The solstice has come and gone, and we’re officially into summer. We’ve had a number of days with temps in the 90s already, and I must say the plants are enjoying this hot weather more than I am! Still, now that the garden has established itself a bit more, I’ve reflected back on the ups, downs and lessons learned from this first spring in the new house…from the comfort of the air-conditioned inside, of course.

Before our weather flipped nearly on a dime into this hot and dry summer, we slogged through a spring season that was late, wet and cold. Then we had a burst of lovely warmer weather in the early-middle part of May, which lulled many of us gardeners into a false sense of security that it was probably safe to start planting outside. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this, but sure enough, a late May cold snap did in some tender plants and weakened others. 

Minnesota weather, eh?  Uff da.

All in all, I was fairly fortunate, as my raised bed and containers were spared from the worst of the damaging high winds by the privacy fence surrounding the backyard and the bulk of the garage. Some of the herbs took a step back after that dip in temperatures, though, and I think it stunted the development of their root systems. I had to entirely replace a few basil plants and others I’ve had to support when they became top-heavy. After the last several weeks of consistently warm weather, most things do seem to be settling in and starting to flourish – knock on that wooden fence.

First-Year Observations

As I mentioned in my last post, part of the excitement going into this season was that in so many ways, I really didn’t have a clue as to what I should expect: how dense would the tree coverage be? Would there be any established perennials? What is the soil quality like? I thought I’d share a few interesting things I’ve learned about the space thus far.

1. The mature trees overhanging the house are a mixed blessing, even in ways i hadn’t anticipated.

• On the up side: in addition to regulating the house’s inside temperature, they provide cool shade for early-morning herb harvests. Since the raised garden is on the western edge of the property and definitely in full sun during the afternoon, I appreciate that! 
• The unexpected down side: obviously I knew their shade would limit how much and where I’d be able to grow, but I didn’t anticipate just how much the plants – even those distanced from the trees in full afternoon sun – would end up leaning towards the west. It’s made for some unbalanced plants and means that in places, despite my best efforts to plan the garden in a way that would give every plant enough space, there is some overlap that isn’t, well, ideal. 

2. I am very bad at identifying new plant growth by sight when I don’t know what was planted there. Epically bad. In my defense, this isn’t a skill I’ve spent much (read: any) time cultivating, but even I was surprised at just how clueless I was when a few perennials started showing up later this spring! Just one example, to illustrate my point yet salvage my pride. 

The front yard has a narrow flower bed alongside the fence on one side, and initially I assumed that it had been an annual bed when nothing even peeked through the surface by a week into May. So I purchased a mix of annuals and perennials to brighten up the space, at least for this year.

How surprised I was, then, when seemingly overnight the bed was filled with shoots of the same plant! I watched them for a few days, and I knew I recognized the leaf shape and patterns, but for the life of me I could not place them.

After a couple failed attempts with a plant identification app, I gave up and texted a snapshot to a horticulturally-talented friend. Her response was immediate: orange day lilies. OF COURSE! I knew I’d kick myself for not recognizing them, and sure enough, I did 🙂 . 

…In Which She Took the Lawn Service for Granted

Of course, alongside the cultivated plants, this is the first time in years that we’ve had a lawn that is our responsibility to maintain. One of the perks of the old townhome was that it had a huge corner lawn AND the homeowners association fees covered the lawn service! So while I couldn’t install my own garden beds, I always had a beautifully trimmed lawn and no weeds, and I never had to lift a finger. Talk about spoiled! 

Even with the maintenance work that comes along with it, I do appreciate having a lawn that’s actually ours. In fact, the trouble we’ve had so far is getting it to grow where we want it to, rather than keeping it from getting overgrown. From the listing photos, which were obviously taken in the fall, we knew there were patches in the backyard that would need some grass-growing TLC if we didn’t want the house continually slathered with muddy pawprints. 

To get through the summer season, we sowed the worst areas (like underneath the aforementioned shade trees) with a shade mix in May. To give the new grass a fighting chance, we fenced the areas with chicken wire to keep the dogs off. 

The results were…well, mixed. A good percentage of the grass sprouted, which was encouraging; it was certainly progress over last year, especially since we knew going into it that fall is the better time to plant new seed anyway. Unfortunately it wasn’t only grass that took hold quickly; quite a number of weeds and unidentified groundcover types took advantage of the fact that we were doing “no-mow May” to give the pollinators a leg up.

Part of me is a bit disappointed that we didn’t achieve a lush, beautiful lawn right away, but most of me – okay, probably the part of me that’s realized how much work it is to move, sell a house and get a new one in livable shape while holding down a full-time job – has accepted what we have for now. We certainly won’t have any lawn care companies knocking on our door asking to shoot a commercial, but what we’ve got meets our basic needs for the summer. So I’ve decided that if it’s green, generally holds the soil in place and keeps the majority of dirt off my dogs’ paws, I’m happy to let it grow there for this year. 

Elevation Matters

Finally, a word on weeds. Tenacious little buggers, aren’t they? 

The proclivity and resilience of the weeds everywhere – in containers, the raised bed, the rock beds – has been a bit of a surprise this year. Of course I expected them, but I’ve pulled more weeds out of my containers this year than any year previously, even though this year they do not sit directly under any trees as they did in the past. 

This is merely conjecture, but my initial guess is that it has a lot to do with the fact that this year they are sitting essentially on ground level, rather than on a second-story deck. In past years, I’ve pulled mostly tiny tree seedlings out of my herbs. This year, there have been a wider variety of “volunteers” crowding in, and I have a feeling that no-mow May, combined with a greater variety of creatures that can reach ground-level planters than could scale my deck, are contributing to the variety. 

Plucking stray greenery from the raised bed and containers isn’t a major hassle, but trying to prevent the rock gardens along the fences from becoming overrun is proving challenging. I pulled the first round by hand, but when they grew back so speedily I recognized that relying on elbow grease alone wasn’t going to cut it for the whole year. 

I confess that I did use a commercial weed killer on the rock beds farthest away from my garden, and the nice thing is that the regrowth has been minimal. I mixed up a homemade blend of white vinegar, salt and dish soap to treat the spots nearer to plants I do want to preserve or potentially consume, and it’s also been fairly effective at killing the weeds initially. It does take a lot more of the product to produce the same results, though, and while it’s still the more eco- and pocketbook-friendly option, I think I need to find a spray bottle with a kinder, gently trigger to save wear and tear on my digits! 

Are any of you also getting to know a new garden space this year? If so, I’d love to hear how it’s going! I’ll be back soon with, I hope, some successful early harvest stories!