From Flower Beds to Food: 5 Surprising Secrets for a High-Style, Low-Effort Container Garden

1. The “Buried Alive” Strategy for Architectural Stability

2. The Aesthetic “Zhuzh”: Upcycling with High-Style Flair

3. Bespoke Soil: The Tailor-Made Approach

Plant Type	Bespoke Mix Composition	Key Benefit
Leafy Greens & “Chocolate” Mint	Multi-purpose mix with chicken manure pellets.	Nitrogen-rich “oomph” for vibrant chartreuse and deep red foliage.
Mediterranean Rosemary	Soil mixed with coarse grit or “inert” gritty sand.	Prevents “wet feet” (root rot) by mimicking rocky, free-draining hillsides.
Peppers & Chilies	Light, airy mix using Coir (coconut fiber) and Perlite.	Creates a “fluffy,” aerated environment for delicate root systems.

4. Designing the Visual Harvest: Checkerboards and Succession

5. The Lazy Gardener’s Luxury Maintenance Hacks

Conclusion: The Confidence of Small Starts

How to Bring Art + Nature Into Your Daily Life

Here are a few practices that help me stay grounded and inspired:

Morning Light Check
Go outside and look at the quality of light for 30 seconds.

Texture Walk
Notice textures: bark, leaves, soil, petals, stones.

One Photo a Day
Capture one thing that catches your eye.

Seasonal Color Palette
Create a palette from what’s blooming (or fading) right now.

Keep a Garden Sketchbook
Sketch, clip a leaf, paste a photo, write a color you saw.

You don’t have to identify as an artist for this.
This is simply learning to see.

When the Garden Teaches You to See: Art, Attention, and the Science of Being Outside

There’s a moment that happens every time I walk into the garden.

It usually begins with something small — the shift in temperature as I step from shade into sun, the quiet settling of the air, the way even the dogs move more gently. The whole space asks me to slow down without a single word being spoken. It’s subtle, but unmistakable, and scientists have a name for it: the nature pause.

Forest therapy researchers describe this sensation as a physiological “downshift,” the moment your nervous system transitions from alertness to openness. Heart rate softens. Breathing evens out. Your mind stops scanning for the next task. You move from thinking to noticing.

And that is the beginning of art.

Because creativity doesn’t arrive through force. It doesn’t show up when you’re rushing or multitasking or scrolling. It arrives when you’re paying attention — real attention — to the world in front of you. Nature, it turns out, is one of the few environments that effortlessly brings us into that state.

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The Garden as a Living Laboratory

Scientists studying Attention Restoration Theory have found that natural environments replenish our mental energy because they hold what’s called soft fascination.
You don’t have to try to pay attention to a drift of clouds or a peony unfurling in the sun. You don’t have to force your gaze toward the texture of bark or the arch of an emerging leaf. Your mind rests in the noticing.

Out here in the garden, I feel it every time.
It doesn’t matter if I’m checking the garlic I planted at dusk, thinning seedlings, or simply walking the edge of what will someday be a privacy berm. The world around me draws my attention without demanding it. It’s gentle and generous that way.

And in that mental spaciousness — that effortless attention — ideas begin to bloom. Color combinations I never would have planned on a screen suddenly make perfect sense in the real world. Light, texture, and contrast reveal themselves in ways that demand to be photographed, painted, written about, or just quietly held.

Nature teaches the eye long before any workshop or tutorial ever could.

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Seeing Like an Artist Again

There’s a reason forest therapists talk about “beginner’s eyes.”
When you slow down, your senses sharpen, and the world becomes vivid again. A drop of water on a blade of grass has depth and shape. Shadows from the arborvitae stretch differently at dusk than at morning light. The breeze has a temperature, a direction, a personality.

You begin to see the same landscape in dozens of ways, and this is what artists have always done.
Claude Monet painted the same haystacks at different hours to understand the language of light. Georgia O’Keeffe magnified flowers so we could see what she saw — the quiet intensity of color hidden in plain sight.

I feel that same shift when I’m in the garden.
It’s as if nature reaches up, taps my shoulder, and whispers:

“Slow down. Look again.”

The garden becomes both muse and mentor — asking me to observe before I create, to receive before I express.

