Welcome to the
Middle Garden
The Middle Garden is a patch of earth nestled in Evanston, IL. Here, the gardener (Ellen) chronicles the lives of seedlings, garden experiments, the ways plants thrive, and making the most of a garden. Settle in for the love of plants, bugs, birds, soil, and every small discovery waiting in our backyard ecosystems.
The Quiet Luxury of a Real Garden
What wouldn’t work is a middle-aged, sweaty gardener in tatty sweatpants, digging thousands of small rocks out of an ugly hedgerow that was previously “mulched” with, of all things, rocks. Every hour or so, she’d curse the absolute genius who thought that innumerable tiny stones were a good idea (the previous owner).
That gardener is me.
And it’s a lot of us.
It’s not cute. But it is real.
Plant Spotlight: Cosmos (Cosmos Bipinnatus)
Hi, Cosmos.
I’m Ellen. It’s not that I’m obsessed with you. It’s just that I want to cut off your heads and put them on display in my home for all my visitors to see.
It’s not just me, either. Gardeners and floral enthusiasts everywhere feel this way. And I think it’s because you’ve landed squarely in the sweet spot in the Venn diagram of bold, lovely, and stalwart.
When annuals, weeds, and self-seeders are the real heroes …
This is not the Japanese gardening philosophy of ma—the artful use of negative space—at play. No, no. This is just…blah.
It’s the frustrating reality of starting with young perennials, combined with the tireless efforts of my arch-nemesis: f*cking rabbits, razing wee plants to the ground with their adorably fuzzy chompers.
Plant Spotlight: Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum)
In photos, strawflower can look a bit unassuming. Sort of mum-adjacent. But look closer - or better yet, see one in person - and you’ll notice the oddity of those paper-like petals. It’s as if cellophane met tissue paper and birthed a flower. Brush the petals with your fingers and you get the most delightful ASMR-worthy crinkle.
7 Garden Bugs I Loved Last Summer
It’s not that I’m a bug person. I’m just proud of my garden for being the place these critters wanna hang.
It’s also super chill that many of them are important native pollinators and help regulate the garden ecosystem.
To the bugs that didn’t make it onto this list: you can’t read, so you shouldn’t be offended. I only included the ones that genuinely made me excited when I spotted them.
Plant Spotlight: Sunflowers (Helianthus)
So what is it about sunflowers? Garden after garden, year after year, decade after decade, we keep making room for them.
It would be easy to say, it’s already been done, that sunflowers are boring or overplayed, and move on to something else. I’ve done that. And then, of course, the following year I plant far too many to make up for it.
The 2026 Patio Garden Plan: Edibles!
The next year’s theme typically comes to me as an epiphany when the current year’s growing season comes to an end. I kept waiting for the 2026 patio garden inspiration to strike. I thought another musical theme would hit but “Mellow Yellow’ and "Yellow Submarine” just weren’t doing it for me.
So finally I said, “fuck it, I’m doing an edible patio garden.”
Plant Spotlight: Calendula
Calendula is a happy camper while she’s in bloom. She's the Leslie Knope of flowers, all rainbow and no rain. And who am I to kill Leslie Knope? Even if she could make my skin noticeably perkier.
Seed Sowing 101
The other day, I threatened a couple of golfers at work that if they kept talking to me about golf, I’d start talking to them about gardening. It definitely worked, but they seemed to be under the delusion that I’d talk about fertilizer. Nothing against good fertilizer but, ew, no. It would be about seed sowing, duh.
6 Native Seeds to Sow Now that will Bloom this Year!
Many perennials and some annuals need cold, moist stratification to achieve germination. Boiled down, this just means copy Mother Nature. When a flower drops its seeds, it will often sit on the ground and refuse to come up until it’s been smacked silly with some brutal winter. Seems a bit masochistic to me, but whatevs.
A Gardener’s Odyssey Through Winter
Every year around late September, I think, It’ll be so nice in winter to regroup, get cozy, and plan the garden for next year. When the first frost hits, I take off my bra, put on my wool Darn Tough socks, stow away the cold brew tea, pull out the Earl Grey, and curl up under a blanket with my dog at my feet.
And then five minutes later, my nerves get bad and I start to itch…Is it still winter?
Plant Spotlight: Nasturtium
Nasturtium is the perfect Seed Sowing 101 participant. And yet, even after graduating to trickier perennial sowing, we keep coming back to her. We know she’ll germinate. We know she’ll proliferate. We know she’ll show up and do us proud.
2025 Garden Recap: Prairie Beds, Purple Rain, and Plenty of Rabbits
The Biggest Transformation. Best Laid Plan That Didn’t Quite Pan Out. Best Deal of the Year. Biggest Frustration. Biggest Joy.
Plant Spotlight: Verbena Bonariensis
This is one of the few plants where the botanic name is more delightful than the common name (Purpletop Vervain? snooze). ‘Verbena Bonariensis’ happily bounces off the tongue, as do my praises of her as an easy, reliable, and stunning flower beloved by both humans and pollinators.
Hardscaping for Fantasy Fiction Lovers
So when I sized up the Privet, I felt like I was staring down a hedgerow of Orcs. But I was well-hydrated, well-booted, and Lady Galadriel had just handed me some dry bread. Axe (loppers) in one hand, shield (shovel) in the other, I blew the horn of Gondor and charged.
Plant Spotlight: Blanket Flower (Gaillardia)
And so, my first impression of Blanket Flower was gratitude, and a budding appreciation not unlike the first watch of a cult classic film.
Seedling ID #3: Nigella (Love in a Mist) Sowing Difficulty Meter: 2/10
Nigella is also commonly known as Love in a Mist, which has to be in the top five best names for a plant. How apt and whimsical.
Garden Experiment #2. I want edible crops in the winter. Is it wishful thinking in Chicago?
And here’s what else I’ve discovered: I can make a greenhouse within my greenhouse (exploding head emoji).
How to have your Dahlias and keep them too! 8 simple steps for overwintering these tubers
So if you’re like me, here’s how to have them even in the colder zones (at or lower than zone 8). Dahlias are considered a tender perennial. This means that they can come back every year but they cannot stand sub freezing temps.
Free Plant Adoptions from the Middle Garden
It was two summers ago when I put out the first free plants on my front lawn. I had sown too many tomatoes and couldn't bring myself to dump them in the compost heap.