One of the benefits of a Midwest garden is the beauty each season brings. Here’s a look back at one garden bed as it appeared throughout 2014.

The newly planted foxglove provided lots to look at as the garden got under way in spring. I love the maroon shades of the maple with the blue of the spruce

I underestimated just how many plants I will need and how long it will take to fill in this bed. I also miscalculated on how large this penstemon would get. I moved her to the back in the fall.

The gayfeather returned this year…I still never really believe the stuff I put in the year before will come back.

Anchoring the south edge of the patio bed, the rudbeckia is a profusion of blooms in the hottest month of the summer.