June ’26: Squirrels gonna squirrel
But a transformative month nevertheless.
June in the garden was the month where I planted dozens of tiny baby plants as quickly as I could get them into the ground, and the month where the squirrels dug up and/or destroyed many of them as quickly as they could. But it was also the month where the pea gravel finally got spread in the courtyard (which was prepped at ready at the end of May); I got to introduce ferns into the garden; this year’s fruits and veg took off; I started the long-imagined little sump garden out front, connected the “big” birch out back into the hedgerow by way of a future tiny “meadow” (an effort the squirrels have particularly concentrated their energy on) and also added to said hedgerow. Things are also growing like crazy. In other words, I owe you a lot of updates! And will dig into all of that in the coming weeks, one focal point at a time. But for today, I have a brief update and a ton of photos for you—
Hard to believe it looked like this less than a month ago. Before all those baby plants changed everything.
WEATHER
It’s been brutal then mild then brutal then mild and now extra-brutal as we head into July, with temps expected to hit 100 or above by Thurs. (That’s not just a colorful sentence but an accurate one: we’re on our third heat wave of the month. Our fifth one of the year already and it’s only June.) And rain has been frequently promised but scarcely delivered.
Highest high temp: 91º on June 11, 12 ... and maybe higher tomorrow
Lowest high temp: 63º on June 22
Lowest low temp: 43º on June 2
Highest low temp: 70º on June 12
Rain days: 3 of them (that were more than a brief and pointless drizzle), amounting to only about 1.25" of rainfall combined
How to pick, distribute and place so many little seedlings efficiently? I went with empty pint containers. Fortunately the bottlebrush grass had robust root systems, because every time I turn my back on the squirrels, another one looks like this:
GARDEN NOTES
So yeah, plantingpalooza these past few weeks — squeezing it in between the heat spikes and then nursing the poor little things through it. The many landscape plugs got divided up mainly between the courtyard, the new sump garden and various friends who’ve shared plants with me the past couple years! So among other things—
Planted this month:
• Both new beds and around the feet of the gray birches in the courtyard (the majority of this was plugs)
• Baby wildflowers and grasses (plugs) woven into the back hedgerow and a few added at the front of house
• A moisture-loving collection of them near our sump drain
• The shaggy juniper that rounded out the trio in the garage wall bed
• The ferns and other woodland creatures
• The second blueberry plus strawberries in the fruit garden
Clockwise: Oakleaf Alice and purple coneflower both just getting started; backlit borage blossoms (with leftover gravel in the background); and fat bee on the tiniest baby Culver’s root in bloom.
First strawberries of the season: June 10th. First ground cherries of the season: yesterday.
TO DO’s
I wish I could say I’m done planting until the other side of the season, but I have a handful of little things still sitting against the side of the house waiting to be put in the ground as soon as this heat wave breaks. Then it will just be weeding and maintenance — and enjoying it every minute I can — at least until late August. That gives me lots of time to share the updates I’ve been delinquent about while tied up with all the gardening! But here’s a sneak peek:
