• When Eric first proposed to Kristin Swenson, he vowed to plant 1,000 of her favorite flowers, peonies, if she’d say yes to being his wife
• The two celebrated five years of marriage in a photoshoot amid over 15,000 peony blooms
• Kristin tells PEOPLE all about her husband’s grand gesture of love

When Kristin Swenson first met her husband Eric, she admits, “It was not love at first sight.”

“We were two very independent adults in our 30s who were scarred from past loves and didn’t have a whole lot of hope that we would find our perfect partner,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively.

That didn’t stop the two from taking a chance on each other. After a year of getting to know one another, Kristin realized Eric had a lot of qualities she values.

“I really learned that Eric was completely outside of the scope of my imagination when it came to kindness and respect and his actions. During that time, we did a lot of the work on ourselves as individuals, and eventually, we allowed ourselves to have that big love,” she says. “So when he proposed to me and made the promise to plant a thousand of my favorite flowers, I believed it.”

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Kristin explains that Eric proposed twice. It was during their second proposal, at the place they first met, that he made a grand gesture that has made many swoon.

“When he got down on one knee, he was providing the reasons why he wanted us to be partners for life. He committed his kindness because that’s the most important act that we try to demonstrate to each other. And one of the things he included was making this visual gesture to show his kindness and consistency to me, every day for the rest of our lives,” she says. “Peonies was how he’s going to do it, because he knew how much I love them.”

Eric got to work, mostly self-taught after learning a little gardening from his grandparents growing up. At the time, the two didn’t have garden space of their own.

“He started them in a community garden downtown and they were there for the first year and a half,” Kristin explains. “Then we purchased a home. We wanted to find a place that would allow us to plant these flowers. We were able to and so we transplanted them into our new home. It’s just us and our kids who help, so we weren’t able to build it all in one year.”

At the beginning, Eric would “plant a couple of hundred bulbs a year.”

“He does all the heavy lifting. I’m often in the garden and love it, but he’s the one who takes the project and the implementation of it.”

Kristin and Eric have now been married for five years. In May, when they were looking back at their “five seasons” together, she asked him what the garden means to him. His response, captured on video, has gone viral.

“When people are dating or when they’re engaged they’ll tell the whole world how much they love their partner. But as soon as we get married, we stop saying it out loud. And I think this grand gesture is my way of telling the whole world, every spring, how much I love my wife.”

The answer “was completely unexpected” for Kristin.

“I try to document the peonies every couple of days to watch their progress. My husband and I were just talking about the garden and I just felt how proud he was looking at it. I just happened to hit record and asked him this question that I always wanted to know, about why this garden is so important. I was blown away with what he said,” she says.

“I wanted to really share the garden’s progress this year and I included it. We didn’t expect it to reach so many people, but what a gift that it did because, in the comments, people were sharing the people or moments in their lives that peonies were a part of.”

As for Eric, who “doesn’t use social media,” he’s surprised to hear about what going viral is like.

“When it first started to go viral and I was like, wow, this video is up to 2.5 million views, he goes, ‘Oh, is that a lot? Is that what normal videos get?’ ” she says.

“I told him there’s a lot of interest in this one. He’s like, ‘I’m just a man planting peonies because I love my wife.’ “

Kristin says her husband’s feelings about the garden exemplify his commitment to her and their relationship.

“When Eric and I committed ourselves to each other, we knew that working hard on marriage every day was what it would take for our marriage to be healthy and sustainable. With any marriage and in life, we have to work hard at it, even though our life is so filled with love,” she says.

“But it’s those four or five weeks around May that there’s this visual representation that is not only representative of his love, but all the work that goes into showing each other acts of love and kindness and service, all year long.”

The couple are also happy to see how the garden has helped connect them with others, both within their real-life community and their online community.

“The most incredible part of this garden is the stories and connections we’ve made with other people. The garden represents love to us, and to the extent that we can share it with people, we want to. Because when we have thousands of peonies each year, it’s like what do you do with all of these flowers?” Kristin says with a laugh.

“They just bring people happiness and represent love. So this year, for example, we made 60 surprise deliveries of bouquets to people in our community. We donated some to the local Salvation Army food pantry the year before that. We’ve donated them to a local nursing home.”

A recent connection with a woman moving out of state led to a beautiful addition to the couple’s garden.

“About a month ago, I woke up to a direct message from a woman who lived about two and a half – three hours from us and she shared that she was going to be moving out of state. She would not be able to take her peonies with her. When she saw the video, she knew that our garden was a place that they could be loved and cared for,” Kristin says.

“About a week ago, we met her at her garden state and her flowers, the plants themselves, now live in our garden. We created this special spot for them that we call Abby’s corner and we’ll be sharing pictures with her over the years. It looks really cool, and it represents Abby’s story, but in a way, it’s also this representation of all the stories that people shared with us. ”

Eric and Kristin are excited for the garden’s future.

“As this garden continues to grow, we know that eventually we’re going to need help, just to harvest. We’re hoping to be able to put operations in place so that we can do more donations and find ways for people to experience the garden,” she says.

Kristin also looks forward to continuing to show her appreciation for Eric in all the ways that bring him joy.

“I’ve had people ask what I’m doing for him in response to this grand gesture, and that’s a completely valid question. Eric and I each have our own love languages. Mine are acts of service and gifts and I think the garden is such a beautiful representation of how he shows me that,” she explains.

“His love language is quality time and words of affirmation, so every day I look for ways to be able to provide him words of affirmation based on all these wonderful things he does for our family and community. And I ensure that we’re spending enough quality time together. I hope that one day I’ll be able to reciprocate in a big way.”