{"id":333,"date":"2015-06-03T06:51:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T06:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/?p=333"},"modified":"2021-02-24T05:23:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T05:23:50","slug":"the-end-of-may-and-im-clinging-to-the-last-days-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/03\/the-end-of-may-and-im-clinging-to-the-last-days-of-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of May and I’m Clinging to the Last Days of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\u00a0<\/a>\n

I\u2019ve gotten so behind in gardening that I have to keep telling myself there is still time.\u00a0 Thankfully, my brother came by on Saturday and helped me catch up on a few things.<\/p>\n

$\"IMG_2559\"$ <\/a>One of the main things I hadn\u2019t done yet was to uncover one of the veggie raised beds and plant it.\u00a0 Brother Tim helped me with that, and Leon helped screw the rotting boards back together to last one more season.\u00a0 We pulled the leaves off it that had been there all winter\/spring and then I added some organic fertilizer and we planted some seeds.<\/p>\n

Sorry for the overexposed photo, but the sun was out\u2013SHOCKING!\u00a0 We planted beans, pumpkins, crookneck, and round zucchini squash, along with calendula and endive in the small bed.\u00a0 Granted, it is late to get things started, but I am hopeful that the warm soil and great weather will move the plants along quickly and we\u2019ll get some surprises late in the season.\u00a0 This is the first year I haven\u2019t started or grown tomatoes at all\u2013such a tragic addiction\u2026<\/p>\n

We have clouds today, but no real rain.\u00a0 I\u2019m having to water everything already\u2013pots at least twice a week and garden once a week.\u00a0 With the declared WA draught, I\u2019m unsure how long I\u2019ll be allowed to water things, but I\u2019m trying to keep everything going\u2026<\/p>\n

I planted about two dozen kinds of seed, as well, with Tim\u2019s help.\u00a0 Most are perennials destined for the orchard garden.\u00a0 I transplanted the red alpine strawberries, too\u2013had about 15 of them.<\/p>\n

Below are a bunch of photos just to show what\u2019s going on in the `garden\u2013not much narrative here and lots of pictures, but I\u2019ll add what I can at a later date.<\/p>\n

This is one of the Oriental Poppy \u201cPizzicato\u201d series that I grew from seed close to 20\u00a0 years ago.\u00a0 I neglect these and they are surrounded by the thuggish Dracocephalum (unknown species), and yet they bloom every year.\u00a0 And there $\"DSC04058\"$ <\/a> are some great colors.\u00a0 These are some of the seeds I started Saturday, just to get some new Pizzicatos going for other areas of the garden.<\/p>\n

$\"IMG_2563\"$ <\/a> $\"IMG_2560\"$ <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can see how the dracocephalum is crowding around the poppy.\u00a0 But they have fresh, bright foliage and sprightly, cute, blue flowers.<\/p>\n

Here is a close-up of the Dracocephalum:<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04060\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Another color in Pizzicato:<\/p>\n

$\"IMG_2564\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"DSC04091\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

A bee visiting the polemonium.<\/p>\n

Another poppy\u2013I believe this is Papaver atlanticum.\u00a0 This is a happy reseeder and is\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0always welcomed in my spring garden.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04089\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Campanula persicifolia\u2013goes great with the poppy above.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04088\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Below is a surprise!\u00a0 It is Nicotiana langsdorfii.\u00a0 I grew these from seed maybe 15 years ago and they persisted for a few years and then died out.\u00a0 Somehow, one started up in a pot in the greenhouse randomly last year, and I potted it on thinking it was N. alata, which I have had in the greenhouse for several years.\u00a0 I was very surprised when the plant I set out in the orchard garden bloomed with these beautiful chartreuse flowers!<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04086\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Below is the inside-out flower, Vancouveria, which I have planted in the Douglas fir bed.\u00a0 It is thriving now that the meddling hardy geranium has been rooted out of that bed.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04084\"$ <\/a> $\"DSC04082\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"DSC04081\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Another great campanula\u2013poscharskyana.\u00a0 I have this one in several places.<\/p>\n

Here is a close-up of the Cheddar pink, Dianthus gratianopolitanus<\/span>.<\/a>\u00a0 The flowers are lovely, but the spicy fragrance is what keeps me coming back.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04079\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Another fragrant beauty\u2013Hesperis matronalis Alba\u2013this one reseeds, as well, and I\u2019ve kept it going for about five years.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04078\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Yet another reseeder\u2013Lychnis coronaria.\u00a0 I\u2019m a sucker for these incredibly generous plants\u2013bright and boisterous and so very easy.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04074\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"DSC04073\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"DSC04062\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I often think herbs are wasted on us, as we don\u2019t cook often and forget that we even have them!\u00a0 But I am a sucker for salvias, and the classic herb sage is in that tribe, and is lovely in bloom, which no one ever tells you!<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04072\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Here is a fun plant\u2013Chinese Golden Podded Peas!\u00a0 These are especially easy to harvest, as the pods are so easy to see, and they taste great.\u00a0 Our dogs are huge fans, which means we only get about 1 in 10 of the peas!<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04070\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

A lovely rhody in the woodland garden.\u00a0 Many people feel rhodies are overused in our area, but it is tough to argue against them in May when they are in their glory!<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04069\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

A pair of this lavender rhody resides under our living room picture window.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they are much too large to live there comfortably and we prune them within an inch of their lives every year.\u00a0 I have big plans to move them when I redo the front yard and get them out away from the house where they can grow to their hearts content.\u00a0 After last year\u2019s pruning, we only got two blooms!<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04068\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a huge fan of hybrid roses, but we have a few around the yard.\u00a0 This is the floribunda \u201cEuropeana\u201d, and it is a lovely, pure red.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04064\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"DSC04067\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Below is the delicate flower of one of my favorite hardy geraniums\u2013G. nodosum.\u00a0 The leaves of this variety are shiny, unlike any other leaf in the garden, and they really shine in part shade.\u00a0 Beware, though, that this delicate beauty has a hidden agenda:\u00a0 territory expansion.\u00a0 And given the right conditions, it will seed rampantly.\u00a0 It is not difficult to weed out, and I have not found it to be invasive in my garden, but a friend\u2019s garden to whom I \u201cgifted\u201d this plant was quickly overrun.<\/p>\n

$\"DSC04063\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Leon\u2019s labor of love\u2013the pond in the woodland garden.\u00a0 He has struggled mightily to get the water to be clear.\u00a0 I\u2019m embarrassed that I am the gardener and yet the prettiest place in the yard is the woodland garden and pond that he manages!<\/p>\n

\u00a0 $\"IMG_2562\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 I\u2019ve gotten so behind in gardening that I have to keep telling myself there is still time.\u00a0 Thankfully, my brother came by on Saturday and helped me catch up on a few things. One of the main things I hadn\u2019t done yet was to uncover one of the veggie raised beds and plant it.\u00a0 … Continue reading The End of May and I’m Clinging to the Last Days of Spring<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9785,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/9785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}