3 P’s for our 2025 Gardens: Planning, Prepping, & Patience

This blog is intended for those of us in WNC who have lost a lot of plants or had damage to our property from Hurricane Helene. That said, this guidance can also be helpful for anyone starting a new garden or restoring depleted soils!

Since opening up this spring, we’ve been both heartened and saddened to hear of all of the shared experiences from Helene and how the destruction has affected customer gardens and yards, woods and views--not to mention loss of entire homes or worse. This is definitely a time of shared intense emotion; the last 6 months were some of the hardest many of us have experienced, and the recovery is just starting--both of the land and our homes, and of our hearts and minds.  

We are perhaps the most eager we’ve ever been to get into our outdoor spaces and get our fingers in the dirt, yet we also may be struggling with feeling overwhelmed, unsure of how or where to start, or simply not having our usual energy and focus as we dive into the growing season. As we feel all of this with you, we are so incredibly grateful to be in the business of providing things that grow, heal, give beauty and nourishment, and foster joy!

We will do all we can to support you--offering younger, more affordable native plants for restoration planting, adding to our gardening guidance resources (both on the website and posted around the greenhouse), or simply by lending a compassionate ear as you share your experiences. Whether you’re facing a blank slate with significant changes to your outdoor space, or simply starting a new garden, these tips should help--remember--Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Plan Properly

Consider changes to your light, soil, and air flow, and try not to rush into things. We cannot possibly over-emphasize the benefits of choosing the right plant for the right place!

• Do you have significantly more sunlight in your space than you had before?  (If you lost plants, keep in mind that your favorites may not work in the same spots as they flourished before.) Silver lining--if you were lacking sunny spots before and now you have a lot more, there are so many new options available to you: coneflowers, butterfly milkweed, tomatoes & peppers to name a few! You may now have the option to install a full sun pollinator bed or a successful summer veggie garden where you weren’t able to sustain them before.  Alternatively, if you really love shade plants and want to have them again, don't lose hope--plant a few larger/fast-growing shrubs strategically and you can quickly recreate a shaded area.

• Did you lose a lot of top soil? Did your yard get buried in sand?  Make sure to give any washed out or buried areas several more weeks to be sure that any surviving plants have time to emerge - you may be surprised! We highly recommend doing a soil test if your soils were altered by the flood. You may have very different acidity and drainage now. Dig holes throughout your gardening space to see how much of it was altered and see how far down the change in soil goes--maybe you just have a few inches of sand deposited but still have some good top soil left underneath. If you have areas where you lost most top soil and were left with a lot of sand and rock, consider installing more of a rock garden/desert garden. There are many amazing plants that we often can't manage in our clay soils that thrive in rockier areas with good drainage, and this allows you to work with what is there rather than starting from scratch to recreate prior soil structures.  

• You may have more air flow than before--a good thing as it prevents disease and mildew! But you could also have higher winds if you had a lot of tree loss and you may want to consider planting a wind screen. Or maybe you have to look at neighbors and neighboring properties that you used to have hidden from you? Read more about shrubs and trees for screening here.

• If you’re working with a ‘blank slate,’ try to see the positives. Consider changes you've always wanted to make, update these as needed based on how your space has been altered, and make a plan of attack. Try to be realistic about the stages required--don’t try to do it all in a year! Consider not just the expense of tackling it all at once, but the labor of digging (may be more than before if you have a lot of rock deposited), how much time and expense will be needed to amend your soils, and don’t forget the time watering and caring for it all. A whole new landscape takes a heck of a lot more time for planning, installation, AND maintenance than a single garden or smaller area! 

  
  

  If lots of work is needed for your soil to be restored, a great option is to start with just a few shrubs or trees that work for your space. Digging and amending a few large holes is much easier than tackling entire garden beds. Then perhaps add some planters with annuals and edibles to bring some color, fresh food, and fun to the space as you work through the bigger picture.

Prep Your Space

Soil building takes a lot of time and effort if you're doing it yourself, and can be very expensive if getting deliveries of supplemental top soils and compost--but if you skip this step you may not have success with your plantings.

•  We like this discussion of soil testing and her recommendations. If you're pacing yourself and planning on rebuilding the soil at least in part yourself, then check out this guidance from NC State.

•  If you’re looking to buy soil and amendments and not wanting to spend 1-3 years rebuilding your soil, we’ve had good experiences with Asheville Mulch Yard (keep in mind that due to very high demand, they may have periods where they’re out of stock).  We still recommend doing a soil test on any soil or compost mix you plan to buy in bulk to ensure it's healthy (there are no state regulations on topsoil quality in North Carolina, so it is buyer beware).

• You may need to incorporate more amendments than you'd typically use depending on how depleted your soils are even if you have new soil brought in. If you’re digging deeper than the new layer of soil, consider adding additional compost, soil conditioner, worm castings, Mycorrhiza and other root boosters and foods like Triple Super Phosphate (this is where the soil testing can be essential to see what is most needed).

• Add a layer of mulch to your new plantings (always leaving room around base of trunk or plant) to hold any new soil and amendments in place and protect from drying out excessively.

• If you have been left with a lot of dead trees, limbs and branches, consider building a Hugelkultur bed--a great way to use up wood detritus (as long as it’s not Black Walnut) and organic material already on your property. They can take some work to build, but once established are pretty low maintenance, often less water needy, and can produce very healthy plants!

Be Patient (with your gardens and yourself!)

• Your end result will be so much better if you take the time to plan, choose the right plant for the right place, and not try to rush into it or redo everything at once. Be patient and give yourself some grace!

• There is so much we are all processing and so much we are still having to do outside of restoring our yards (for instance calling FEMA for the 50th time to see if that support money is ever coming!). If you lost your gardens, many plants may have had meaning to you on a personal level--you may have even lost memorial gardens or plants that were gifted to your by loved ones. If you have a lot of downed trees nearby, it's hard to deny the visual and visceral impact of that loss. Take time for these feelings.

• Remember to pace yourself and instead of rushing to have a perfect, finished landscape, take time to enjoy the planning and rebuilding. And while we encourage thoughtful planning so that you have success with your plants, we also encourage planting some things for immediate gratification and joy--planters, baskets, annual color--whatever brings you happiness and solace as you enter this new garden season!