May Garden - 2nd Half - 2021

I'm not feeling inspired, so here are the pics.  When the mood strikes, I'll rearrange them and add commentary.  

 

May Garden - 1st Half - 2021 - A Riot of Color

 The colors of May are in your face.  The daffodils and tulips compete for your attention.

By May, the interesting daffodils have begun blooming - the multiples, the scented ones, the doubles.  They make for some delightful bouquets.

It is so nice to bring the sunshine into the house after a gloomy winter.

At the beginning of May, it is mostly daffodils.

Then the tulips begin and the forsythia blooms in the background.

The spiky dark thing in the middle of the ground is a peony.

In May the tulips provide a riot of color and the forsythia begins to fade.

Last year this frame was designed to provide support for the dahlias.

Tibetan prayer flags add whimsy.

Turns out, dahlias did not need support, so this year the frame will support sweet peas.

This is a new little square garden for strawberries and garlic.  Rabbits were eating the strawberry leaves, even with the garlic right there!!!  The dastards.  D has added fencing to discourage them.

Tomatoes will go in the rectangular garden near the hedge.

These forget-me-nots just appeared.  They are tiny.

The view from the bench in the side yard.

The foreground of the next picture shows the new "Cutting Garden".  At this point, there are dahlias planted that D grew from seed.

It will have all kinds of flowers to be brought into the house.

Plans now are for glads, lisianthus, snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, statice.

Beside the driveway is a bed of strawberries.  This was the original bed.  

There are now three more - one with the garlic, one against the south side of the house, and a few plants at the northeast corner of the house.

We have high hopes!  Last year the first strawberry was June 8.

Pulmonaria (Lungwort) has pink and blue flowers at the same time.

Horseradish is thriving.

At the end of April, the white rhododendron began to bloom.  I think it had only a couple of flowers last year, so we are delighted.

The white bleeding heart is taking off!  Check back next post to see it really thriving.

Gonna miss those daffodils.

April Gardens 2021

 After seeing our crocus, snowdrops, and our first daffodil in March, 2021, we were looking forward to lots of daffodils and tulips in April.  Mother Nature had an April Fools joke for us, and we got four inches of snow on April 1.

This is the view from the computer room window.  The tall circular cages protect the apple trees from deer.  The small ones along the hedge protect the hosta from deer and rabbits and woodchucks.

And there is a fence around the garden to protect the tulips from rabbits and woodchucks and deer.

We love having flowers in the house, so on April 7, some twigs were cut from the forsythia to force.

Our first daffodil bloomed on March 31 this year.  Our first small bouquet was April 10, and the forsythia twigs are blooming.

and by April 19, we were able to have flowers all over the house.

April 19 brought our first dandelion.  It is growing on a south-facing wall under the exhaust from the furnace, so it is early!  It is accompanied by some periwinkle.

The strawberries are in for a shock - they are blooming now!  

They can take some frost, but April is likely to have hard freezes.

These strawberries are everbearing, so it may not hurt their production this summer, but these blooms are unlikely to be successful.  It's still fun to see.

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Don't these look like they belong in a medieval tapestry?  This is Fritillaria, Crown Imperial.  It's about two feet tall, with a single flowering part at the top.  It grows from a bulb.  Fritillaria has the "advantage" of smelling like skunk.  This attracts carrion eaters, like flies, to pollinate them.  It also keeps deer and rabbits away.  And it makes them undesirable as a cut flower.

This flower is available in two colors - this orange and a yellow.

We got this bulb from Mrs. Wells in the 1980s, and it has multiplied so that when we sold the farm we were able to transplant some.  The bulb is fairly expensive, but we are considering getting some yellow ones, since we have never seen them in a garden.  These get planted, like daffodils and tulips, in the fall.

~:~

There are still lots of violets.

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The lungwort is blooming.   The blooms are pink and blue on the same stem!  The plant is pulmonaria.  I have read that it is named because the spotted leaves resemble diseased lungs.  And it is used for respiratory conditions.

"People take lungwort to treat breathing conditions, stomach and intestinal ailments, and kidney and urinary tract problems. Lungwort is also used in cough medicines, to relieve fluid retention, and to treat lung diseases such as tuberculosis."  WebMD

On April 19 we went for a drive to see what was blooming.  The forsythia is beautiful this year.  Coltsfoot has started and we were delighted to find bloodroot on Lower Ravine Road.

Is this hyacinth near the driveway lying down because of its weight or has a dog (who shall be nameless) trod here?

Mushrooms have started.

This last picture is a similar view to the one at the top of the page.  We are enjoying all the tulips and the variety of daffodils.  

The lilacs are budding, and they will bloom in May.  Alliums are poking up, and one allium has begun developing its flower head.  The rhododendron buds are plumping up.  Hostas and peonies are appearing.  The bleeding heart has buds, and the monkshood has a strong start.  The late tulips are beginning to show color.  There is always something to look forward to in a garden.

2021 Garden Pics

March

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.