“In the Garden” is my monthly series of photos and notes about what’s going on in our garden. It’s a record of the seasons at Woodside: what we’re growing, the projects we tackle and, over time, a chance to look back on how the garden changes and evolves.
Our house and garden sit on a natural bench halfway up a hill surrounded by trees. When we cleared the land to build, we left as many of the trees as possible, including several maples with very high canopies, right in the middle of the garden. This dappled shade helps keep most of the garden cooler during the heat of the summer; even full-sun plants appreciate it. Even so, every day this last week has been over 90F (32C), which feels like 100F with humidity. We’ve half-jokingly talked about putting shade cloth over the entire veg garden - which has full sun almost all day - to help reduce plant stress.
When it gets this hot, it’s hard to spend time in the garden other than for a few hours in the early morning and late evening. But we get outside when we can to water where needed, pick vegetables, and see what’s in flower.
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This month, the veg garden seems to be the star of the show. The lettuces will likely soon bolt with the heat, but we’ve been harvesting them regularly throughout spring. The garlic planted last autumn has started dying down, and we’ve started pulling some of the hard-neck bulbs. The rest will be pulled in the next week or so. I harvested a batch of coriander from the cilantro, which had gone to seed. I never have to resow cilantro; it always seems to pop in one garden bed or another each spring and fall.
The cucumbers have been romping away for a few weeks now and we’ve already canned some relish and made some quick pickles.
The snap peas were a bust, but I’ve pulled them, and green beans and squash are filling the space they left.
The cherry tomatoes have started ripening, and a few peppers are ready to be picked. Everything feels a little early this year, probably because spring was mild with plentiful rain.
There were two things we wanted to do better this year in the veg garden:
Fill more the gaps in the garden by succession planting
Use and preserve more of what we grow
In past years, by mid-July, life and the heat of summer always seemed to conspire. The garden would turn unruly, with weeds taking over in gaps left by early spring crops. It would be hot, and we would be busy and couldn’t find the time or energy to mow, weed, freeze the green beans, can the cucumbers, or get to the squash before they turned large and stringy. Then, of course, we’d feel bad and overwhelmed and promise to do better next year. (The chickens saw no problem with the situation as they were often the beneficiaries of our failures.)
So far this year, though nowhere near perfect, we are doing better.
When the spring lettuces, cilantro, and peas were finished, I direct-sowed bush beans and pumpkins in their place and planted a few extra pepper plants. I mulched the beds with grass clippings to keep the weeds down. I filled the gaps between tomato cages where I couldn’t reach with sunflowers and packed every empty spot with basil, marigolds, and nasturtium. Of course, with less time spent battling weeds, everything feels better and less chaotic. It feels like there’s more time to slow down, prepare things, preserve things, enjoy things, and share the excess with friends and family (and the chickens).
Elsewhere, the Wall Garden behind the house and pool is finally starting to fill in. This garden comprises two long retaining walls that run the length of the house and a little beyond. This garden was designed to feel tropical, with predominantly white flowers that light up at night. It’s not much to look at during most of the year, but by early summer, it has exploded in a riot of lush green and cool whites.
We spent some time re-designing the garden this year. In the past, we relied heavily on a dark purple grass, Pennisetum ‘First Knight’, to give the border structure and dramatic pops of color. They grew fast and looked amazing, but they were borderline hardy here and the bottom line is that after three years of trying different things to overwinter them, we had to accept that it just didn’t work.
This spring, we replaced them with dwarf Smokebush, Cotinus coggygria 'Lilla', hoping that once they grow a little larger, they will have the same visual impact as the grasses did. (No picture here because they are currently invisible behind the Gaura!)
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Soon, I’ll share a more thorough tour of this garden, along with my tricks for designing a long border.
I have a huge bowl of blackberries in the refrigerator, so this weekend, I’ll try some new canning recipes and make a blackberry cobbler while avoiding the worst of the heat.
“Field Notes from Woodside Gardens” is a collection of stories about creating a garden. Most Fridays, I share what’s going on in our garden, along with tips and ideas that you can use in yours, wherever you are. Please consider becoming a free subscriber if you haven’t already done so.