“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.
The first few years with a new garden are like a rough sketch of a final painting, messy with smudged pencil marks and fingerprints. Paths have yet to be made, borders are still wild with weeds, and new plantings seem small and delicate.
There is mud, so much mud.
It requires a rich imagination to see how it will look in another year or even ten. Your friends and neighbors who aren’t gardeners won’t be able to imagine it, even when you describe it to them in great detail. But year by year, little by little, the space is tamed, and the final picture starts to take form.
I think the shape of most gardens begins to emerge by the fourth or fifth year. By then, plants have had the time to grow strong roots, and top growth explodes. Borders start to fill in, perennials jostling for space and softening the edges of still-new paths. Plants begin to self-seed and repeat themselves, connecting spaces by accident or purpose. You find gaps and choose the perfect plant to fill them. You re-arrange: editing and deleting with a spade and delicate touch or boldly, with a shovel and wheelbarrow.
It is our fourth spring at Woodside and the best one yet.
While many parts of the garden are still untamed (we mow them down to keep the ticks and wild blackberries at bay), the areas we planted in those early days are just beginning to hit their stride. The weather has been mild, the rain plentiful, and everything is in full, glorious bloom: the apple trees and the cherry blossom, the iris and the peonies, the native azalea, and the lilac.
There are hostas tucked into every corner, now, most of them free from the local plant swap, and this year they too are at their best.
We have spent a lot of time this month mulching. Mulching is ideal for improving soil quality, making it harder for weeds to grow and easier to pull when they do, keeping the soil cooler, and retaining moisture in the summer. It is also a lot of work, especially when your house is very long and you have to cart all the mulch from the driveway in front to the garden in back.
The lesson to be learned is to make more compost on-site, which makes excellent mulch and requires much less carting.
I have also been moving and planting a handful of new shrubs and perennials that have been overwintering in the raised beds of the vegetable garden, the greenhouse, or sprouted up as volunteers in the garden. The best time to do this (especially if you have clay soil as we do), is right after a rain so that the ground is soft and easily dug. It’s also the perfect time to see gaps in the borders that could use something extra. I will also boldly move bulbs in the wrong spot, even if it means delaying their blooms for a year, just because they are in leaf and easier to see.
Other small projects: I started a small wattle fence using the green branches of scrub bushes we’ve cut back and we’ve used 8-foot cedar cut from small trees we downed last fall to expand the borders of planting areas and paths. In the Japanese garden, we finished a new path, the pavers separated by dwarf mondo grass. There are still so many weeds - because we live in a forest; because mulch is still thin in areas; because the fenceline isn’t clear yet - so the Dutch hoe is my very best friend.
Our last average frost date is April 15th, which means all of my cool weather crops have already been planted out and I’m watching the 2-week forecast like a hawk, debating whether it’s safe to start putting out warm weather seedlings from the greenhouse. Sometimes we get a light frost as late as Mother’s Day, but this year seems to have been pretty mild with consistent overnight temperatures. We’ve reached the point where it’s easily hitting 80+ degrees in the greenhouse during the day and some of the cucumbers and squash are so big they are hard to keep moist in their small pots. It’s a coin toss, but it’s also not… I think you get a feel for it over time. Over the weekend, I decide to plant out everything except the peppers because they are still relatively small and not bothered by the heat in the greenhouse.
I am still sowing seeds that will germinate quickly - basil, zinnia, cosmos, and other annual flowers. I will use some of these to pop into empty spots in the borders and extras will go to our local plant swap in May.
Spring is my favorite time in the garden. There is always so much to do, but it’s important to take the time to enjoy these longer days when the sunshine is warm, the temperatures are perfect, and the breeze is light and scented with flowers.
“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.