Photo Gallery: Summer Gardens Take a Bow
Home gardeners amazed us with photos of their flower beds, sheds and outdoor rooms. Take a look and get ideas for fall planting time
Fall may be many gardeners’ favorite season, but summer is when the hard work of the year pays off. We asked to see what was happening in your yard, and you responded with more than 300 gorgeous shots of the season. So before you get to work planting and planning for next year, take a moment to bask in the beauty of the summer garden.
This secluded sitting nook in the Pacific Northwest, uploaded by abartholomaus, sits at the end of a winding gravel pathway and is surrounded by lush green grapevines.
Purple, pink and yellow flowers cascade down the hillside of cwhitney10’s front garden.
Heidi Johnson of HKJohnson & Associates designed this front garden in Foster City, California, to include colorful summer flowers and vegetables, such as chard and lettuce.
Houzz user thedbb shared a photo of this backyard garden shed in Denver. A master gardener, an art collector and a retired antiques dealer, thedbb built this garden shed using items left over from log cabins built around the property.
Kathrynmatta uploaded a photo of her permaculture garden on Puget Sound, in Washington. “It’s watered from rain collected from the rooftop and incorporates straw bales and stock tanks,” she says. “Everything is edible, even the flowers.”
Houzzer 61201986 lives in southwestern Canada, where the gardens benefit from a mild climate and abundant rainfall. This seating area, one of the many in the garden, is surrounded by tall, leafy shrubs.
Ann’s Denver-area backyard is full of life. “The entire garden is a playground for birds,” she says. After 11 years, the garden has started to take care of itself, she says. “Many of the flowers, like the daisies and Mexican hats, were just the result of a few packs of sprinkled native wildflower seeds, and they’ve established and multiplied over the years.”
Overlooking the Hudson River, in New York, annmariefaust’s patio garden features a geometric path punctuated by bunches of pink flowers.
“We love spending our evening dinner in our backyard,” says Terry Hansen Leibenguth of Art by Terry, regarding her Portland, Oregon, landscape. With a view like this, who wouldn’t?
This garden border uploaded by asisson44 is in western Pennsylvania. “It has been 14 years in the making. It attracts many birds and creatures great and small,” asisson44 says.
The herbs in rshudson’s garden are at their peak in this photo. This courtyard garden in Colorado is less than a year old, with a new stone-wall window framing the view beyond. Glass in the opening maintains the view and keeps pet cats in and grazing deer and rabbits out.
The landscape designers at Back to Natives installed this Southern California front garden, planting it with local natives such as white sage (Salvia apiana), Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) and California fuchsia (Epilobium canum).
Coneflowers and Japanese maples contribute to summer gardens, but their cooler colors also signal a smooth transition to fall landscapes. This front wall in Washington, Connecticut, uploaded by candacebowes is a beautiful balance of hardscape and planting.
Sarah Daily enjoyed a productive vegetable crop this summer.
Carmelvillager’s one-year-old garden in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year, as many succulents shown here were started from garden cuttings. “We have a great gardener who has a few tricks in her arsenal,” Carmelvillager says. “Oh, and let’s not forget: This garden is constantly kissed by the heavy, drippy fog on many summer mornings.”
In downtown Montreal, carolinemallette’s backyard integrates outdoor living with edible gardening. Decorative fruits and flowers mix with other edible plants in the raised beds. “We love the way our garden looks, but we mostly enjoy the way it tastes,” she says.
In Lisbon, Portugal, catgomes takes advantage of summer gardening on this urban terrace. “I grow Mediterranean trees in pots, African agapanthus and Mexican marigolds, mixed with delicate table runners, plaid blankets and throw pillows with geometric patterns,” this Houzzer says.
This sunny backyard retreat in Niles, Illinois, uploaded by clp6911, invites you to pull up a seat and enjoy watching the day go by.
Almondtarte shares the secret of this pool area in summer: “I love the ease of a pot garden, and in the short growing season of Indiana, I can have a full and lush look in an instant.”
Dawn Y enjoys the flowers and foliage of her Wisconsin garden this time of year. “It’s the layers of green and pops of colors that call out to me to take a stroll or sit a bit and just relax,” she says. It appears as if Dawn isn’t the only garden visitor who enjoys the green hosta leaves.
After 10 years of hard work, cl81 has created a truly park-like setting in the backyard. Daylilies add to the seasonal flavor, with evergreen conifers filling in the rest of the garden year-round.
Summer brought out the poppies and irises in cph2012’s garden.
This is Shayna Chase’s first summer gardening. “I had this crazy idea to put raised beds on actual beds,” the Houzzer says, and so far it has been a success.
In one corner of DeAnna Lopes’ garden, her husband built this raised bed that is filled with a variety of leafy greens, including kale.
This sloped lakefront garden is the result of hours of work and tons of rock, Houzzer dh6471 says. A hillside walk weaves from the water up to this deck and fire pit, continuing farther to the outdoor dining area up top. Along the embankment, a tapestry of flowering perennials and grasses decorates the landscape.
