Test Garden — June Update: The Garden Has Opinions
It’s been almost three months since I planted my first Test Garden seeds, and every day, something new in the garden is blooming.
The roses just had their first flush, and now the Japanese irises are starting to put on their show.
Some gardens politely follow the plan.
This one had other ideas.
Vegetable Lessons
The peas climbed without much encouragement, eventually rewarding the wait with the first pods of the season.
Worth noting: The peas handled the cool spring beautifully. Once the flowers appeared, the pods followed much faster than I expected.
The broccoli raab didn’t get the memo.
Just as I was getting the hang of harvesting it, the warm weather arrived, and the plants quickly burst into cheerful yellow flowers. I brought the remaining stems inside anyway.
My deck container garden with snap peas, broccoli raab, cosmos, and tassel flower.
Close-up of ‘Sugar Daddy’ flowers forming
‘Sugar Daddy’ pea pods and flowers forming
My brother-in-law recommended sautéing the broccoli raab in olive oil with a little salt and pepper or tossing it into an omelette. No complicated recipe, just a reminder that even a modest harvest is worth bringing into the kitchen.
What I'd do differently next time: Harvest earlier and more often. Once warm weather arrives, broccoli raab can go from productive to flowering surprisingly quickly. The flowers are edible, but the stems become more bitter as the plant bolts.
Broccoli raab harvest
The beans briefly looked as though they might disappear altogether after something (I narrowed it down to birds) helped itself to the leaves overnight, only to surprise me by pushing out fresh growth anyway.
Lesson learned: I still don't know exactly what visited the planter, but the beans recovered better than I expected after I put bird netting over them. Sometimes it's worth waiting a week before pulling a plant that looks finished.
That has become the rhythm of the Test Garden.
Nothing follows the script for very long.
Bean plants suffering from pest damage.
Close-up of bean plants suffering from pest damage.
Notes on Flowers and Herbs
I couldn't help comparing notes. The tassel flowers and cosmos in my mother's garden were already blooming while mine on the deck and elsewhere were still making me wait. Same seeds. Different gardens. Apparently, they had opinions about where they'd rather grow.
Tassel flower and cosmos blooming in my mother’s garden, much earlier than mine. Her zone gets much warmer than mine in the summer (and earlier).
Tassel flower finally blooming at my house, with ‘Diamond Frost’ Euphorbia and ‘Silver Falls’ Dichondra.
Tassel flower and the two Verbena bonariensis ‘Vanity’ plants that successfully germinated.
The verbena, equally determined to move at its own pace, suddenly stretched upward almost overnight.
Herbs settled into their containers with little fanfare, quietly doing exactly what herbs tend to do.
However, contrary to popular belief, the rabbits have opened up their own Research and Development Department out of my backyard, working their way up through the Ts and sampling my thyme and tarragon plants.
Herb garden on the gravel.
Every container tells a slightly different story.
Some are stories of success. Others are stories of resilience. A few are simply reminders that plants and gardens keep their own schedules.
One of my favorite moments this month wasn't a harvest at all. It was watching the pea blossoms quietly turn into pods, knowing they had finally crossed that invisible line from possibility to dinner.
The broccoli raab eventually flowered, too. Rather than seeing it as a failure, I found myself appreciating the tiny yellow blooms before bringing a bouquet of stems inside. Even vegetables can be unexpectedly beautiful when you stop asking them to be perfect.
While the peas and broccoli raab have already had their moment, the cucumbers and watermelon are only beginning.
Sometimes the hardest part of gardening is remembering that not every crop keeps the same schedule.
The Test Garden has never really been about producing the biggest harvest.
It's where I try things.
Sometimes they thrive.
Sometimes they struggle.
Sometimes birds, rabbits, insects, or simple impatience become part of the story.
Every season teaches something different.
This one reminded me that gardening isn't about controlling outcomes.
It's about paying attention.
And the garden, as always, has plenty to say if you're willing to observe.
Whether you’re harvesting vegetables or watering, deadheading, and all that summer suddenly asks for, The Seasonal Edit is there when the garden starts asking for everything at once.
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