The Garden Doesn’t Hurry

Every seed carries instructions written long before we arrived. Our only job is to keep the soil ready.

There is a moment in early June when the nursery feels almost alive in the dark.

It is before the gates open. Before the first customer walks down the gravel path and points to the hydrangea they have been thinking about since March. Before the questions and conversations join the nursery on a summer Saturday.

In that early hour, Tom walks the rows. He do not carry a clipboard or a checklist. Simply roaming the space, creating awareness. And moving slowly, because after more than thirty-five years of growing things, he has learned something the rest of us are still figuring out.

The garden does not hurry.

Right now, underneath the surface of every pot and bed, something quiet is happening. Roots are pushing outward, feeling for water and minerals. Soil fungi are trading phosphorus to plant roots in exchange for sugars. Earthworms are pulling organic matter downward, leaving behind channels that air and water will follow for months.

Some progress noticeable, but most of the action is happening beneath the surface. And yet it is, without question, the most important thing happening in your garden right now. Things are growing!

June can bring anxiety looking over your space.. do the plants have enough sun? Too much? Maybe I should have potted them differently. The endless chatter can be discouraging.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

When we sit back and admire our landscape, however big or small, we see what a gift it is to even have a space to explore our creativity and wonder within nature. And that everything will work out as it should.

Your June invitation: water deeply, mulch generously, and then let things grow. The greatest thing you can do for a garden in June is trust it.