Garden report - May

Yes we've had some glorious sunny weather during May and we've also had rain. The mix has been perfect for plants and except for having to be vigilant about late frosts this has been a fantastic month . . .

gardens are made in May . . .

There have been so many beautiful sights in the garden over the past four weeks – apple blossom, a waterfall of wisteria on the wall, the Crimson Flowered broad beans in the vegetable garden and our harvests of asparagus. However, this week we have had storms and a deluge of rain so the garden is a mass of lush growth heavy with rain drops.

The vegetable garden is bursting with growth – the greengage crop may be meagre but it looks as though we'll have a bumper crop of strawberries!


And here are the first purple pods of the 2008 season. These are Pea 'Purple Podded' grown from my home-saved seeds from last year.


The other peas are showing their individual characteristics – on the left 'Victorian Purple Podded', tall and elegant with distinctive blue-green foliage and on the right is 'Salmon Flowered', the stalks are thickening and a mass of bushy growth is appearing quite unlike any other pea I've grown before. I like to think that the walls around my garden have seen some of these heritage varieties before.
On the far left planted around a large wigwam are climbing bean 'Mrs Fortune's'. In the forground you can see the lovely neon green leaves of lettuce 'Black Seeded Samara' and dwarf bean 'Negritos'.


The plants around the wildlife pond are now dense and lush, a perfect home for frogs, toads and newts. The flowering of these gorgeous tall irises usually coincides with the emergence of the first dragonflies.


We've moved the little lemon tree from our bedroom and it's now on the patio, the scent from the flowers is unbelievably exotic!


I usually prefer to leave the flowers outside and walk among them to enjoy the colours and textures, but I have picked a branch of my favourite single red rose, rosa moyesii 'Geranium', some softly scented Dame's Violet, hesperis matronalis, and Ox-eye Daisies to put in the Dudson jug on the kitchen table (it celebrates the fact we have de-junked the table and have vowed to keep it that way!). From here we can sit and watch the Blackbird fly back and forth to her nest on the roof of the bird box among the Boston Ivy leaves on the wall.