Why My Garden Looks So Full in Early May

I'm just at a different point in my gardening journey.

I keep getting the same comment this spring...

“Your garden already looks so full!”

The underlying assumption seems to be that I’m somehow ahead of the game, that my garden has filled out quicker than average this spring.

But here’s the truth: The way my kitchen garden looks right now has very little to do with what I planted a month ago, after all danger of frost had passed.

kitchen garden close ups

Let’s break down some of the things you see in these photos:

• Garlic ... planted last October

• Wildflowers ... mostly perennial, sown or planted last fall, or the fall before that

• Other flowers ... winter sown

• Chives and green onion... pretty much year-round

• Chamomile ... planted last fall, protected all winter, planted in February

• Nasturtiums ... direct-sown in March, almost a month before frost-free date

• Strawberries ... perennial, some planted last spring, some planted late winter this year

• Lettuce ... planted last fall, protected all winter

• Thyme ... perennial, planted years ago

• Rosemary ... semi-evergreen, planted years ago

• Cilantro ... bolted, saving for the coriander seeds

• Parsley ... bolted, saving for the seeds

• Carrots ... seeds sown in winter

• Peas ... planted in February

• Arugula and spinach flowers ... bolted from the greens I ate on all fall and winter

The squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, dill, peppers, ground cherries (the summer stuff)—if they were all that I had growing right now, the garden wouldn’t look lush in the least.

I do like it looking full, even with all the bolted stuff flopping over; I think it’s lovely.

But what’s more important than how it LOOKS, is that all of that stuff is, and has been, producing long before we got to summer garden season. And, it’s helping protect and attract pollinators to the summer stuff from the day it goes in.

This is probably the fullest my garden has ever looked by mid-May, and I think that’s just part of the journey. I’ve been gardening since 2015 or 2016, and this is my third growing season here at this house.

The longer you’re at it, the more you train yourself to think of the garden long before April and you have a garden already producing when the big box grocery stores start running their “weekend warrior” ads.

And you keep finding ways to cram more plants in, because, well, why not?

So if your garden looks lean, don’t fret. It will hit its stride.

And subscribe if you haven’t yet, as I share a lot of what I’m planting throughout the year specifically to help new gardeners develop the instinct and intuition around the timing that gets the whole thing humming year-round.