I’ll never forget the moment I walked into Rick and Stephanie’s backyard.

My mom and I were on the annual KC Water Garden Tour, and their garden was one of the last stops on the itinerary for the day.  We were greeted out front by one of their young daughters, who guided us to the back gate.

Their house was in the middle of the suburbs, where you’ll generally find a patio, tidy landscaping, and/or a small flower bed.  On the water garden tour, you’ll generally see a pond and waterfall added to the standard mix.  As we walked around back, I expected to see just that — but instead we walked into the woodland garden that would inspire my gardening journey.

This was no ordinary suburban backyard.

It was a lush retreat with towering shade trees, wandering paths, abundant woodland perennials like ferns and hostas, and hidden blooms awaiting discovery.  Yes, there was a pond and a waterfall, but it was so much more.

As we explored the garden, I was filled with a sense of excitement.  THIS!  This is what I can create at our house.  

We made it back to the front of the garden, and I turned to my mom with a crazy/excited look that probably would have scared most people.   Thankfully, my mom knows me well and read it just right: “This is exactly what you want to do in your backyard, isn’t it?”  Yes.  A million times yes.

One of the coolest things about Rick and Stephanie’s garden was that they had documented it’s progress along the way.  Next to the girls’ lemonade stand (darn smart, if you ask me) was a poster board with pictures showing the garden’s many stages through the years.   For me, awe and inspiration are often followed by overwhelm and self-doubt; seeing how an incredible garden began and evolved can be invaluable.  I took pictures, but not nearly enough.  As I was working on my own garden, I kept wishing I had more detailed pictures of theirs.

My garden is no where near as charming as Rick and Stephanie’s (yet), but I hope that someday my garden can be inspiration for another newbie gardener.   As you could have guessed, I’m taking numerous pictures to document its progress, and part of my goal for this blog is to inspire others.

There’s no shortage of options for garden inspiration–visits to botanical gardens, private garden tours, books, magazines, Pinterest, Instagram–and you can be sure I’ll mix in plenty of pictures from beautiful, mature gardens on this blog as well.  But don’t forget, you can find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places, and your garden could serve as inspiration to a fellow gardener.   Always be ready with your camera (phone) and take oodles of pictures–of gardens that inspire you, plants you fall in love with, and your own garden.

Rick and Stephanie were back on the water garden tour in 2017, so I had a chance to tell them how much they had inspired my own woodland garden.

I also took more pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.