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Nature as a Co-Creator

Research in biophilic design shows that humans are genetically wired to respond to patterns in nature — spirals, symmetry, branching forms, gradients of color, the soft chaos of wildflowers. These patterns soothe the mind, but they also spark imagination.

When I create art — whether it’s my AI-assisted photography, a tote bag design, or the images I generate for my collections — I often find myself returning to these natural patterns without even trying. The lines of a willow branch. The shape of a peony petal. The fractal geometry of yarrow.

It’s not copying nature.
It’s collaborating with it.

Being in the garden doesn’t just inspire ideas; it shapes how I think visually. The rhythms of nature weave themselves into the work in ways I could never plan.

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Mindfulness Without Trying

Some people sit on cushions to meditate.
Some follow breathing apps or body scans.

But gardeners? We find presence with our hands in the soil.

When I’m thinning carrots, pulling weeds, or gathering cosmos seeds for next year, I drop into mindfulness without ever formally “doing” it. Forest therapy researchers call this embodied attention — the state where your senses, your movement, and your awareness all sync into a quiet flow.

Thoughts stop shouting.
Worries stop looping.
Grief grows softer around the edges.

There is just the task, the earth, the moment, and me.

It’s impossible to create from a place of anxiety.
But creativity thrives in a mind that’s steady, present, and receptive — the exact state nature puts us in, effortlessly.

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The Garden as a Story

Every garden tells a story.
Not a perfect one — but a true one.

Plants survive or fail.
Storms knock down what you carefully built.
A flower you were sure wouldn’t bloom suddenly bursts open with color.
A forgotten seedling becomes the season’s quiet miracle.

Scientists studying eco-psychology say that our minds naturally form emotional bonds with landscapes that mirror the seasons of our own lives. Growth. Rest. Struggle. Renewal. Loss. Return.

When I walk through my garden, I feel that.
The stories of the land intertwine with my own story — the challenges I’ve faced, the rebuilding I’m doing, the ways I’m learning to live intentionally after so much change.

And from that place, creativity rises not as a performance, but as a reflection.
A way of honoring what’s happening in nature and in myself.

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When Art and Nature Become One Practice

A garden is more than a place to grow plants.
It’s a daily reminder that life unfolds slowly, in layers, with a kind of quiet brilliance you only notice when you’re willing to be still.

Art works the same way.
You observe. You experiment. You tend. You wait. You grow.

Nature grounds you.
Art expresses you.
And the two together create a rhythm that feels like coming home.

Being outside isn’t just good for your health — though the research on lowered cortisol, improved creativity scores, and enhanced emotional regulation says it is.
It’s good for your spirit as an artist, a creator, a human being trying to make sense of the world.

When you learn to see the garden, you learn to see yourself.
And from that seeing, the art emerges — not forced, but invited.

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Closing Note

This is why the Art & Nature category matters here on myBackyardHomestead.
It’s where the practical meets the poetic.
Where gardening becomes art, and art becomes a way of understanding the world.
Where creativity isn’t something you sit down to produce — it’s something that grows out of the way you live, the places you notice, and the natural world you stand still long enough to hear.

Yesterday was one of those days that reminds me why I’m building this life — not because everything went smoothly, but because it all came together in that imperfect way homesteading does.

I’d spent the morning driving Uber, bouncing between passengers and quiet moments alone in the car. My last drop-off of the day happened to be at Home Depot, and since I was already there, I decided to walk through the garden center. My original plan?

To look for materials to build a butterfly sculpture for the garden. The goal is to perfect the process so I can sell them. 

Colorado Springs is filled with public art — bright butterflies, metal horses, painted boxes, sculptures tucked into unexpected corners. It’s one of the things I love most about living here, and it’s been inspiring me to add more whimsical pieces to the homestead. So I walked toward the garden center out of habit, they have live Christmas trees, wreaths, and garland. I’ve wanted to grab some fresh garland so I thought I would take a look.

It was unusually warm for late November. A few display tables were pushed outside, something you don’t typically see this time of year. And that’s when I saw them:

Emerald Green Arborvitae.
1-gallon containers.
Little red holiday pots.
Tied with red bows.
$6.88 each.

A handwritten Special Buy sign marked them down from $12.98. I still don’t know if these were leftover holiday trees or if the other stores had simply sold out — but I knew a deal when I saw one. Especially here in the mountains, where trees usually come at mountain prices.

