Two Weeks in the May Garden

Truly, I have good intentions of posting more regularly. A few comments from readers would turn those intentions into more frequent posts you know!

How does this deer look to you? I happened to glance out the window in the middle of the day on the 14th and there she was grazing in my flowerbed. Wish she had eaten the weeds! A few days later I was out back and blundered into a weedy area en route to get a load of compost from my bin when I was suddenly startled by this very loud and unusual noise. It sounded as though I had stood on a dogs squeaky toy except the noise was amplified considerably - at first I was too afraid to even look at what had made the noise but once I had moved another few feet I turned to see. Lo and behold it was a very young fawn trying to scramble to it's wobbly feet and bleating with a loud sound similar to a lamb. Then I remembered that I had heard a deer in the undergrowth on my previous visit to the compost area. So I am putting two and two together here - is the deer above the mother?

 The iris bloom season was short this year despite a cool spring.

These pale lilac aquilegia (columbines) were planted in an effort to replace some lovely yellow ones which used to be in this garden. These ones are not nearly as pretty.

Volunteer pansy and violas cluster near the hose bib next to the front porch. They are seedlings from plants I had in pots on the porch a year or two ago.

 A few of the yellow aquilegia pop up here and there.

 There was much excitement on May 21st when I looked outside and saw our first hummingbird of the season. No, I was not that quick with the camera - no hummer in this photo! But I have been patiently waiting, watching and hoping since I set the feeder out at the beginning of April.

Last year I bought a peony plant at a going out of business sale. It had been in the pot a while when I bought it and I was not sure if it would make it through the winter much less bloom. But yes indeed it did reward me. I have had fun taking photos of this plant each day to record how the blossoms have come out. At peak I think I counted 8 blooms out. Such a pity the daisies are also in full bloom at the same time as it takes attention away from the peony.

This weekend I have been busy digging the heavy clay and roots in the front garden bed - this was the one that had the large laurel bushes that were taken out back in March. I wanted to loosen the soil and amend it with several barrow loads of compost before I planted out a selection of perennials. First I had to pull out many black eyed susans that have seeded all over the place and now disrupt my desired pink, white and blue color scheme. After this photo was taken I have put in some pink coneflowers, pink salvia (in front of the clematis under the frame in the corner) and blue scabiosa (pincushion flowers). Still to come will be some annuals - maybe blue salvia and ageratum or maybe I will head back to the garden center tomorrow. And then, to the right I need to add some compost and then put in a row of white echinacea (coneflowers) behind the new small bushes (boxwood and nandina) between the hollies.

It's as well it is a long weekend.

Scene in my garden yesterday

I keep meaning to post more photos from my spring garden but somehow the posting fairy never quite makes it here. Alas, those lovely photos of the later cherry blossoms and more will stay unpublished.

 The season has made a later start this year as compared to last. But here you can see that the lilac bush is fit to burst into bloom any day now. The dogwood tree is at the closeout of bloom and there is a natural confetti covering the grass in this area.

 Last year at the plant sale our small town garden club hosts each spring I purchased five lily of the valley plants that were labelled as being pink which is not the average color (white). So I have been waiting to see what they looked like. Only three have a bloom but I imagine they will take a year or two to get settled in.

The birds have been very active. This particular house has a very energetic chickadee spending days and days creating a nest. Yesterday there was so much nesting material that it was hanging outside when I took this photo but I noticed later it had all be taken and tucked inside.

The bridal veil spirea is in full bloom and living up to its name. In the foreground are a new peony in full bud and my white daisies that are in bud throughout the garden.

 The mint is in very vigorous growth and will have to be dealt with. Of course the rosemary bush on the opposite side of the walk also needs a lot of cutting back. The hummingbird feeder has been hanging there since the first week of April but I have yet to see any birds.

 On the driveway I have quite a holding area of plants in pots waiting to go into the garden. There are two different clematis and they really need planting out as this one is in bloom already.

That purple clematis is earmarked to go on this new trellis that is leaning against the front wall. But first I need to try painting that nasty white pipe to see if I can get it to disappear from obvious sight. Those liriope nearest to the walkway are from the original landscaping and I am not sure if they are going to stay in that position or not. Last weekend I bought five new bushes to fill in the space between  the two hollies at each end and they also need getting into the ground. But I'm playing dominoes here right now as before I can do any of these jobs another must be done first.

So to get the game underway I will go on out now and head to the paint shop.

Hopefully the weather will allow some painting and planting to be done this Mothers Day weekend.