On the side.
The food garden comes first. Around it, I also do plantings that feed the bees and the eye, on the same rules: grown from seed and cuttings, nothing in purchased soil.
Pollinator and native plantings
Perennials that carry a yard from May to frost: bee balm, anise hyssop, coneflower, mountain mint, the goldenrods and asters for fall. Grown from seed collected in local gardens where I can, so the plants are already used to this climate, and filed with when to sow and what each one needs.
Shade gardens
Under oaks and along stone walls: ferns, white foxglove, wild ginger, foamflower, wild geranium, and the shade goldenrods for September. Bare-root and seed, never potted nursery stock, so nothing arrives in someone else's soil.
Care for what's already there
A rhododendron with notched leaves, a lilac that stopped blooming, a hedge on its way out. A diagnosis and a plan, and no spray where there's another way: beneficial nematodes for vine weevil, hand-picking at night, mulch pulled back from the stem.
Overwintering and propagation
Tender plants carried through winter under cover instead of bought again in May. Cuttings, division, and seed saved from the plants you already have, so next year's garden costs a fraction of this year's.