FARGO — Since moving into her home near Fargo’s Lindenwood Park 25 years ago, Alyssa Miller has worked on transforming the yard into her own personal sanctuary.
Over the years she’s learned a lot about gardening simply through trial and error.
“You have to be willing to fail forward and you just keep poking at it,” she said. “Some things you put in and they die or they look like garbage, or they need a different home in the yard. You just gotta be willing to stink at it for a while.”
She doesn’t stink at it any more.
In 2023 Miller’s yard was featured on the Red River Valley Garden Tour.
Alyssa Miller stands in her backyard garden on July 2, 2025, in south Fargo.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
“I took the classes to be a master gardener. I was 24 years old when I took the class, you know, amongst old people like me now, which is kind of funny,” she said with a laugh. “You gotta really like science. I like science a little bit. I love getting in the dirt more.”
Miller recently gave The Forum a tour of her yard and talked about how it reflected her life and views.
Miller: I moved into the historic downtown neighborhood in 2000. I was drawn to it for the big elms, for sure. I remember being in college and driving down Eighth Street and being surrounded by the elms, so I knew at that age, this was the neighborhood.
How you decorate the interior of the house is really the same as the outside. You’re looking for texture, color, timing, how the sun is hitting it. It’s really the same.
I think about texture, color, bloom time. My general theory about the garden was I wanted to make sure I got all of the senses. I wanted to be able to smell it. Every year I have five jasmine plants. Come 5 p.m. it smells just beautiful back here. That Dakota Pinnacle birch tree, which was cultivated here at North Dakota State University, sounds kind of like aspens.
I like annuals for all that color, especially in our region where seasons are so quick — you’ve got to have some extra color.
I have to do geraniums every year because I’ll keep them until November. I know it’s going to get me through the whole way. I buy them through the skating club in Moorhead. So I always feel like I’m supporting the young artists skating too. So I order 40 of them every year.
Alyssa Miller has a pond in her backyard at her home in south Fargo.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
My favorite time of the day is probably morning. I’m self-employed, so I’m in my office most of the day. I like to get up at 7, start picking weeds. I don’t have any sound on. It’s just me and the cardinal in the tree, and I just start picking weeds. It has become really a place of solace for me, through some pretty difficult years, actually.
If I need a break, if I need to come out during a big conference call, I just start picking weeds. It’s great. It’s really great.
If you’re not using Preen, use Preen. It’s life changing. Once you get it weeded for the spring, you put that down. It’s a pre-emergent, so then it will prevent a lot of weeds.
Alyssa Miller made a headstone for her dog Lyla in her garden. “I decided to bury her in the backyard and I was like, ‘I’m gonna go talk to her every day.’ And that’s what I do. And I’m really glad I did.”
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Fail forward, get in the dirt, it’s not cute. Really embrace the cycle of life and death. We come from the winter climate here and it’s really desolate come April, you know, we’re all starving a little bit for some sort of color. Then spring comes and there you have life again. It’s a reminder that life keeps on going on. So I think gardening just really enhances everybody’s life.
Spring is definitely for peonies. I have probably eight bushes of that now. Spring is like technicolor.
It’s always evolving. Like this year, I realized that some stuff in my northeast corner is now getting too much shade. So I probably will move that next year. But just being willing to adjust and let it be live, just keep moving, keep moving, keep moving.
Alyssa Miller said she likes to get out into the backyard in the early morning and pick weeds. “I don’t have any sound on. It’s just me and the cardinal in the tree,” Miller said.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
I would love to tell you I have a budget, but I am not a drinker or a smoker. I don’t really have any vices, so this is my vice and I know every year I’m gonna spend a couple of hundred dollars.
I grew up with a mom who was a big gardener. My mom did her best thinking in our backyard and would encourage me to come up there and we would just talk, or she would teach me about plants. It was just really lovely.
Alyssa Miller moved into her historic south Fargo home in 2000 and expanded the garden that started with just one plant.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
I know it looks pathetic, but this is a hibiscus that is from 1975. My mom and dad would bring it in every year, so when she passed, that was like the one thing I wanted. Now I bring this thing out every year.
This Tiger Eye Sumac will get a really bright gold against the burgundy of the smoke bush, and the contrasting color of those two are really special in the fall.
Smokebush is really beautiful in bouquets. I cut myself about three bouquets a week. It’s kind of my treat to myself. Frequently, I’ll drop off flowers for friends, just because it’s a way to pay it forward a little bit. I’m a good friend.
Alyssa Miller said she likes to have friends over to enjoy her backyard in south Fargo.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Everybody should be able to grow a frigging tomato and I can’t. I don’t know why. So, now I’m good with raspberries and herbs and that’s about it.
I make a lot of cocktails with basil. I grow a ton of basil. I’ll do a big harvest of pesto. The first is always the best. It is less bitter. I’ll usually make 30 containers of pesto for the season.
“I don’t think I could have a bigger yard because I think I would just never work,” Alyssa Miller said. “I would just garden and hang out.”
Chris Flynn / The Forum
It’s work, but it’s definitely work of love, like virtual work. And you could just share it with your friends, your family.
My middle child has her first home this year. That was actually really special to hear about what they were growing in their garden this year. And I do get the calls. “Ma, what do I do about this?” And I think the other family members just really enjoy having a space of solace and quiet. It’s restorative nature, which is equally important to me.
I don’t think I could have a bigger yard because I think I would just never work. I would just garden and hang out.
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