Here are some views of my garden in early May:
Front Entry Border - This small wedge between the front walk and house is sunny, hot, and dry. At the moment it's got allium, catmint, purple sedum, dwarf spruce, thyme, dianthus, lysimachia, and geranium sanguineum in it. I'd like to add something taller to give it more height at some point (a climbing rose perhaps?), and need more bushy things to hide dying tulip and allium foliage.
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| Allium 'Globemaster', Nepeta 'Dropmore Hybrid', Picea abies |
Side Shady Border - This long narrow strip under the eaves in my side yard is dry and shady. It is currently home to bleeding heart, bergenia, ferns, hellebores, polygonatum, a dwarf oakleaf hydrangea, canadian ginger, heucherella, heuchera, and astilbe. (The astilbe needs to be moved to a moister spot - last year it shriveled up and I thought it was a goner for sure!) There are also daffodil and hyacinth bulbs. I need to add more height here as well - I may try to persuade a euonymous to climb a small trellis, and perhaps add some wood spurge. (By the way, all of those rocks were dug out by me when preparing the beds!)
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| Blooming: Narcissus 'Thalia', Bergenia cordifolia 'Winterglow', Dicentra spectabilis |
Back Patio Border - There is a raised bed around the patio lined with large stones. (I didn't dig these out though - they were already there, whew!) This area gets a bit of sun and has average moisture. It has columbine, phlox subulata, heuchera, some garish yellow hosta, lamium, astilbe, sedum, tradescantia, and stokesia. There are still lots of gaps here because this is one of the rabbits' (many) favorite snacking posts. There are small shrubs at the back which will hopefully one day be visible above the hosta!
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| Blooming: Aquilegia, phlox subulata |
The weeds growing in and under the rocks here drive me bonkers - impossible to pull, and almost no "real" plants will grow there. Have had a bit of success getting some thyme to establish, but it's still mostly weeds.
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| Aquilegia, Phlox subulata, Hosta, Lamium 'Orchid Frost' |
Veggie Garden - Here is my veggie garden in early May: arugula, spinach, radishes, peas, broccoli, and lettuces are maturing, while a variety of Asian greens are just coming up. Tomatoes are growing away happily in their Kozy Coats. Snails are of course eating my beets - sigh. We had very cold weather and slow growth in April, but I'm hoping things will start popping in May!
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| Veggie Garden early May 2012 |
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| Emerging senposai, bok choi, mustard greens |
Hi. I am finally catching up with you. I love your alliums. Mine are just starting to bloom, but a couple didn't make it back this years. Nor have we planted much in the vegetable garden. Your's looks quite healthy. Happy gardening.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann! This is the first year for these alliums - I'm not sure if they will return at all here. Tried to pick a hot dry spot for them, so fingers crossed!
DeleteRebecca, the violet alliums are my favorite.Nice starting of may!
ReplyDeleteThank you, they are my daughter's favorite too!
DeleteEverywhere I go, I see and admire the "Thalia' narcissus. So understated and pretty! Your veggies are much further along than mine, which are still wishful thinking. LOL I haven't planted a single seed yet! I also visited the last post to see your tree peony. 5-7 years is a long wait, but gosh it really looks like patience pays off! I have lots of peonies, but no tree peonies. I have to say that I was surprised how small your tree peony is. I though tree peonies were huge??
ReplyDeleteYes I love Thalia! I need more green in the background to show her off more.
DeleteMy tree peonies are still "babies", so the plants are very small. Eventually they might get to be 6-8 feet. These are Chinese tree peonies, which get larger than most Japanese ones. The Japanese ones generally have larger flowers though! I love all types of peonies...
I can't get enough of these tree peonies. I came over via Masha's blog, and wanted to tell you that, in my experience, William Shakespeare 2000 is fairly BS resistant in Charleston, SC. We are badly prone both spring and fall to BS, but wanted to mention that our July and Augusts are so hot that it wipes it out for a few months, a brief reprieve of sorts (though it wipes out the roses too!) There are several DAs that I have that do very good: Sharifa Asma, and Heritage, are nearly BS free with basically one spray a year in mid October in our worst BS month, if I'm not too lazy by then. I understand that Scepter d'Isle also in a healthy one as far as BS is concerned.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing your different planting areas. You have kept up with weeding your vegetable garden better than I have. I have a whole bunch of verbena bonariensis and other things coming up, almost like a carpet that I have been fighting. Plus, I have way more marigolds coming up from last year's plants than I have room for.
ReplyDeleteYour catmints look so healthy and I love the alliums. Have not tried them (alliums) before but the "drumstick" ones might be pretty mixed in with my nepetas and lavenders.
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