Our Garden in May

This is a view from the back bedroom window on a very dull day.  Cloudy, sometimes wet and windy sums up the weather for this May, but rain has been good for the plants (and, of course, the weeds).  It seems as if everything has been late in flowering for this time of the year.  There have been a few hours when we've been out in the garden especially this last week when the weather has been less cold and the earth has been warmer to plant out pelargoniums that have been kept in the covered yard.  I managed to rescue a geum that I knew was getting crowded out by invasive weeds and I was pleased that it wasn't lost.

Another view of our neighbours' gardens.

This hawthorn tree is where the birds hang out and I've been pleased to see them come into our garden and swiftly grab dried mealworms from the bird feeders.  I expect they're feeding their young somewhere in the hedges and bushes.

Mr P cut the grass patch yesterday as up until then the lawn had to be left until the earth dried out. Here's one of the dandelions in a flower bed that got away when we were out weeding! 

Here is the orange geum 'Marmalade', the promise of things to come with the strawberries, the broad bean plants in the raised veg bed and the cauliflowers (planted underneath the olive tree).  You can just see the rain barrel which has a down pipe fed into it from the gutter of the extension room and, of course that filled up during the periods of rain.

The next door neighbour's lilac, aquilegias, purple geraniums, creamy white alliums in the planter and the bluebells (Spanish bluebells - the garden variety that I'm trying to weed out because they can be invasive) are in the above photo mosaic.

In the front garden there are pansies, self seeded poppies, wallflowers, red peonies that look colourful. The leaves on the grape vines are beginning to appear. The Spring bulbs are over and the magnolia has mostly dropped its petals, but the leaves are out and it still looks pretty growing in one corner. 

Most of the plants are still being tended by Mr P in the covered area and in the new greenhouse.  There are vegetables such as carrots, the nectarine tree, citrus trees, another olive tree, herbs, tomato plants and many pots of various flowers.   A lone lily-of-the-valley has one single stem of white bell flowers, but I'm pleased to see it. There are green beans waiting to be planted outside where Mr P has fixed up a structure of sticks on which they can climb.

I picked a few flowers from the garden to arrange on the dining room table.  The embroidered tablecloth featuring Summer flowers was finished off this month. I was given the unworked tablecloth and threads for Mother's Day 2020 so it has been my main lockdown embroidery project!  This month was a time mainly to stay indoors in the warm and work on sewing projects which I'll share with you next time.

Meanwhile, whatever the weather and whatever you're doing have a relaxing weekend and a good week ahead.  Thanks for visiting.

A Local Garden Centre Visit

It has been quite a while since we visited our local garden centre - in September, in fact, when I bought bulbs to plant out for the Spring garden season.  It was an overcast, cloudy Monday morning which was reflected in the colour of the water in the nearby reservoir.  However, everything looked verdant and the farm animals were out grazing on the surrounding hills.  There were patches of  hawthorn blossom in the now leafy hedges surrounding some of the fields. 

We needed a couple of bags of compost and as there's a one-way system to keep visitors from crowding one another Mr P loaded up a trolley in the yard beyond the entrance to the garden nursery.  (Thankfully he feels better in the mornings so it's a suitable time to venture out).  Apparently if we had only wanted compost or bags of stone or grit we could have paid for those without going right around the site instead of trundling the loaded trolley around and in and out of various garden rooms.  On our way around I took a quick look at the new items for sale. 

In the covered departments the emphasis is on Summer seating for the garden and ornamental items. The sound of running water from the numerous ornamental fountains was soothing to the ears and the greenery of the pot plants calming on the eyes.  

The café is now open with the option of sitting inside as well as in the secluded and quiet garden area where you're entertained by the birds hovering around the bird feeders in one corner so I'm sure we'll  visit again very soon.

I hope your week is going well.  Have a good day!