The Flower Garden in MAY?!?!

I just realized that I did not post much about what was going on in the garden in May, other than the macro shots and morning light pics. I guess that’s what happens when you’re working full time and taking two classes (a digital garden photography class and a web design class). Here’s what was happening...

The azaleas started to bloom about the weekend before Mother’s Day.  I missed getting a shot of the other azaleas in the front yard, but here are two.

These azaleas are in the back yard by the shed/workshop.

After the azaleas, the white peonies bloomed in the front yard. I love the little pink splashes in the middle. Unfortunately, these got beat down by rains not long after I took these pictures.

I had posted some other photos of my purple Columbine. Here’s the one that’s a different shade than most that I have. I love these and I’m not really sure how/why they are different than the others.

 I love the pink blossoms against the dark leaves of the Midnight Wine Weigela.

I planted this Summer Wine Ninebark last year in the overgrown area that I had cleared out. I am amazed that these plants are doing so well when there was a giant tree trunk here that we had to get ground down. (I guess I like “wine” plants as much as I like wine!)

Speaking of the area that I had gotten cleared out last year...I discovered that the 2-3 foot area along the screened-in back porch is all GRAVEL. Yes, gravel. Try digging and planting in gravel! I guess it was put there for drainage. This really foiled my planting plans. I decided to go with some decorative planters instead – two tall and three short. The shorter ones contain boxwood to tie in with the boxwood in the Kitchen Garden and the taller ones contain Canna and variegated Ivy.

We have had this blackberry bush for a few years now and it never really produced berries. There was a lot of blooms on it this year, so I am hopeful that maybe, just maybe we’ll get berries this year. That is, if the birds don’t get them first. (I actually just checked this today and I DO see LOTS of berries forming!) This is actually in the Kitchen Garden by the neighbor’s (unfinished) fence.

This is the area that I refer to as the “secret garden.” It’s kind of hidden by the side of the greenhouse. I have had LOTS of troubles getting anything to grow in this area over the years due to poor light, soil, and drainage, but have finally had some success.

The climbing hydrangea and pink rose on the arbor were both gorgeous this year, however, I don’t have a great picture showing them. You can kind of see them here behind the Weigela and catmint.

This is another view of the flower garden and arbor.

The flower garden seen from the very back corner of the yard.

The roses were blooming really nicely starting the end of May through the beginning of June. Then we had a few days of heavy rain and they aren’t quite as pretty as before. Here’s a pink rose and catmint. All of the neighborhood cats love the catmint.

This is a David Austin Abraham Darby rose.

This is another David Austin rose, but yellow. I can’t remember the name right now...chalk it up to getting old!

Pink roses and purple spiderwort.

The Siberian Irises were lovely at the end of May. These are a division from some I had planted at my mom’s house. They have spread really quickly.

The herb garden near the back porch door. Usually the mint is the main thing in this area. This year the lemon balm seems to be taking over. I think I need to help out the mint. I must have mint for my iced tea and mojitos!

This robin follows me all over the yard whenever I am outside. When I weed or put out the sprinkler, he gets lots of worms and grubs, so I guess he’s pretty smart to follow me. Unfortunately, it looks like he pooped on Mr. Wiggles.

So what’s going on in June? Well, so far it has been mainly the roses. The hydrangeas are beginning to flower, though. More to come...hopefully I can get them posted before July!