep indescribable peace amidst the immense sadness. Those two emotions...existing together.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”Isaiah‬ ‭26‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

And so I leave the garden with a broken heart that is completely at peace. Instead of being worried about what might happen in the garden while I’m gone or fretting about what I will be missing…I am full of expectation to see how God will restore it. How he will bring new life.

It won’t be exactly as I planned it…but it WILL be exactly what HE planned. And that is infinitely better.

How To Create a Dreamy Cottage Garden (with video tour!)

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My grandma (aka “Baba”) had the most beautiful backyard gardens and she knew ALL THE THINGS about plants. I remember going out there when I was a little girl and she would take me around to every garden and tell me about each one. Sunset cosmos, peonies, lilacs, and lilies of the “alley” are what I remember the best. I have no doubt that my love for all things gardening started with her. As well as my grandpa…who taught me how to plant rows of corn super straight. Their passion flowed down to my dad, who always grew a huge garden when I was little and I have so many happy memories in that garden. The legacy and love of gardening has always been strong in my family.

After we got married, we rented and my growing endeavors were confined to houseplants. But my neighbors were always growing something beautiful in their yards and I knew when we had a home of our own that I wanted big gardens. For a short 9 months, we rented the cutest hobby farm outside of Boulder that came with gardens… beautiful curved permaculture style beds and an orchard. Here is an old photo of me with the girls by those gardens. My dear friend Jen came over one day and she grabbed the seeds that were sitting on my counter and she walked me through how to plant lettuce….and when I saw those first leaves come out of the ground I thought, “This is it. This is what I want to do forever!” That same friend gave me her personal copy of Gaia’s Garden…and I poured over that book...so in awe of this idea of “home-scale” permaculture. Crazy what these little acts of kindness can create in someone’s life…I’m so thankful.

We thought we were going to purchase that farm, but God had other plans. We ended up moving to the mountains…and our house was at 7500 ft and gardening proved challenging, especially with our frequent travel. After we sold that home, we traveled for many more years in the RV (for a cumulative total of 10 years) and while I would occasionally buy flower pots to put outside the rig, I longed for the day when I could dig in the ground and plant seeds again. When we moved to Texas, I spent hours upon hours at the plant store…learning how to grow in that crazy zone 8b heat. It was also a bit strange that I couldn’t put a shovel into the ground without hitting solid rock a few inches down. It definitely differed from my childhood in the Midwest where the black soft dirt was plentiful. I had a small keyhole raised bed and I loved experimenting and growing there. I had a huge collection of cactus and succulents and they brought so much joy!

When we bought our farm in South Dakota in 2020, I couldn’t WAIT to get my hands in that dirt. But we moved in late September, so we had to wait until the next spring to start creating everything. While Matt worked on remodeling the house, I spent the winter dreaming and reading and planning. I especially loved the Back to Eden documentary…such a revolutionary way of gardening! I spent hours watching Jess at Roots and Refuge Farm and Shaye at The Elliott Homestead. By the time spring rolled around…I was READY! We decided on the “no-till” or “no dig”. Check out Charles Dowding’s site for more info! No-till is a quick and easy way to make gardens…veggie or flower. And it worked really well for us…especially because the existing ground needed some love. We did some soil testing and found it was lacking many key nutrients. It turned out great and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get started gardening. Let me tell you how we did it!

First, we put up a fence! Living in the middle of the country, we have lots of deer, rabbits, and other little animals who would love to snack on the garden. Next, we laid down cardboard everywhere the beds would be. We used rolls of cardboard, but you can of course use boxes saved from shipments or get them from appliance stores! Make sure you overlap the seams of the cardboard 4-5 inches…we did end up having some grass come through on ours. We also had grass come up in the bed areas in certain places. Still trouble shooting that, but hoping we can get rid of it in coming years. We laid landscaping fabric on the paths and then laid pea gravel rock on top of the fabric.

We filled the beds with well aged sheep compost from a neighboring farm and then topped it all off with natural wood mulch after the flowers and veggies were planted. Depending on the bed, the depth was anywhere from 4 inches to 12 inches deep. While I was planting, if I came across a plant that had a deeper root structure, I would pile up a hill of dirt and then plant.

We used rocks and downed trees that we found on our property for all the borders, and Matt borrowed a skid steer to bring in all the compost and the rock. We now have our own skid steer and it’s the BEST thing we’ve ever purchased for the farm! On the right hand side of the photo above, you can see some existing rhubarb and there is asparagus and coneflowers in that bed as well. We decided to leave that and just add to it. The previous owners lived on this farm for 60 years and she was an avid gardener. Most of her beautiful gardens are behind our house…I promise to give you a tour of those as the summer goes on! I’m counting the days until the poppies bloom!

Now let’s talk about the BEST part…the FLOWERS! I wanted to give you my list of “must-have” cottage garden flowers! There aren’t rules when creating a cottage garden. It’s meant to be WILD and FREE! Even though I have every color in my garden, some of my favorite gardens have just purple/white/green or pinks/oranges! Just go with what you love. Be sure to check your zone though…what grows here, might not grow where you are. We are in Zone 4b…where the harsh winters make all the flowers even brighter! There are some benefits to those negative temps! Here are some of the flowers we used (there are too many to list, but these were my favorite!)

