A garden that keeps going after we leave

Fall is the best planting season in Virginia for trees, shrubs, and perennials, because roots establish through the cool wet months without heat stress. Spring works for annuals and vegetables. Summer planting is possible but means committing to serious watering, so we generally steer people to September and October.

Fencing is the only thing that truly works, but plant selection gets you a long way. Deer avoid strongly aromatic foliage such as salvia, catmint, lavender, and most ornamental grasses, and they will strip hostas and daylilies down to nothing. We design borders around what your particular herd has already ignored on your property.

Four seasonal visits a year handles most perennial gardens, meaning a spring wake up, a summer edit, a fall cutback, and a winter prune. Kitchen gardens want more attention, usually every two to three weeks in the growing season since crops turn over. We will tell you the minimum that works rather than the maximum we could bill.

Because most garden problems in this area are compacted clay problems wearing a costume. Plants that look like they need fertilizer usually need drainage and organic matter. We test, then build the soil with compost and amendments over a couple of seasons, and the plant list stops needing rescue.