There have been springs when we have been deluged with rain. There have been years when I was already hauling hoses in May. But this year we’ve been fortunate to have just the right amount of rain—not too much and not too little. I think the purple stuff here likes it too. Maybe we have been having purple rain.
The side fence wisteria is blooming, as are some of the peonies. (Why don’t I have more peonies?)
The baptisia I had to move from the front flower bed into the potager was threatening to die last year. I don’t think baptisia likes to be disturbed, but it has rallied and making a rather nice purple show now.
The irises are blooming, as are the foxgloves. Everything that isn’t green is purple.
I still have so much spring work to do and seem to be forever behind. I still have containers to fill and annuals to plant. There is the truckload of stone dust I need to buy and haul into the woodland garden. And this is the year—I hope—that I will finally install some kind of edging to separate the border beds from the paths in the potager.
For some reason making decisions about what to plant this year has been more difficult. Part of the reason is that I just haven’t had much time because work has been keeping me running. But I’m also weary of the same old, same old annuals I see at the local nursery. I am sick to death of petunias and marigolds and the like. It’s like getting up and wearing the same dress every single day. I need something new and exciting to break through my annual ennui!
Perhaps something purple.
(Click on the photo to see a larger version.)
Robin
My son, Benjamin, really knows how to get my blood boiling.
The other day we were sitting out on the back deck enjoying the warm sun and fresh air when he turned to me and said, “You know, your garden doesn’t look very good this year. Before there were lots more flowers and vegetables.”
To which I replied…
“What?!?!?! It’s only May! Not even Martha Stewart can make tomatoes produce in May.”
Wisteria blooms over the garden gate. By summer's end, the sweet autumn clematis will have reached up from the other side.
Still, he did have a point. I have been a bit slow to get things rolling here this spring. My attentions have been torn between work, house, cooking, animal husbandry, writing and a great deal of time exercising on the spinning bike, classes and my home yoga practice.
Thankfully, many flowers, herbs and fruits return on their own. I’ve added bedding plants from the nursery. But I still have a stock tank pond and some more vegetables and flowers to attend to.
The herb garden includes flowers--columbine for spring color and celosia once June arrives and to the end of the growing season.
Most of that will have to wait until after the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling that comes up next weekend in Chicago. I will work in new bed digging and some woods clearing between other business trips I have planned this summer.
Jubilee strawberries produce all summer long. A single bed is enough to keep us in strawberry shortcake and to eat for breakfast with Greek yogurt.
I am also making time to just sit still and appreciate what I’ve been given. I hope with all the busy-ness of gardening, you also have a beautiful place to sit and enjoy what you’ve created.
Wisteria also grows along the fence at the back of the garden. If you look closely, you can see a couple of asparagus stalks that have persisted even after tearing out the asparagus bed.
Robin
