Is May over already?!?

How can that be?  By the end of May, the gardens are planted and mulched, and it’s time to make elderflower syrup and enjoy the June roses with feet propped up, or leisurely strolling the gardens, admiring all the work done during that brief week or two that is lovely and nearly weed free.

This year, nary a garden is mulched, although most of the planting of the main gardens is finished until spring crops come out, or I decide tackle that new Cutting Garden plan.  Although the weather hasn’t cooperated in terms of my job list, the plants that are in the gardens are proceeding on their own timely fashion, and behaving quite well.  So here’s how they look as May ends.  Let’s begin in the potager:  The East half is filling in nicely.    See those peas on the left?  They have LOTS of pods  (Little Marvel)  that will soon be filling with luscious sweet peas for shelling.  Second bed up on left looks a bit bare in the middle.  That’s because yesterday the last of the radishes were harvested, and baby pepper plants went in.  They will fill all the space before long.  The beets are changing fast and the onion sets are ready to use.  There are blocks of spinach, arugula, and rows of beans. In fact, the third bed up on the left is Royal Burgundy beans and if you look closely below you’ll see the first purple bud!  I’ll soon be picking beans 🙂  Here’s the west half of the potager.  The garlic looks great (9 varieties) and the broccoli is really growing fast.   On the trellis, the Parisian cucumbers are just beginning to climb.   And we’ve already been harvesting lots of lettuces, especially tasty is this Red Romaine.  We’re eating the thinnings.    And happily, the frozen, blackened potatoes have totally recovered.   The interior borders are all planted with a mixture of herbs, edible flowers and veggies.  Here’s a lovely new allium nigra that is filling in nicely after the tulips faded.  The potager exterior borders are beginning to show color again after the last of the spring bulbs departed.    My favorite new plant this season is the Montego Orange Bi-color snapdragon, a sweet little dwarf.    And the clematis on the entrance arbor is really showing off.  The “Lorraine” heliopsis will soon be in bloom:   It’s nearly white leaves always make people stop and stare.  The deck planters have been planted:   and also the rail planters   And here’s a bit of the Deck Garden:    The May Queen Shastas still look great, and the eremurus are nearly ready to open.  In the Front Island, the Polka Dot Polly Foxgloves are just beginning to open in front of a clump  of milkweed.  And that, gentle readers, is a bit of the progress since last month.  The season is pushing forward despite all the rain.  Our forecasters say June could be cooler than normal.  Glad I haven’t yet set the basils into the garden.  They are still snug in the greenhouse.  I suspect the first pesto of the season will be a bit late this year 😦  Good thing I have an ample supply in the freezer!

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