Late Summer Letters — the journal

She’s the Goose

Garden

What is happening outside, month by month, in one ordinary garden in New England.

A wide view along a mixed summer border: elephant ear, boxwood, grasses and red and orange annuals.

The long border in the second week of August, from the lawn side. Planted in threes and fives, fed twice a season, and otherwise left to get on with it.

Spring

March – May

Two hands lowering a hyacinth bulb clump into dark soil beside a stone edge.

Hyacinth going in along the stone edge, the first week the ground gave.

A hand fork working dark spring soil, a red sleeve pushed up.

A hand fork and ground that had been frozen four months.

Green hyacinth shoots emerging from bare soil beside a garden trowel.

Two weeks on. Nothing has ever felt more like proof.

Everything in this bed went in over one afternoon in late March, in the cold, badly. It is still the highest-return hour of the whole garden year — and the only work that has to happen before the season decides for you.

Early Summer

June

Boston fern fronds and white petunias filling a container in bright shade.

Boston fern and white petunia — the pairing that survives a porch in July.

A moss and twig birdhouse hanging outdoors, planted with sedum and red portulaca.

The moss birdhouse, replanted with sedum and portulaca.

The same moss birdhouse hanging in dappled woodland light, hens-and-chicks tucked into its sides.

Hung where it takes morning sun and afternoon shade.

June is for containers. Plant them roughly twice as full as looks sensible — by the second week of August they will be exactly right, and by September they will be generous.

High Summer

July – mid-August

A summer border of yellow dahlias, dark-leaved hibiscus, boxwood and elephant ear.

Dahlia, black-leaf hibiscus, elephant ear. Height at the back, weight through the middle.

The long border seen across mown lawn, backed by tall trees.

The border from the lawn, mid-July, before anything flops.

A covered porch with wicker seating, a fern in a woven planter and elephant ear leaves.

The porch — where most of the summer is actually spent.

Nothing in this border is rare. It is all garden-centre stock, planted densely, fed twice, and cut back once in July. Density is doing the work that a plant list is usually given credit for.

Late Summer

Mid-August – September

Photograph to comeThe long border in September, going over

The border as it lets go — still to be photographed.

Photograph to comeWhat gets cut and brought inside

The last cutting of the year.

Photograph to comeSeed heads, and what stays standing

What stays up for the winter.

The garden stops asking for much after the middle of August. This is the month to walk it rather than work it, and to write down what should move in October.

From the letters

Letter no. 13 · Summer

The Long Light

It was almost nine last night and still light out. I checked the clock twice because it didn’t seem possible. The dishes were in the sink where I’d left them. I sat down on the back step instead and never did go in.

Read the letter→
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