Planting the Gardens
Laura in the neighboring wildflower gardens in August of 2025, the plants now reaching maturity in their 4th year of growth.
2022 was a pivotal year in our lives. We were moving on from the isolation of the pandemic. We were thinking about a future with a pond at the base of the Hunger Mountains, and what to do with the terra firma surrounding that future pond. Our thoughts turned from imagining to studying to designing to building. As a couple we planted nearly 3,000 horticultural plugs onto a fresh palette of farm soil. Not knowing the amount of maintenance that lay ahead, we went in eyes closed to some extent. It was an experiment. And one that would continue for many years.
Looking back on the same gardens as above, to the fall of 2022. Adding more mulch to the first year plugs (left) gardens still in need of weeding and plugs (right).
The gardens in 2023, plants gaining more maturity, and height, this scene from early June.
2024 was a significantly challenging year with just too much water - many plants showed signs of too much moisture, fungus, etc. Whereas the following year this time was a rough drought for most of the Northeast. Pycnanthemum muticum (mountain mint) shining through all that nature and humankind can send it’s way. An incredible magnet for pollinators and easier to weed out than garden mint, 2024 plant of the year from the AHS.