The Spring Gardens

After a long day of work in the gardens, I picked up my camera and took a walk to document where I am for the middle of May.  Somethings are doing really well while others are off to a slow start. (click any pic to enlarge)

The bugs are out and something is nibbling on my petunias.  Flowers must look like candy to certain insects.

Dianthus are blooming already.  These survived outside all winter.

I pluck the buds off of all of my geraniums every few days so that they will fill out before they bloom.  They have done wonderfully and I am now about to let them show their flowers, just in time for Memorial Day.  

Boxwood trimming will be happening soon. Here you can see my climbing hydrangeas growing among my boxwood and they are about to bloom.

 

We seeded the upper lawn earlier this year and it did so well that we are now working on the area around the pool. It's a bit difficult to do this when you have fat little puppy paws stomping on it.

I'm working to get the top to match the bottom.

I wintered over all of my herbs in the garage and now they need to be cut back because they are all starting to bloom.

My husband cut out some old stumps by our fountain and I am using these 3-tiered planters in the empty spots.  I'm trying to decide what I want to plant below the ferns.

And down to the lower garden.  It is filling in quickly.

I've been working on the gazebo and am almost ready to furnish it.

I planted ferns in each short area between the posts.  They haven't come up yet.

I planted hostas between the other areas.  This year they will look a little sparse but next year they should fill in nicely.

There aren't many areas where I'm not planting. This is part of where the cottage garden will eventually be.

This is Persian Ivy growing up an old tree trunk with a bird house at the top.

The raised bed is planted with tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, zucchini and cucumbers so far.

I've been planting more 'lilies of the valley' and roses around the potting shed.

I've added ferns and some black pussy willows around the witch shed.  It's quite a challenge planting around the root system down here.

My arborist is coming tomorrow to help me figure out how to bring more light into this area.

We are removing lots of limbs from the main trees down here. I have a big project happening here hopefully by the end of the summer.  It is still in the planning stages.

I'm still working on the perrons.  I am happy to see that I have both sweet william and wild strawberries growing across many of these steps.

This is the entrance to the gazebo as you walk back up to the upper garden. As I was planting it, I dug up sandstone pavers that have been buried for years.  I will use them to create a path from the perrons to the gazebo.

The path back to the mother ship.