Gardening Tips for Your Best Nantucket Garden

Spring on Nantucket is questionable at best – our beloved Grey Lady loves to toy with sudden peaks and dips in temperature, high winds and lots and lots of rain, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about the mighty possibilities of your summer garden. In fact, it’s just the right time to start. So follow along as we highlight some tips for growing and maintaining your best Nantucket garden yet.

Start Plants Indoors (or Buy Plants)

Nantucket’s growing season is shorter than most, so starting your typical garden favorites like tomatoes and peppers outside from seed won’t allow enough time for them to produce a harvest. This is why starting seeds inside (or purchasing plants from any of our local nurseries) will help create that prolific garden of your dreams. Quick to germinate veggies like cucumbers, summer squash and beans can however be grown from seed due to their rapid development! When in doubt, be sure to check the back of a seed pouch for all the information regarding growth timelines and more, and remember, Nantucket’s USDA hardiness zone is 7b.

Use Raised Beds for Vegetables

Nantucket’s soil can be overly dry or too wet, sandy and acidic, but you can create the perfect growing environment for your vegetables with raised beds. Added bonus: raised beds maintain a warmer temperature than the ground, meaning your garden will do just that much better this summer.

Diversify Your Beds

Planting a combination of veggies, flowers and herbs not only creates a cottage garden aesthetic, but stagers peak growth and harvest times throughout the season. Before you begin, however, we recommend planning out your garden – nothing fancy required, just a piece of paper and pencil – and mentally prepare for what will be best suited and where. Keep in mind the shifting sunlight throughout the season, proximity to water and more.

Start Small

Even the most prolific gardeners started at square one, so be patient and forgiving of both your plants and you! If you’re new to gardening, we recommend getting familiar with easy to grow varieties like succulents, lettuce, and cherry tomatoes, all relatively easy to maintain in our diverse summer climate. Garden is definitely a learning process that requires time and patience, so just remember to start small, take it slow, and most of all, remember to have fun!