June in the Garden - Part One

The days are long and full. I wake up with the sun and am in bed not too long after the last vestige of light has left the sky. As much as possible, I try to let the weather dictate the rhythm of my days. Overcast days are perfect for putting transplants in the ground. Bright sunshine in the morning calls me out into the fields to harvest clover and daisies. Rainy days mean catching up on household chores and emails.
June feels like a speedy month to me and I’m looking forward to a few blistering hot July days when it’s just too sweltering to move and everything slows down to a crawl. In the meantime here’s a look at what’s happening in the garden right now

​I’m finding my scythe to be an essential tool in the garden. I use it to control plant growth and create my own mulch. Plus, I’m totally prepared for the next peasant uprising! (It was custom made for me, from here.)

​I planted elderberries in this section last year and three balsam poplar trees this spring. Eventually this area will become a shade garden for woodland plants. The growth around the bushes was starting to take over so I scythed the weeds down and applied compost to the base of the trees.

​To keep the weeds under control going forward I sheet mulched the whole 80 foot stretch that marks the boundary of the future woodland shade garden with cardboard and straw.

​As well as suppressing weeds the mulch should remove the need for additional irrigation.

​I’m underplanting the elders and poplars with a variety of herbs. First I open up a hole in the cardboard…

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…and dig down into the soil making room for the seedling. I may or may not add a little extra compost to the hole.

​Then I replace the cardboard and straw and move onto the next one. This is Japanese catnip. I also planted sweet Annie and sage in here.

​This is the wettest spot on my half acre. It’s flooded with spring thaw well into May and gets pretty boggy after a hard rain. They’re hard to spot in this pic, but I planted two alder trees here and will plant two more in the fall. They love the wet, are nitrogen fixers, coppice well and provide wonderful medicine from their bark and leaves. I’ve had a water feature in mind for this site since last year, but never found the time to get the project started. Fortunately I was able to recruit coerce my guy into spending his one day off a week digging a big hole in the ground. He’s really the best!

​He used the dug soil to create a berm behind the alders. I’ll get the berm planted with a variety of things and my hope is that it will act as a sun trap, creating a nice warm microclimate for some more sensitive species.

​By late afternoon he dug all the way down to the water level! The next step will be to seal it bentonite clay and wait for a rain to fill it up. I’m so thrilled to be getting this water feature established. Ideally the pond will provide habitat for a variety of beneficial species, further reduce irrigation needs and create microclimates. I can’t wait!

​Up next: What’s growing in the garden and what I’m harvesting.