So I grabbed 15, I should have bought the entire table.
Loaded them into the back of the SUV.
And felt like I’d just won the garden lottery.

These trees are the beginning of my natural fencing and berm design — the quiet green walls I’m building to create a more peaceful, sheltered property. Today I went back and bought the last 3. That puts me at 18 trees total, ready to overwinter until they’re big enough to plant without becoming deer snacks.

And the funny thing?
I didn’t even go there for trees.
I went because butterflies inspired me.

Sometimes creativity leads you exactly where you need to go.

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The Garlic Race Against Dark

By the time I got home, the sun was already dropping behind the ridge. I knew the cold was coming, and I had garlic ready to plant — but most of the garden beds were frozen solid. I couldn’t dig in a single one.

Except the strawberry bed.

I had covered it earlier in the fall with frost cloth and thick straw, and that small bit of protection kept the soil soft and unfrozen. So I knelt down, used my gloved hands, and dug the holes one by one — no shovel needed.

Forty-five minutes later, under the glow of a headlamp and the last scraps of daylight, every clove was in the ground.

Not perfect.
Not planned.
But done.

That’s homesteading.
That’s mountain life.
That’s building an intentional life — one small victory at a time.

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And One More Win: Marigold Seeds

On Wednesday evening, before the weather changed, I harvested the last of the marigold seeds. Today I sat and cleaned them, sorting each dry seed from the spent petals. It’s meditative work — slow, steady, grounding. The kind of work that reminds me why I’m doing all this in the first place.

Come spring, these seeds will explode into the bright color that makes this place feel alive.

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What Comes Next

This week’s unexpected wins — from the butterfly sculpture idea to the arborvitae sale to the garlic race — reminded me of something simple:

When you follow your curiosity, everything else falls into place.

These 18 little trees are the beginning of my natural fencing, my berms, and the quiet sanctuary I’m building on this land. The garlic is tucked in for winter. The marigolds are ready for next season. And the butterfly sculpture?
That’s still coming.

One day soon, I’ll record an art walk and share some of the Colorado Springs sculptures that inspire this place — because they’re part of this story, too.

For now, I’m just grateful for warm days in November, unexpected sales, loose soil, and the small, steady steps of creating the life I want.

A Simple Guide for Turning Your Homestead Skills Into Extra Income

If you’ve been dreaming about earning a little extra income from your kitchen, your garden, or your creativity, Colorado just happens to be one of the best states to do it. Two powerful opportunities make it possible:

Colorado House Bill 19-1191 — You can operate a farm stand on ANY size property, even if the land is not zoned agricultural.

Colorado Cottage Foods Act — You can make and sell certain low-risk homemade foods from your own kitchen without needing a commercial license.

Put them together?
You can create an income-producing micro-business right from home.

This article breaks everything down in clear, simple terms — so you can decide what to make, what to grow, how to sell it, and what’s legal.

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Part 1: What the CO Farm Stand Law Actually Allows

Thanks to House Bill 19-1191, a farm stand is allowed on:

• Any size parcel of land

• Any zoning (residential included)

• Any property where the “principal use” is something else (like a home)

This means you do not need a multi-acre property or special agricultural zoning to sell what you grow.

What You Can Sell at a Farm Stand

Produce you grow on your property
Eggs (with separate egg rules)
Honey
Herbs
Flowers (fresh or dried)
Compost or garden goods
Agricultural products from nearby growers (if your county allows)

Farm stands help small growers, hobby gardeners, and homesteaders connect directly with the community — just like small-town Wisconsin-style produce stands where you might find tomatoes beside a loaf of homemade bread.

And that’s where Cottage Food comes in.

Part 2: Cottage Foods — What You Can Legally Make & Sell From Home

The Colorado Cottage Food Act allows you to prepare certain non-hazardous foods in your home kitchen and sell them directly to customers.

This is perfect for a farm stand, farmers market, porch pick-up, or local delivery.