With summer blooms come summer butterflies, as this photo shared by buygrills shows.
Fruit eaten straight off the tree or vine cannot be beat. These juicy raspberries, uploaded by Empina Empina, didn’t survive much longer after this photo was taken.
From this picture of blooming hydrangeas and a statuesque birdbath, you’d never guess what this garden looked like two years ago. “It had been a dog yard, was full of holes, no plants and probably had not been cared for in years,” Darlene Severn says.
In the summer light, the Japanese maple in Farrel Lewis’ front yard almost glows. This garden is in Southeast Alaska, in the middle of the Tongass National Forest.
Summer gardens are known for their flowers, which can highlight and enhance year-round features. “Our summer garden includes Zanzibar,” Houzzer carolsophia says of this statue.
Not all of us can have our very own potting studio, like Patty Degenhardt’s in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, but we can appreciate this rustic walk and perennial plantings along the side yard.
This summer, Houzzer imho22 opened up her garden in western Pennsylvania to 500 visitors for a garden tour. “The garden is looking even better than usual, as much as this one-woman garden team could manage for the tour,” she says. “I garden organically and for pollinators, so we have lots of winged creatures everywhere.”
Ka1thys’ new flagstone and gravel yard is where she enjoys practicing yoga, and where her dog likes to explore.
With so much work that often goes into making a garden, it can be easy to forget to enjoy it. Take a note from Houzz user dcrouc, and pull up a bench and take in the view.
Citrus and flowers surround joannef’s rear yard dining area, enveloping it in fragrances and colors fit for summer.
Karenckd designed this raised bed and bench on the north shore of Long Island, New York. “Each raised bed has a different color foliage — burgundy, blue-green and yellow,” she says. And though this raised bed is only a year old, it’s already brimming with life.
Dephanie Jessie’s potted flowers do their best to stand up to the oppressive Texas summer.
Pam Ruatto’s front walk may not be bursting with color at the moment, but well-groomed shrubs and trees form a nice backdrop to the seasonal blooms that appear throughout the year.
Kathryn Gomez says she doesn’t travel much, but why would you need to with this slice of paradise in South Florida? “Our backyard is our sanctuary,” she says.
Meandering flagstone paths and a potager-style raised-bed garden make up Linda Liddle’s front yard.
Emma Schubert’s backyard in San Francisco is a succulent paradise, with green, purple and black foliage spilling around the borders, blurring the urban garden’s edges.
Ericheatherandersen’s vine-covered entry and overflowing potted urn in the Pacific Northwest invite visitors to cool off inside.
With the outdoor dining furniture, awning and expansive swimming pool, kimmatesic is spot-on in calling her backyard her own private resort.
This garden corner uploaded by Gail Squires reminds us what summer looks like in tropical, sunny Florida.
Foxglove spires surround this garden shed uploaded by Podzook.
Summer is about taking the scenic route, as pegrau’s flagstone garden path shows.
Dahlias and sweet peas accent jacquiewalton’s summer garden in Portland, Oregon.
Outside of Granville, Ohio, idontdecorateishop’s garden in the woods receives just enough sun for a prairie-style garden to thrive, and features flowers like coneflower and black-eyed Susan. Below the house, a clearing holds a meadow of overgrown wildflowers, grasses and a bluebird box.
In Gainesville, Florida, Jack Davis got a treat this year. “A summer surprise, planted from a pineapple top years ago and forgotten until, voilà.”
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Dallas-Fort Worth area summers are brutal on jomelda’s garden, with the exception of the sunflowers — which love it.
Fourth of July in Cape May, New Jersey, for lisakas featured flowers, flags, family and friends.
Summer-blooming hydrangeas line the stone front walk of Joyce Sherr’s garden on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. “My son-in-law redesigned it two years ago using perennials in the sunny areas and grasses and ferns in the shade,” she says.
Michael Shirk shared this beautiful view of his townhouse in Victoria Park, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As their name suggests, blanketflowers cover the landscape in summer, with native ranges stretching across the U.S. In this garden photo uploaded by junegrantxplornetca, blanketflowers frame a dramatic rocky outcropping.
This backyard sanctuary in Ontario, Canada, has experienced a great gardening season, Karin McLean says. “The dryer, warmer temps have kept the slugs at bay, and the plants are going crazy.”
Along with the pink lawn flamingo, Laurel Himes’ lilies were out in full force this summer.
Lisa_shsrkey showed us a slice of summer in the city, uploading this jewel box of a patio on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Pink meets pink in molly823’s backyard. “Sixteen years in the making,” she says, and she loves it every day.
In the suburbs of Minneapolis, lross7577 has created a piece of garden paradise, including this stream in the backyard. “The yard has a park-like feel that makes you want to sit and stay awhile,” the Houzzer says.
Mary Beth Van Baush’s lush, naturalistic garden in Sonoma County, California, is her private oasis. Designed by Garden Art Landscape & Design, it features year-round color and interest.
