A Little Dream Garden Inspiration

City garden image source

Hello, March! This time of year we're always itching to start planting seeds and get outside in the garden (plus, reading about all the plants you're excited to grow this season in the comments section of Tuesday's post has only intensified the feeling). Since the weather has been significantly cooler in our area and we've been out of town for long stretches, we're planning to get started a little later than we have in the past (March instead of February) — so today we thought it would be fun to round up some of our favorite garden themed images from across the web as inspiration for getting a little dirty when we return home.

Because we have limited outdoor space, we're always trying to think of creative ways to make use of vertical space and love experimenting with a wide variety of edible landscaping. I'd say we're looking forward to planting many of our old favorites (greens, peas, tomatoes, herbs and all sorts of peppers) but are most excited to try out a few new plants like hungarian peppers, cucumbers, lavender and perhaps a fruit or olive tree. We're also looking forward to cultivating the return of our perennial plants like strawberries, grapes, horseradish and turmeric roots.

So! Here's what we've been thinking about this year, with all the beautiful garden inspiration images we could only dream of cultivating in our own space...

Rain barrel image source

We've talked for years about getting or better yet, making a rain barrel — hopefully this will be the season we make good on all our chatter. We love the way this brick enclosure above feels like a bit of a secret garden and the rain barrel fits in seamlessly.

It's no secret we're big fans of container gardening. With limited ground space and good soil, we've tried our hands at growing everything from herbs to vegetables and fruits in different containers year-round. I love the look and feel of the galvanized planters and all the variated plants in different sized planters lining the steps below:

Garden planters: staircase container garden, galvanized tub planters, vintage zinc barrels.

Creative uses for repurposing containers otherwise headed for the landfill are also a favorite gardening challenge for us. We've made planters from metal oatmeal and olive oil tins, an old colander, tired paint buckets and more. I love the creative use of baskets, cans and bins below:

Recycled planters: upcycled can planters, galvanized planters, basket planters.

We've always had fun starting spring peas and experimenting with ways to grow them vertically in our limited space. We've tried bamboo teepees and even flipped tomato cages upside down to create a similar effect. Don't the natural trellises and teepees below just look dreamy? We're looking forward to getting creative with pea supports again this year, something we'll probably tackle in the next couple of weeks.

Vertical pea supports: sweet pea supports, courtyard obelisk, planting cage, vine obelisks.

Supports are so great for using up vertical space and have worked really well for us in the past — plus they just add a bit of an alluring architectural element to garden spaces we love.

Natural supports: garden salvage wigwam, bean arbor, bamboo container obelisks, branch teepee supports.

Speaking of supports, we'd love to try growing cucumbers this year, but lack the space for a vining plant. Looking at the supports and contained planters for cucumbers below gives us the needed inspiration to take a stab at cukes of our own this year. If you'd tried it with success, we'd love to hear your tips!

Vertical cucumber supports: raised bed teepees, garden bed dome, cucumber trellis.

I can definitely relate to the images below and feel like they depict much more beautiful representations of the haphazard cups and jars that pop up all over the place when I'm trying to sprout new plants from cuttings. I can't wait to plant some of the successful cuttings we've been nurturing over the winter and try to take new ones from other various plants. We'd also love to cultivate the beginnings of a large, bushy rosemary plant in our front yard this year:

Growing herbs: propagating plants, rosemary topiary.

We had roses at our old house, but have yet to plant many flowers around our new house. I love the idea of climbing roses against a brick wall like these pictured below — definitely something I'd love to look into for the corner of our brick garage this season:

Climbing roses: white roses, pink roses.

While we're talking about plants climbing the walls, fruit trees are something we'd love to venture into with our garden. Our neighbor has a large fig tree in her yard that we have access to each year, but we'd love to mix things up with more fruit bearing trees. We'd never seen the vertical "flat" growing method for fruit trees below — isn't it fascinating to see how a plant as strong as a tree can be trained to grow in any sort of space?

Wall Trees: espaliered apple tree, fan espalier tree, pear cordon fruit tree.

And finally, how about a little color? Some of our favorite flowers are about to come in bloom soon. We have jonquils, lilacs, and hydrangeas we'd love to bring into to areas of our space to add a little cheerfulness:

Spring Flowers: potted daffodils, hydrangeas, lilacs, daffodil buds.

We'd love to know — what are you excited to plant this growing season and do you have any go-to growing tips for small or vertical spaces? Keep up with more of our garden inspiration by following our "In the Garden" Pinterest board.

Discover More:

DIY Bean Teepee | Plant Seeds in Eggshells | All Gardening Projects | Gardening Pinterest Board