Foods You CAN Sell

Baked goods (non-perishable)

• Sourdough loaves

• Focaccia (plain or herb — no tomatoes or cheese)

• Rolls

• Cookies

• Muffins

• Sweet breads

Canned or preserved foods

• Fruit jams & jellies

• Preserves

• Fruit butters

• Pickles (must meet pH rules)

Dry goods

• Spice blends

• Seasoning mixes

• Soup mixes

• Tea blends

• Herbal infusions (dry only)

• Popcorn

• Dehydrated fruit

• Nuts & seed mixes

• Granola (no dairy/hazardous ingredients)

Confections

• Candy

• Brittles

• Marshmallows

• Chocolate-covered nuts or fruit (if shelf stable)

Foods You CANNOT Sell

• Salsa (fresh or canned)

• Fresh pesto

• Refrigerated foods of any kind

• Cream pies, cheesecakes, cream-filled baked goods

• Meat, poultry, or fish products

• Canned vegetables unless pickled and pH-tested

Colorado does not allow home-canned salsa because it is considered low-acid and high-risk.
But don’t worry — there are clever workarounds we’ll talk about next.

If you don’t live in Colorado, you can absolutely build a similar micro-farm business — you just need to check your state’s cottage food and farm stand laws. Every state has its own version of food-safety rules, allowed products, and selling locations. A good starting point is:

• Your state’s Department of Agriculture

• Your county Extension Office

• The nationwide directory at Forrager.com, which tracks cottage food laws by state

• Your local farmers market manager — they always know what’s allowed locally

No matter where you live in the U.S., there is almost always a legal way to sell produce, baked goods, preserves, dry mixes, spices, teas, starter plants, and other small-batch foods. You don’t need acres of land — you just need a plan, a little passion, and the willingness to start small.

More than a decade ago, our high-altitude garden in the mountains of Colorado began as a small experiment in growing food and flowers. Over time it evolved into Cheesecake Bear Ranch, a living classroom where art, creativity, and nature meet.

Here in the quiet of the mountains I have come to see gardening not only as cultivation but as a form of expression and mindfulness. Even in a fast-moving world, simple living can open space for joy, clarity, and renewal.

Many of us now spend hours in front of screens or televisions, disconnected from what lies just beyond our doors. Yet when you step into a garden, even a small one, something shifts. You begin to notice light, color, movement, and scent. You remember that you are part of a living world.

Whether you tend vegetables or flowers or simply sit with the sound of wind through the trees, nature calls you back into presence. Growth and beauty do not happen on a schedule or behind a screen. They happen when you take part in the world around you.

As a nation, we once recognized that the natural world belongs to everyone. Through the creation of state and national parks, open spaces, and public trails, we chose to protect places where anyone could walk among trees, rest beside rivers, and breathe freely. Those spaces remain open invitations to rediscover connection, creativity, and peace.

Throughout history, artists have understood this truth deeply. Their gardens were not places to flee but doorways into life itself, sources of reflection, creation, and renewal.

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Claude Monet: Painting Light, Living Color

At Giverny, Monet did not simply grow flowers. He orchestrated color and light like a symphony. The water lilies, the Japanese bridge, and the reflection of the sky on water all became living elements of his art.

His garden was both muse and mirror, reflecting his moods, his grief, and his endless curiosity about perception. Monet once said, “My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” Perhaps he knew that tending life, not just painting it, was what kept his spirit alive.

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Frida Kahlo: Nature as Self and Sanctuary

Frida Kahlo’s garden at Casa Azul was vibrant, wild, and full of native Mexican plants. After the accident that left her in chronic pain, her courtyard became both refuge and rebellion. Amid the palms and cacti, she found beauty that grew from hardship, symbolic of her own resilience.

In many of her paintings, vines and flowers emerge from her body, blurring the line between self and soil. Her garden was not a place she escaped to; it was a place where she became whole again.

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Georgia O’Keeffe: Silence, Space, and Clarity

In the desert of New Mexico, O’Keeffe found peace in simplicity. She tended small gardens, collected bones, and painted the silence between things—mountains, sky, and petals.

Her relationship with the land was almost monastic. “I wish people were all trees,” she once wrote, “so I could climb them.” For her, the earth was not a backdrop but a language of stillness that spoke directly to her soul.

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The Garden as an Inner Landscape

Every artist’s garden is, in a way, a self-portrait. The rows, the colors, and the textures reflect the artist’s need for order or wildness, solitude or bloom.

Modern research now confirms what artists seemed to know intuitively. Gardening lowers stress, improves mood, and fosters creativity. The rhythmic and sensory act of tending plants engages the same “flow” state that painting, writing, or composing does.