FLOWER LIST

  • Coneflower

  • Sunflower

  • Dahlia

  • Snapdragon

  • Mullein (southern charm is my favorite!)

  • Cosmos

  • Yarrow

  • Zinnia

  • Fennel

  • Silver Lace Vine

  • Black Eyed Susan Vine

  • Perennial salvia

  • Foxglove

  • Phlox

  • Russian Sage

  • Hollyhocks

  • Lavender

  • Delphinium

  • Catmint

  • Creeping Thyme

  • Roman Chamomile

  • Agastache

  • Roses

The majority of this garden is perennial (that means it will come back year after year!) and then I filled in with my favorite annuals. A word about spacing…I plant VERY close together. Way closer than the recommended spacing…but remember, I said there are no rules! :) I did that because I wanted the garden to look full and flowy in the first year. I know that eventually, I will need to prune and split plants, but a cottage garden is meant to be a little “unruly”. You just want to make sure that the plants aren’t fighting for space/nutrients/sunshine.

Where did I purchase all the plants? Everywhere! Our local flower nursery, Lowe’s, Lewis Drug, the farm store and pretty much anywhere I saw pretty plants I liked! LOL! I direct seeded the zinnias and large sunflowers, but all the rest were already started in pots. Matt would see my backing the car up to the garden to unload and would say “I thought the garden was done!”. And I would say “The garden is NEVER done my dear!” LOL!! I can’t wait to start another garden closer to the house this year, along with some new flower boxes for the barn and house. Eeeeep! So fun. I have 140 Zinnia plants growing under lights right now. Can you guess my favorite flower? ;)

I get lots of questions about the rainbow flags that we have hanging all over our property. I have used one Etsy shop in particular for 10 years…but she recently stopped sewing. Check out this one or this one instead! Ok…are you ready to see it?

I could spend all my waking hours in this garden…it was an absolute JOY last summer. Matt built me a sweet little patio to sit and watch the sunset. And when the veggies started to ripen…that was even more fun! I could stroll through the flowers to grab a handful of chocolate cherry tomatoes and pick lettuce and peas and radishes for my salad. There is just nothing better than that!

Making bouquets makes me giddy with excitement…I’ve even thrown around the idea of starting a cut flower business. But that’s for another day. For now…I will just make bouquets for fun and watch all the episodes of Growing Floret. Erin is the best.

I have several of Stephanie Burgess’ art poles for our gardens! They add such a fun pop of personality. I also have rock sculptures and mirrored globes and wind chimes…the possibilities are endless!

Here is a little photo gallery of flowers and pretties I took in the garden…enjoy! Scroll through using the arrows.

Thanks for checking out my garden! I’d be happy to answer any questions you have…and I hope you’ll be inspired to build your own cottage garden too!

P.S. Be sure to check out my post with my top 3 favorite gardening YouTube accounts!

My Top 3 Favorite Gardening Resources

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It feels MIRACULOUS that we have access to endless information and knowledge about gardening and growing things. Can you even imagine how our great-grandmothers would have felt had they known that a simple fix could have saved their whole garden that one year? The fact that with a few clicks I can learn exactly how to prepare my hydrangea for the winter blizzards is pretty cool. But along with this availability comes the gift of overwhelm. And sometimes I think maybe our great-grandmothers had it better! LOL! Where do you even start?! I’m here to help you “weed out” all the noise and give you my absolute favorite THREE YouTube accounts I love to watch when it comes to all things gardening.

Roots & Refuge
Jess is one of the first people I found online when I was researching gardening. I felt like had hit the jackpot! She is down to earth, ambitious, full of spunk, and loves Jesus. Her videos include far more than just gardening now…because they have moved to SC and they’re setting up a beautiful homestead from scratch. But her gardening content, and especially her vertical gardening video, is what first got my attention! I took her “Growing Gardeners” course last year and it was fabulous! Just what I needed to find more confidence. Funny story, Jess read my blog back in the early days and we recently connected and had a great chat about vision and life and callings. How great is that?

The Elliott Homestead
Shaye makes everything feel dreamy. Her cottage garden was a HUGE inspiration to me as I was getting started and planning my own. She also has a beautiful market garden, a beautiful French-inspired home, and a million other things that will make you want to never.stop.watching. How about her cold storage room and all that preserved food? swoon! Sometimes we’ll watch her channel as a family…and the girls always come running if I turn it on, “Is that SHAYE?!”. It’s so cute. One balmy evening while we were in Hawaii on a dōTERRA trip, Shaye and I sat and chatted for awhile…and she’s just as lovely in person as online. You won’t regret adding her to your list..be sure to watch ALL the archives!

Garden Answer
Whenever I have a free moment, Laura’s videos are playing on my phone. Especially lately as I need advice on specific plants, starting seedlings, etc. I know I can trust her! Her knowledge of plant names always blows me away (makes sense because her parents own a garden center!). She has super helpful videos on perennial recommendations, planting potatoes, and before and after transformations. Plus, she’s FUN to listen to and has a fantastic personality. She takes projects on in a BIG way…and I connect to that as a fellow garden visionary. LOL!

I hope you’ll go and subscribe to these channels…I come back to them over and over and I KNOW you’ll love them too!

Share YOUR favorite channels or blogs in the comments!