May Garden | 2014

by Badgertails - Friday, June 06, 2014

Hello there and happy June!

As I'm sure you can tell I'm a little bit behind with this update! Over the last few weekends I have been getting the garden 'summer ready,' and have been putting in more bedding plants than I care to remember. It was a long job and naturally, as soon as I was finished, it rained solidly! So last weekend I finally got out in the garden to show you what's been happening throughout May.

I like this shot... This is my view from the kitchen window and it makes me grin everyday while making my morning tea! I can finally stand there staring into space and see that everything is tidy, and neat, and where it should be... Oh, the joy! After months of looking at it and frowning about what was left to do, I am now incredibly content!

So I'll start by showing you this amazing little area... It may not look like much, but it is my foodie patch. Inside that wooden border are lots of lovely little pea shoots, then the two grow bags are housing broad beans and cherry tomatoes. And if you look carefully to the left of the pea bed, you'll see a border of oregano, which is sitting there amongst mint, sage, chives and rosemary. Given that two months ago this area was a huge pile of rotting apples, I'm pretty much in love with this set up! I literally cannot wait to start harvesting the peas / beans / tomatoes when they're ready...

Something I am already harvesting is the herbs! The border in the foodie patch is actually the overspill of what I cut out to make these two herb window boxes, but I shall post more about those later.

So, anyway, onto the floral part of the garden...

Campanula

Fuschia 'Swingtime'

Allium

Dahlia 'Dahlietta'

Bush Rose 'Graham Bell'

Begonia

Sweet Alison 'Easter Bonnet'

Iris

Bush Rose 'Graham Bell'

Dahlia 'Dahlietta'

Aquilegia (Granny Bonnets)

Petunia and Lobelia

Trailing Rock Daisy

Allium

Dahlia 'Dahlietta'

This gorgeous one is my Birthday rose from last year. I have no idea what it's called unfortunately, all I know is that it's a climber and a beauty! It's given me more flowers than I've had time to admire already, and I'm so pleased these should keep coming all summer long.

It also reminds me of The Secret Garden. It's a novel I never read but always had an idea of it in my mind. That's probably what has laid the foundations for my dream garden, which would be partially surrounded by a tall brick wall with borders of scented tea roses and sweet peas.

I like having a little snippet of that dream in my garden now. It makes me feel like my dreams can be reached if I set my mind to it, and that I will be waltzing along a winding path beside my rose and sweet pea border in a white summer dress and floppy hat at some point in the future. Hopefully.

But here are the sweet peas, just in case!

I'm loving pansies right now. I got these because they were massively reduced and they pad out the border colour a little more.

Allium

Aquilegia (Granny Bonnets)

Petunia 'Monet'

Dahlia 'Dahlietta'

Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)

I'm pretty sure these are Snapdragons. They've both popped up in the fuschia pots so I have no idea when or where they came from. As I love Snapdragons I'm assuming I planted them either last year or the year before, and they've survived the winters. They've been a lovely surprise this year!

Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)

Sweet Alison 'Easter Bonnet'

Aquilegia (Granny Bonnets)

Dahlia 'Dahlietta'

Clematis

Bush Rose 'Graham Bell'

Forget-Me-Not

Aquilegia (Granny Bonnets)

Forget-Me-Not

This is the Hydrangea that was quite unhappy last summer, and subsequently only gave me two measly flowers! I moved her into this big barrel in March and she has grown like mad ever since! And last weekend I spotted lots and lots of these...

That, I believe, is a gentle promise of an abundance of flowers. I do hope so, anyway.

And this is where I intend to live this summer...

It's certainly where all my pots are living. Every single plant pot that I own is filled with colour and in this corner, and it makes it a really lovely place to be.