Lessons Learned by a Garden Advisor

By Larry Jennings

After living on the Cape for the last 10 years and visiting many dozens of yards here, some things are starting to become clear to me. To be successful in conservation of your time and money, creating your best yard is tricky. You have to focus carefully on the specific conditions in each area of your yard for both light and moisture and choose plants carefully to match those conditions.

First, the soil conditions are quite variable across the Cape and even across our yards. I luckily have both sand and clay which gives me experience working with both and understanding how important it is to match plants to soil conditions. Complicating all this is the changing weather patterns that deviate from historical averages.

What I have recently discovered will improve success for every planting in your yard whether you’re an expert gardener or the newest novice. One change yields greater success with all your perennials, shrubs and trees; it will take far less sweat equity and far less cash replacing plants. Do all your planting in the fall, from late September through October.

Why you say? Because the sun and heat are much more comfortable and less intense, your new plants can spend their energy spreading roots.  They will have vastly more capacity to survive when the conditions get tough seven months later when June’s maximum sun and intense heat starts. Your plants will be growing roots when the ground is warm and holds water longer from less direct sunlight. Even warm spells throughout the winter will encourage root growth.

I was amazed three years ago when the wildlife habitat I designed around the new pond at Goshen Farm was planted by members and many brownies and scouts helping too. I watered just once after planting the first 20 plants (over 300 total) and then rains came so that was it to this day. Last year, I designed a large native pollinator garden (over 1,500 square feet) for a home in Arnold. Plants were picked up the day before the CCC plant sale and planted that weekend. Watering was required due to a long drought through October, a full sun exposure, and a site of entirely sandy soil. The growth this spring is phenomenal, and the bees and butterflies are increasingly finding this new garden (all photos are from this garden at the end of May this year.)

As I am sure our President, Stacey, will let you know, the CCC Native Plant Sale is coming up on September 21. That means you can save both time and money creating a better garden for you and your pollinators. If you would like to schedule a Garden Advisor visit to plan your best selections for this year’s plant sale, email me very soon at gardenadvisor@capeconservationcorps.org.