“Pandemic Gardeners” Four Years on in Rhode Island

05.08.2024 - 04:10 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor

Happy Monday GPODers!

As I’m sure most of us remember, when we were all encouraged to stay at home during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic just a few years ago, countless people went to their yards to plant gardens for the first time in years or for the very first times in their lives. This sparked a whole new wave of gardeners and growers who got bit by the gardening bug and still obsess over their new plants to this day. Two such gardeners are Kim Arcand and her husband, who recently shared the garden progress they have made since 2020:

My husband and I became “pandemic gardeners” in northern R.I. in 2020 since we found ourselves at home for long stretches of time. Our backyard had been a bit of a wasteland previously as we had primarily been occupied with raising our two children (weekends at the soccer field), our broader family, friends, travel, etc. We were starting almost from scratch, and with little experience. In 2020 we focused on hardscaping with a pergola, patio, stoned pond, and gravel path with stepping stones. Then over the next few years we worked (and still are working) on filling in with the flora.

Our yard is heavily wooded with maple, oak and pine trees, so it is mostly shade, with lots of critters, mostly acidic soil, some erosion issues from a dramatic slope down to a wetland. I dove in like a scientist to figure out what might work best in that environment in temperamental New England weather. We broke our back yard space down into 5 rooms – a secret garden tucked into the back corner (and which has the most sun but is still partial sun), our deck and patio gardens (partial shade), a pond garden (partial shade), and a deep shade garden. Our front and side yards have a small greenhouse area