Paul and Heather’s Indiana Garden

Paul and Heather Shelley are sharing their garden with us today.

We started gardening seriously here over a decade ago. At the beginning, our corner lot was nothing but dirt, as we had bought a newly built house in northern Indiana (Goshen).

We started with major structural plants, trees, and shrubs for privacy around the perimeter of the yard, and now we are in the process of transitioning to a shady yard, as the trees have matured over the last 22 years.

Hard to imagine this started as a completely blank lot! Planting trees and shrubs is always a great way to start a new garden and create a beautiful space as they mature.

The large shrub to the right looks like dappled willow (Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’, Zones 5–7), which has showy pink-and-white variegated new growth that is so colorful that it almost looks like it is in flower.

Careful plantings of shrubs have created a lot of privacy in the yard, and there’s a beautiful little sitting nook tucked away amid all the greenery.

Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii, Zones 3–8) is a great, long-blooming perennial that produces clouds of small blue flowers in the summer and is resistant to both deer and rabbit damage. The name “catmint” comes from the plant’s close relationship to catnip (Nepeta cataria, Zones 3–9), which is famous for its heady attraction to cats. Catmint has showier flowers and won’t lure every stray cat in your neighborhood.

A diverse selection of shrubs, many evergreen, provides a strong backbone to this garden so it will look good every day of the year.

Crisp lawns provide a tidy border to the increasingly shady garden beds.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

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