If last month’s predominant colour was yellow, May in our garden has a far more varied palette with blues, purples, reds, white, pinks, yellow, and of course plenty of lush fresh green. What a difference a few weeks makes. When I look back at April it seems another lifetime away (and not just from a gardening point of view either). So anyway, welcome to my regular garden update in the last month of Spring. And let’s take a look at what’s thriving in our garden this month, and what jobs need attention.
What’s flowering this May?
May bulbs
At some point in the last couple of years I must have got an exceptionally good deal on a bulk buy of iris bulbs because they are EVERYWHERE now. In pots, in beds, and in any spare patch of earth. Not that I mind, I think their gorgeous blue and yellow goblets are so striking.
And the violet irises blend beautifully with the yellow of the wild Welsh poppies and the purple tipped Briza Maxima grasses in my flower beds. Even if the latter are taking over a little right now… I love growing grasses though, they make such brilliant foliage fillers and are great for cut displays in a vase too.
Sadly, the same cannot be said of the solitary blue Camassia in the orchard. We used to have a lot more but something has obviously happened to them over the last couple of years. Although, looking on the bright side, that means some more bulb shopping at Gee Tee Bulbs this Autumn 🙂
Our purple globe alliums are coming back again and in a couple more weeks’ time should be out in their full glory. Alliums are like giant chives but please don’t eat them, you’ll make yourself very ill! And we have some in all shapes and sizes too: the large purple globes, enormous white globes, and pretty little pink clusters that I love putting with grasses in a vase. Tip: add a drop of bleach to the water to get rid of their onion smell.
May perennials
May in our garden is when our beautiful clematis Montana Mayleen are in their full glory, carpeting the wall and pergola with their satin pink blooms and bronze foliage. And wafting their almond and vanilla fragrance as you walk past. I planted both as little 30cm plants some years ago, and now look at them. This variety can easily take over if you don’t keep on top of the pruning – oops…
And other plants that take over if you give them half a chance are our native aquilegias, aka Granny’s Bonnet or Columbine. Some gardeners loathe them and rip them out whenever they see any. Others adore them and encourage them to self-seed at will.
Personally I love their clover-shaped leaves and the plethora of colours and shapes. We have pink, white, purple, crimson, pale yellow, blue, and mixed scattered everywhere. They’re such easy plants to grow: happy in sun, shade, damp or dry soil. My perfect Spring flowers.
It’s hard to believe they’re all related, isn’t it? And nearly all of them are self-sown, flowering wherever their seeds fell after I collected and scattered it last year.
This is my favourite, a cheeky purple interloper in my greenhouse that I haven’t the heart to uproot!
It’s a little early for roses but we have a few blooms on our pale pink rambler and my beloved white Madame Alfred Carriere. Regular readers may remember I took a cutting of this rose a while ago. And managed to grow an entire new plant, which is now flourishing down in Flora’s garden, yay!
And lastly, we have our gorgeous Viburnum Opulus Roseum, (aptly nicknamed Snowball bush), at the front of the house and the creamy, frothy self-seeded Rowan tree by the ponds.
May annuals
I’ve already mentioned the proliferation of yellow Welsh poppies everywhere, which are very bright and welcoming. But our orange calendula made it through the entire winter and is now flowering again (normally you sow fresh seeds for new plants each year). I’ve said before orange is not my favourite colour but I have to admire this one! Alongside her we have some self-seeded blue borage. Tip: you only need to sow borage once, you’ll never get rid of it again after that…
Flora is looking forward to harvesting both edible flowers soon for salad garnishes and ice cube decorations.
May food
Technically speaking, none of our fruits are edible yet, but barring any unforeseen cold snaps or gales, we should be able to look forward to some bumper harvests later this year. Rhubarb crumble will be on the menu shortly, and I hope to make raspberry jam this year too.
And we have our very first baby gooseberries (why Alan bought this plant is a mystery as none of us like the wretched things). Fortunately, the strawberry plants have survived being squashed by Ginger, who likes lying in our strawberry bed.
Our stalwart and loyal Victoria plum tree (which makes delicious plum jam) has a good looking crop, and both the cherry trees are looking pretty healthy too. Both our cherry trees were Poundstore purchases a few years ago. We had no clue what we were doing, we just bought them and planted them. But it seems to have worked.
