How a season at the shed actually runs
Spring is the loud season. The iris bed throws its first spikes in late February, and by March the bench is full before breakfast. We cut early, condition in cool water, and hold the surplus in the drying room so the vases do not crowd. This is when weekly bloom maintenance clients see the highest count, and it is also when we begin dividing clumps that bloomed heavily the year before.
Summer asks for a different discipline. The heat pushes growth fast and pushes blooms back, so the work shifts toward watering rhythm, mulch depth, and shade cloth on the most exposed beds. Container gardens get restyled with heat-tolerant fillers around June, and event work moves to the cooler edges of the day. We schedule tidy-ups in this window because a clean bed holds moisture better than a tangled one.
Fall is the reset. We lift and reset rhizomes, cut back spent perennials, and rebuild the plan for the coming spring. This is the best month to book a full seasonal garden design, because the beds are quiet enough to read clearly and the planting windows line up with cooler ground. Winter, short as it is here, is for the drying racks, the seed heads, and the slow repair of tools and vases that carry us into the next bloom.