SENSATIONAL MAY!

 A good year for my Viburnum and iris in the driveway bed. The Viburnum "Watanabe" was supposed to be about 5' tall but it likes it here and is now about 7' and growing! 

 Above is "Before The Storm" and below is "Skating Party." These are descendants of my original iris from Cooley Iris Farms in Silverton, Oregon...no longer in business but I have kept these rhizomes going since about 1994.   

 Above, a closer look at my Viburnum, loaded with blossom clusters. Below the iris "Skating Party" enjoying the mild "May gray" weather.

MY HEART'S DESIRE...OR MUM'S DAY COMES EARLY!

 I've been wishing for a garden gate since we built the arbor in the backyard. It just looked unfinished to me and I wanted more separation from the ornamental garden into the "working garden." So I prevailed upon my under-gardener to help me realize my "heart's desire" (when it comes to gates...)     Below is the "before."

We built the frame in the driveway using some leftover boards from a long ago fence. Jack used metal plates to attach the pieces. 









We attached the fence boards with screws and ripped them in half except for the ends and the middle board. Next we cut an arc at the top to give it some style. 

 I'm using my favorite garden paint, Miller Storm in "Boxwood" which is a slightly blue-green color. I gave it about 3 coats in all. Then we attached the hinges and a diagonal rod with a turnbuckle to keep it from sagging.

 It couldn't have turned out any better! I love it!

SPRING SPRUNGING

 Even with cool temps, rain showers and o'cast skies, it didn't stop the muscari, tulips, iberis, veronica and ferns from doing their thing

Looking north from the perennial garden into the rose and veggie garden beyond the arbor and "O" red maple. 

NEVER ENDING GARDEN SURPRISES!

  Practically the only annual I bother with is Alyssum. It is just a lowly ground cover but it fills in nicely and blooms all summer long. I pot up the baby plants from their nursery jumbo paks and let them grow for about a month in the cold frame. This nice sunny morning  I ran out to the garden to lift the lid on the cold frame to vent it and my nose was overwhelmed with the scent of honey and vanilla from these little wonders! Gee, they really do have a fragrance! 

 The grafted tomato plants were delivered from Territorial Seed just 2 days ago. I left them on the kitchen counter overnight and they doubled in size! Here they are in the greenhouse, potted up and they've grown up and need stakes already. The larger plant is the wonderful slicer "Legend" and the smaller one is the double grafted Brandywine on one side and German Yellow on the other. I buy grafted plants because the hardy root stock they use is resistant to most of the viruses that plague tomatoes. 

 The geraniums are blooming their fool heads off...don't they know it's not summer yet? I guess since the geenhouse gets up to 100 degrees on sunny days, they're very happy to flower. It's time to throw the shade cloth over the greenhouse roof and lower the solar gain to 80 degrees!

My under-gardener was pressed into service yet again today to use the trusty truck to haul some big bundles of goodness home from the Grange...6 bags @ 3 cubic feet each of raised bed potting mix and Happy Frog top dressing. I have given up saying, " That's all that I'll probably need for this year!" He knows better, even if I believe it every time that I say it! Oye!

IT'S IN THE MAIL!

We live in a rural area and mail theft is a reality. Here my under-gardener, "Have Gun Will Travel" Ashcraft, is showing off our new locking and much sturdier mailbox, complete with custom numbering and design. A little "artsy fartsy" never hurts! 

GARDENING DRIVEL...

 Our newspaper, in the Sunday edition, has a local gardening columnist who evidently thinks that we of the gardening persuasion need to be exposed to the writings of so-called gardening gurus/experts. This latest column featured a book by a male garden writer who exhorted us  to "leave your egos at the garden gate" and to be "socially responsible."
  
What a load of bat guano!

When I'm in the garden, I'm worried about what needs doing and keeping my plants happy. I'm NOT worried about my ego or what the neighbors will think! My garden has the style that reflects ME without any other considerations and I don't call that "ego." 
I garden to get away from thinking about the idiot child in the White House or any other social ills. I can listen to the birds tweet, the dogs bark and the neighbor starting his ancient lawn mower. 

Since gardening is my hobby, I tend to want to enjoy it and also enjoy reading about it. That means some HUMOR should be included! Unfortunately, all we get from our local columnist is lecture after lecture. Obviously she never read any garden columns written by Dulcy Mahar, the Oregonian's garden writer for 28 years!   

Oh, well, on to more important things...like continued plant lust. 

I get tortured daily by yet more garden and plant catalogs. I try to ignore them...really, I do...but this one from Oakes Daylilies found me at a weak moment because I was, at that very moment, wondering about what happens in my garden AFTER the full flush of spring blooms? 

Usually, just about NOTHING happens until the second flush of rose bloom. 

That's due in part to my dislike of most annuals (geraniums and alyssum excepted). I can't abide those stiff little marigolds or petunias that always get worms. So this catalog reminded me that daylilies DO bloom in the summer and could rescue my garden from the summer doldrums. 

I placed an order with Oakes (located in Corryton, Tennessee!) I ordered a collection of shorter ones (18"-24" tall) since I plan to put them in pots and move them around in the garden to their (and my) best advantage and fill in where needed. The colors will range from cream, yellow, pink, apricot, and white with purple centers. Of course they all have names like Miss Tinkerbell, Little Grapette, Happy Returns, Cranberry Baby, and the one above called Pandora's Box. 

Now it's off to the garden center...Let's see, how many more pots will I need? 

IT TAKES THREE...

 Because the garden is still wet and we keep having snow showers, the only thing to do when you are infected with "gardenitus" is look for pots and plants! The nurseries and garden centers are still mostly deserted because you need a warm jacket, gloves and a nice hot Styrofoam cup of latte to roam around in the chilly days of early spring. It was easy enough to find the three dwarf boxwood (buxus) but finding three pots the same color and the same size...not so much! 

Maybe I was just too early in the season, although there were new pot styles at the garden center. Lots of nice Vietnamese and Malaysian ones (along with the cheapo made in China ones that I ignore). Luckily I found my garden center lady who brought out another pot to match the two that I had picked out (Malaysian). They don't put all of them out at once due to space limitations.
 So my plan is to make a birdbath focal point using pots at the base. Now I only need three more matching pots in a different color from these to place between them. I'm thinking geraniums or daylilies in maybe green or blue pots...