Mindy Northrop just finished removing the last section of lawn in her backyard. Now she has a continuous gravel pathway connecting her backyard, surrounded by lush plantings.
Matthew Gandin has a planter box that divides the patio from the lawn. Herbs such as mint burst forth, ready to be harvested.
The tropical foliage and flowers of St. Petersburg, Florida, in summer include these majestic bird of paradise blooms uploaded by maude321.
Coneflowers and grasses shoot up in summer along this mulch path in nskhern’s backyard.
Mike Cole’s shed in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, is overgrown with beautiful flowering vines and flowers. “Most of the annuals were started from seed in our greenhouse-garden shed in early spring,” he says.
While Nina Pearlmutter is working to make her garden more attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies and bees, the goats help keep the rest of the garden under control. “Their house is also under construction,” she says of the structure in the background.
This cool, shady side yard in Tennessee suits nanakeroyd just fine. “Life is milder here,” she says.
“I’m loving my backyard this time of year,” monicaannfox says. “I even find a small area that gets a lot of sun for a small raised garden bed.”
Though msweetman claims this project is still a work in progress, the flowering shrubs and casual seating area would invite anyone to linger.
Large white hydrangeas are blooming in the garden of Oryssia Levitskaia’s house.
For nicsugar66, this shady pergola beneath the towering trees is a slice of heaven.
Where once there ran a subway, nmowers has planted a wild woodland garden in the city. “As I clear out knotweed and garlic onion, I make new beds out of junk, tires, old logs and chunks of concrete,” says this Houzzer, who is replacing those two with native plants.
An explosion of white roses frames a scene of patio umbrellas, window boxes and a summer cabin in this garden uploaded by paishton.
Pat Bernard had to let her garden take care of itself this summer, as summer in Chicago is the busy season for landscape designers. “I was so pleasantly surprised that it did a good job without my intervention,” she says. Bright, open flower shapes lure garden wildlife, as do the water dishes she leaves out for bees and other bugs to drink from.
Pds290 planted a garden of flowers, vegetables and herbs in raised beds made from the walls of an old sheep-barn foundation. “Its history makes for excellent soil,” pds290 says.
More hydrangeas are in bloom for pattonplace1223.
This year Peg Cox added a new deck and fireplace to her farmhouse in Washington state to commemorate its hundredth birthday and create a more flowing connection between the indoors and the garden. “From the view of the Snohomish Valley and the Cascade mountains from the interior, to the fragrant smell of flowering vines and the sound of fountains in the garden, all the senses contribute to the experience,” she says.
Rebeccasharp echoed the sentiment of many Houzz users who contributed to the call, describing her backyard as her own piece of paradise.
Where there was once a driveway, rhiannaweilert has created a garden—“my little edible garden oasis in downtown Kansas City, Missouri,” she says. Limestone blocks were an old house foundation. “I started from scratch in July of 2015 with an empty pile of dirt,” she says.
The irises are blooming in shadylady67’s summer garden in Saskatoon, Canada.
The hydrangeas are exploding in sslapke’s backyard in the suburbs of Chicago.
Summer containers are brightening smfile’s concrete stoop. Whites, blues and purples keep the palette and the overall feel of the garden cool.
Water restrictions in Southern California inspired su_pheng to design a more drought-tolerant yard this summer.
Spartysenior shared this lush vision of cabbage plants.
Midwest gardener stlouisgaltoo has been enjoying container gardening this summer. “The plant growth has been robust” — even in a repurposed grill — this Houzzer says.
Suerubio lives in a drought-stricken region that incentivized her to lose the lawn in favor of low-water plantings. Here’s the garden this first summer.
Even if it’s hot outside, aquatic gardens can make everything seem cool, as shown in this photo uploaded by tmjones68.
Every day it’s a treat to get the mail with this mailbox garden in Connecticut, uploaded by Tmorena.
To protect the summer garden from deer, Houzz user voxc built this rustic fence using logs from the property, adding that the space is “fun to be in anytime, day or night, with the strings of lights on.”
Vvwatts has had a productive year gardening in Alberta, Canada. “This year has been great for the flowers, this Houzzer says. “Notice our clematis that has grown past the garage.”
Chuck wieten got a great view of his summer yard recently when he had to climb up onto his garage’s roof. Many of the lush green plants on the deck, including two brugmansias, now spent time in the basement over winter.
Grasses and lavender frame the pathway in this garden uploaded by wanjess. Low maintenance was the name of the game for this Houzzer, and this one-year-old garden seems to be responding well to it.
Judy Schroeck, who has lived and gardened in Erie, Pennsylvania, for 28 years, shared a photo of her prolifically blooming wisteria.
More great photos of summer color: Don’t miss any of the 300-plus photos that the Houzz community has shared. Click through them all here, then add your own.
More great photos of summer color: Don’t miss any of the 300-plus photos that the Houzz community has shared. Click through them all here, then add your own.