A few years ago, I moved from central California to central Wyoming. I went from having the luxury of an in-ground garden, all year-round, to having one for roughly 4 months of the year. If I wanted to get the kind of results I was getting in California, I had a lot of catching up to do in my new Wyoming garden. I planted several fruit trees; established a raspberry patch, strawberry patch, and blackberry patch; started an elderberry privacy hedge; surrounded the house with dozens of pretty perennials; established a 1400 square foot in-ground garden, as well as a 12’x4’ raised bed garden; and had a mind full of future plans & ambitions. Like all of the best-laid plans of mice and men, however, things went awry when Hunter got promoted and we found out we would be moving!
Fast forward to today, we are officially in a new house and I have a totally new garden, or lack thereof, to work with. We have a few major obstacles here, including seemingly incessant winds, red clay soils, and not much in terms of foundational tree plantings. I can’t figure out if none of the previous tenants cared much for plants, or if the conditions are just so poor that they only managed to grow a weedy lawn. Either way, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
We moved here in the fall, and managed to tackle a couple big projects before the ground froze. We removed all the grass and weeds around the back deck, mulched heavily with arborist wood chips, and planted a few Hydrangea paniculata shrubs (Blonde Galaxy) & a couple hundred tulips. We also planted a Serviceberry—yes, only one, as that’s all I could find so late in the year. In the front of the house, along the front walkway, we established a border garden by removing a 2-3’ wide strip of sod all the way across, amending the clay, and mulching heavily with wood chips. This area should be ready for planting as soon as the ground thaws, although, this area is so exposed to the wind, that we are a little apprehensive as to what we will plant here. Initially, we wanted to make it a gorgeous, floriferous perennial garden with lots of peonies, lilies, phlox, delphiniums, and other flowers; now, we aren’t sure they would flourish with the constant winds. We are thinking a mixed hedge with evergreens and other shrubs may be able to stand up to the wind, but because this will be a big, costly project, we are considering trying to plant prairie-type plants for immediate interest this year—maybe milkweeds, ornamental grasses, blazing stars, that sort of thing—and revisit the idea of a mixed hedge in the future. Other than that, we have a lot of work ahead of us, if we plan on getting the yard and garden here up to par with our expectations.
Today, I thought I would share some of our hopes & goals for the landscape this year. I’m using the verbiage “hopes”, as I’m not sure any of this stuff will flourish with the level of wind we have been enduring. Maybe springs and summers aren’t as windy (I desperately hope they aren’t), but I’ve now lain awake through several nights of howling wind, gusts of up to 40-60 miles per hour have been the norm, and most days, the wind is constant at some level, all day. I wish I was exaggerating, but we literally moved to what seems like the Windy City, and LONG HAIR DOES CARE!
At any rate, here is our short list for 2020:
2020 Landscape & Garden Goals
VEGETABLE GARDEN
1. Remove sod and establish a main vegetable garden next to the garage. This will be a fairly large project, involving removal of sod with a sod cutter, bringing in a truckload of top soil & compost, and erecting a tall fence to keep out the deer. We have decided to establish our main vegetable garden beside the garage to get some windbreak from the garage on one side, and the neighboring houses/landscapes on the other side. Which leads us to our next project…
VIBURNUM WINDBREAK
2. On the other two exposed sides of our main vegetable garden, we will be planting American Cranberry bush windscreening. We chose these shrubs, which are actually a Viburnum, as they put on dense growth, relatively quickly, and have fruit for the birds, that lingers into winter. Within 5 years, they will reach their stride, being up the 12 feet tall. We are willing to sacrifice some light for the windbreak and bird cover that these will provide.
ELDERBERRY HEDGE
3. We have another living hedge to plant in a different area of the yard—Elderberries. We pre-ordered a dozen bare root elderberries to plant. I started an elderberry hedge at the last house and never got to see it live up to it’s potential, so we are giving it a second go-round here. Not only do I like the look and the wild bird food they provide, but I also like harvesting the berries and processing them into an immune-boosting syrup.
CRABAPPLE TREES
4. Plant a pair of Crabapple trees for shade, structure, beauty, and the birds. We were lucky to have a large, mature, and beautiful crabapple tree in the front yard at our last house. The tree provided four seasons of interest, with beautiful, bee-attracting blooms in spring; shade & vibrancy in the summer; fall color; and fruit that lingered into the winter and attracted a variety of birds—and whitetail deer. We loved our crabapple tree so much at the last house, naturally, we need TWO of them here!
SERVICEBERRIES
5. Plant additional Serviceberries. As I mentioned, there is little in the way of bird cover or established trees here. Serviceberries grow quickly, supposedly, and can either be trained into a shrubby suckering thicket or a standard tree. Because the winds are so persistent here, we are planning on clustering a few together to have a windscreening effect. We are also planting these for the fall color they offer, winter hardiness, and, of course, the delicious fruits they produce.
TREES, ABOVE ALL
6. Plant other trees. All of these trees I’m listing on here should actually be in the number one spot on this list, as there is no time like yesterday to plant trees! They are slow-growing and so ideally should be planted, first & foremost, in my humble opinion. Alas, we will be planting a Cox’s Orange Pippin apple tree, a Honeycrisp apple tree, and a few evergreens, which are to-be-determined. I have been looking into some other shade trees, which grow large and can withstand the climate here, but haven’t made any final decisions yet, as these will truly be investments.
PEONIES
7. Plant herbaceous Peonies around back deck. We pre-ordered some bareroot peonies for the front flower bed I mentioned earlier, but we are thinking we will actually plant them along the sides of the back deck. The decking may provide them some shelter, and perhaps we will get to enjoy the blooms before the wind hauls off all their petals.
PRETTY PRAIRIE PLANTINGS
8. Finally, we circle back to the front walkway flower bed. To stay economical, and give me something to do when snow-day cabin fever is in full swing, we will be winter sowing several varieties of prairie-type plants. Meadow blazing star, Milkweed, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Asters, & Goldenrod are all on the list, along with some ornamental grasses. We would like to see if these plants are sturdy enough to withstand the increased wind exposure in front of the house.
And so, there you have it—our lofty list of gardening goals for 2020! This list may grow, slightly, as Hunter & I literally start spewing one idea after the next when we talk about where we see this landscape in the future. In coming up with this list, however, we tried to be realistic and focused on establishing a foundational framework as early on as possible—thus, our emphasis on windbreaks and trees. One thing I like to point out to new gardeners is that a lot of success in gardening stems from experimentation and trying new things. A lot of what is on our list for this year is experimenting with plants and how they will hold up to the conditions here. And it’s also about growing what YOU like. I’m sure you have noticed that I like to plant a lot of things, intentionally, for my wild birds. I love having them in and around my yard, especially in winter, and so I do put a fair bit of thought into what might attract them when making my garden plans. Furthermore, local gardeners and neighbors can offer some tips and insights, but don’t totally rule things out without trying them for yourself. For example, in our last garden, I successfully grew watermelons. All of the locals told me that it simply couldn’t be done—too short of a growing season—however, I made it happen! Even if I was unsuccessful, it still would have been an enjoyable experience. Therefore, experiment, experiment, experiment!
“Observation & Experiment are two sisters who help each other.”
Now your turn, tell me what garden plans you have for 2020? Are you a new gardener, or have you been gardening for years? Do any of you have experience growing in someplace windy? Drop your favorite wind-tolerant plants below, and help a fellow gardener out!