The garden gives us permission to slow down, to listen, and to participate in creation itself, one seed and one season at a time.

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Science of Gardening and Mental Health

• Reduced Stress Hormones: Studies show that 30 minutes of gardening can lower cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, more effectively than reading indoors.

• Improved Mood and Focus: Soil microbes such as Mycobacterium vaccae may increase serotonin levels, improving mood and mental clarity.

• Creativity and Flow: Research on our natural connection to living things shows that time in nature supports creative problem solving and emotional balance.

• Healing and Recovery: Horticultural therapy programs in hospitals and veteran centers help people process grief and rebuild self-worth by caring for living things.

Tending a garden is more than an act of care for the earth. It is also care for the self.

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Growing Beauty, Inside and Out

As I walk through our food forest and see the plums, currants, and strawberries, I think of the artists who found peace in the soil. Like them, I have learned that art is not only what we make with our hands but how we move through our days.

A garden is a living canvas. It changes with the light, evolves with the seasons, and reminds us that growth, in all its forms, is its own kind of beauty.

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If You Are Struggling

Gardening and art can both support mental well-being, but professional care matters too. If you are facing depression, anxiety, or grief, these organizations offer trusted, evidence-based support:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

• Mental Health America

• Crisis Text Line – text HOME to 741741 for immediate help in the U.S.

• American Horticultural Therapy Association

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Closing Reflection:
To plant a seed is to believe in tomorrow. To tend it each day is to live fully in the present. Every leaf, every bloom, every bit of soil on your hands is proof creation and healing grow side by side.

Question: How do I grow larger strawberries?

If you want to snack on strawberries throughout the season, you need to plant at least 10 plants per person in your household. The first year, you should pinch off the flowers so the plants will focus on putting down more roots. More roots mean bigger fruit the next year. I’ve had a strawberry patch for several years, and here are a few tips based on my experience.

Variety Selection

There are many varieties of strawberries, and choosing the right ones can make a big difference in your yield and fruit size. Here are the main types:

• Day-Neutral Varieties: These produce fruit throughout the growing season. They are ideal if you want a consistent yield over several months.
• June-Bearing Varieties: These produce a large crop once a year, usually in late spring or early summer. They are great if you want a large harvest at once for making jams, freezing, or preserving.
• Ever-Bearing Varieties: These produce two to three harvests per year, typically in spring, summer, and fall. They provide a good compromise between the other two types.

Consider Your Zone

It’s important to choose varieties that are well-suited to your growing zone. I’m in zone 5A, but I’ve purchased several different varieties that do well down to zone 3A. This way, I don’t have to worry about them surviving the winter. Make sure to check the hardiness of the variety you choose to ensure they will thrive in your local climate.

Additional Tips

• Soil and Location: Plant strawberries in well-draining soil and a sunny location where they can get at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily.
• Watering and Mulching: Consistent watering is key, especially during fruiting. Mulch with straw, pine needles, or black plastic to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and keep the fruit clean.
• Fertilization: Use a balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, mixed into the soil before planting. Apply more during the growing season as needed, but avoid over-fertilizing.

By following these tips, you can enjoy a bountiful harvest of delicious, home-grown strawberries!

As the nights begin to warm up, it’s the perfect time to dive into full-tilt planting! Today, we’re expecting temperatures in the low sixties, so while we’re not experiencing HOT days yet, it’s ideal gardening weather.

My goal for today is to spend quality time in the garden, starting with some much-needed fence repairs. The original t-posts are spaced too far apart to withstand the strong winds we’ve been getting, so I’ll be adding extra t-posts for reinforcement. First, though, I need to locate our two post hole pounders – I know they’re around here somewhere!

In addition to fixing several parts of the fence, I also plan to spray paint the reed fencing to extend its life for at least one more season. This should help maintain the garden’s aesthetic while providing some much-needed durability.

Watering the seedlings is another critical task on my list today. These young plants need consistent care to thrive and eventually produce a bountiful harvest. After that, I’ll be turning my attention to setting up the garden cabin, which will double as an art gallery. This space will be a creative haven, blending the beauty of nature with artistic expression.

Stay tuned for more updates as the season progresses. Happy gardening!