Our Garden - May 2011

Our Garden - May 2011
May sees the disappearance of the bulbs but the arrival of the roses and lots of other flowers and blossom. The roses at the front of the house have been pretty amazing this year but there are a few in the back garden as well. The front ones always seem to come out earlier which seems odd to me because that's East facing so you'd think it would be colder.

The alstromaerias are the other "star of the show" at this time of year in the front garden and the paeony isn't shy either. Another strange observation is that our paeonies are always later flowering than Dad's in Yorkshire - very odd!

		The trees in the back garden are leafing up nicely. This year we've put our hostas into pots and replaced them with heuchera. We keep an eye on the hostas to try and keep the slugs and snails away. So far, so good (but that's possibly because it's been so dry this spring). The allium and California poppies are blooming well and I'm delighted to say some parts of the cistus survived the cold winter which was a nice surprise.


The cotinus is full of flowers and looking more like a smoke bush than ever and the self seeded nigella is scattered around the garden. Not sure what the white flower / blossom is called but the bush has yellow leaves and this year is full of blossom / flowers. The irises in the pond are doing well and haven't been attacked by the iris bugs yet. Hopefully that will continue to be the case. Last year the bugs stripped the leaves so we were left with funny spikes but no green.
		The hedge at the bottom of the garden is also full of colour this year with the pyracantha, the viburnum and the hydrangea all in full flower. The kerria that lives in this bed has already flowered (see April's page) and been cut back.
	Our "big" project this season was to replace the edging for the tree bed. We'd used some bamboo rolls as a temporary measure until we decided what to do. That was a couple of years ago and they were getting to be well past their best. Off we went to find something better and found some lovely Welsh slate at Polhill so chose the rocks we wanted and had them delivered. We placed them round the bed for fit then dug them all in. Heavy work but we're pleased with the finished result.

	Back to Gardens index Back to main index