Howdy gardeners. We meet again. If you're anything like me, your knees are dirty, back is aching, and heart is full. This is the time of year we LIVE FOR! Cottage gardens. You give us life!

I PROMISE to show you my vegetable beds soon. I know there are a lot of you out there who are eagerly growing your first garden or are looking to grow better vegetables. I will be sending you some sexy vegetable photographs shortly. Scouts honor. In the meanwhile, humor me, will you? And come take another tour around my flower gardens.

(I always regret not taking enough photographs of the gardens when they're pretty and I'm determined to do such this year. Hence the overload of garden goodness.)

It's worth noting, while the primary goal of these cottage gardens is beautiful, they also serve a deeper purpose as we use the flowers and herbs that grow in them to make all sorts of tinctures, salves, teas, and ointments. Dual-purpose gardens at their best!

For those who prefer a video tour, I recorded a long, slow walk through the garden where I explain much of how we created this space, how we maintain it, and how we irrigate it. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel while you're there!

For all my photo nerds (points to self), I also took a slow walk through the gardens with my camera to capture this new surge of flowers and colors. The gardens don't stay the same for two days in a row and it's part of what I love so deeply about them. It's a bit like falling deeply in love with a wave, only to watch it crash on the shore and be replaced by another.

I'm a visual learner and as I was building my cottage gardens, I studied photographs of gardens that I loved and picked them a part bit by bit to figure out how to recreate them. I hope these will serve you in the same way. (Assuming you like the gardens enough to want to recreate them. If not, carry on. Nothing to see here.)

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