See Garden Dreams Turned Into Reality!

How did YOUR dream of having a garden start?

~For many, it’s the romantic vision of a beautiful garden with vegetables and flowers—perhaps some fruit trees swaying in the wind—and a gazebo or place to sit, read, and look at the garden.

~For others, it’s simply about getting outdoors, connecting with nature, and watching butterflies enjoy the milkweed planted near a beautiful row of fresh vegetables.

~For yet others, it’s about being more self-reliant in a chaotic world and going back to healthier, sustainable ways of living.

We all have our reasons for dreaming about a garden!

From Garden Dream to Garden Plan to Reality!

To turn a dream into reality, one important step to see the final vision. This helps make the entire journey worthwhile! As expert gardeners, we start by creating a garden plan or design that can truly enable you to bring the garden of your dreams alive!

Toward that end, we reached out to our Almanac gardening community to ask if they would share their own garden plans and the resulting photos of how their garden plan turned out! Here is a wonderful sampling which we hope you will find inspiring and useful. As expert gardeners, not much makes us happier than to help our fellow gardeners succeed!

1. Greg Morse’s Garden (Bagley, Minnesota)

This carefully planned garden illustrates how low tunnels and irrigation can be combined to protect crops from late frosts and keep soil moisture adequate during the summer heat.  A number of varieties are grown, spacing out the harvests with plants to attract pollinators around the edges of beds.

Greg’s Garden Plan

See full plan details and plant list.

Greg’s Dream Garden

2. Chef Toni Guinn’s Garden (Alexandria, Louisiana)

We loved the mixed interplanting of insect-attracting flowers in this productive garden.  This will result in a buzz of beneficial bugs to both pollinate the fruiting crops and also devour pests.

Toni’s Garden Plan

See full plan details and plant list.

Toni’s Dream Garden

3. Nancy Eggink’s Garden (Parker, Colorado)

A well-planned, low-maintenance garden with deep beds to provide reservoirs of moisture and make tending crops easier on the back.  What a view—we’re jealous!

Nancy’s Garden Plan

Note: Plan details not published. See Nancy’s review.

Nancy’s Dream Garden

4. George Stoneham’s Garden (Austin, Texas)

A classic raised bed layout that makes it easy to rotate crops from one bed to the next each year.

George’s Garden Plan

See full plan details and plant list.

George’s Dream Garden

5. Christine Marieg’s Garden (Denver, CO)

An almost potage-like garden, this shows how mixed planting arrangements with plenty of companion flowers can make beautiful gardens, which are also highly productive.

Christine’s Garden Plan

Note: Plan details not published. See more photos.

Christine’s Dream Garden

6. Lisa Sangam’s Garden (Cupertino, California)

What an amazing result for this first-year garden in Cupertino!  Functional and beautiful, this yielded an amazing amount of produce (3,000 pounds!), and Lisa plans to expand it, growing even more with succession planting of crops.

Lisa’s Garden Plan

See full plan details and plant list.

Lisa’s Dream Garden

7. Robert Wiggins’ Garden (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Robert’s Garden Plan

See more garden detail!

Robert’s Dream Garden

We love the mixed use of raised beds and containers in this highly productive non-profit garden, supplying fresh produce to those in need.  What an inspiring project!

8. Lauren Jones’s Garden (Wilmington, NC)

There’s nothing like children learning about food first hand and this delightful school garden is packed with activities to help develop green thumbs from an early age.  From chickens to composting to delicious crops to harvest all summer, who wouldn’t want to spend recess here?

Lauren’s Garden Plan

See full plan details plus plant list.

Lauren’s Dream Garden

Make Your Garden Dreams Come True!

With the Almanac Garden Planner, plan your own garden right on your computer in the comfort of your home! This year, the online Garden Planner has gotten even better, letting you select from pre-planned garden plan templates designed by our expert gardeners. Plus, we offer LIVE chat support from gardeners to help you! Getting your garden questions answered any time of the day is like having your own garden designer at your elbow! Learn more and check out the free garden planner 7-day trial.