While our tiny kiwis are never going to win me any prizes, they are very juicy and refreshing. And our pears are extremely tasty, they go beautifully with a hunk of Cheddar or Stilton. Both these trees came from the Poundstore too, incidentally. You really don’t have to spend a lot of money on plants as long as you’re willing to be patient 🙂
Last but absolutely not least is our fabulous apple tree. We’ve never been able to identify her, she’s a very early fruiter, usually around mid-August. And by mid-September all the apples are over. They’re slightly pink skinned and fleshed, crisp, juicy and a little fizzy. And utterly delicious. As you can see from the size of the tree, we’re hoping for another prolific harvest <grin>
Outdoor garden jobs for May
May in our garden is another busy month for Alan with grass cutting now a weekly job. Although he’s having to mow around the leftover greenery from the Spring bulbs until the end of this month, as well as the odd patch of daisies. And he’s also built me two new raised beds as I’m going to try my hand at vegetables again this year. I’ve not had much success in previous years and I’m hoping this month is not a harbinger of future progress. The unexpected cold winds and night-time temperatures have just killed off my newly-planted out French beans so I’ll have to start again <sob>. And I want to try some sugar snap peas too as we eat them raw by the bucket load.
In the meantime, my outdoor jobs include deadheading, pruning, tying in, direct sowing (sowing seeds outside in the soil) and watering. Ah, watering. How to lose an hour at a time in one easy step.
Indoor garden jobs for May
Do you recall my baby tomatoes and cucumbers from last month? Well, what a difference a few weeks in the greenhouse has made. They’re nearly ready to go into gro-bags now – hopefully the garden centres should have some in stock soon. Compost has been like black gold recently.
My January sown sweet peas are planted out and, looking at the state of the March sown sweet peas, it won’t be long before they join them. Another success story: the three edible pelargonium cuttings taken from the parent plant I’d had for years are now transplanted to an outside pot. We should be able to have some pelargonium tea soon, fingers crossed.
The feathery pink and yellow cosmos seedlings are doing well (the white never germinated so time to chuck out that seed), as are the lavender seedlings. I’ve been rather overwhelmed by all the purple petunias I have to prick out though, so I’ve been putting that job off! Tip: when you prick out, hold your seedling by the leaves, not the stalk, which bruises and snaps easily. And use a pencil to tease out the roots from the soil first. Then pot on into individual pots to grow on.
Lastly, the six sunflowers sown from seed saved from Godzilla are now planted in the garden. One has already succumbed to slugs so I’m keeping a close eye on the other five.
Wildlife
Our ponds are still awaiting the seething mass of tadpoles that the earlier glut of frogspawn seemed to promise, but we have seen plenty of frog life. Flora also caught a small newt when she was pond dipping recently, so that’s great news. And I read a post about building a toad abode recently, so that’s going on my to do list next!
And we’re still being visited daily by all manner of birds including all the usual suspects: pigeons, doves, blackbirds, jackdaws, rooks, sparrows, robins, various tits and finches, swallows, and even a seagull this week. At long last, as you may have seen on my Twitter, one of our bug hotels is in use. On many an evening we’ve watched with complete fascination as solitary bees lay their eggs and seal up the holes.
One thing you can say about our garden in May, there’s plenty of food for wildlife: birds, mammals and insects. Including the sweet sap excreted by the new peony buds before they open up, which the ants adore!
Flora’s garden
I was reading about the no-dig gardening method recently and it seems as if it really might be on to something. Certainly bearing in mind how little work Flora’s done in her patch recently. But after a lot of weeding, we’ve discovered her garlic, strawberries and emerging wildflowers are all doing very well. And she appears to have a few potato plants too, although I have no clue where they came from. I suspect Alan 🙂
Her raspberry bushes, clematis, and my fabulous and wonderful transplanted rose, which I may have mentioned once or twice before, are also thriving and sprawling happily over our fence.
And her little pond is still home to at least two frogs as well as some tadpoles, which is great to see.
May in our garden
It feels as if I’ve been reading and talking about self-care a lot this month. And while my nails certainly aren’t thanking me, my wellbeing and peace of mind have never been in better shape. There’s something about being outside in nature and in contact with my plants and the soil that puts every single worry to one side. And while I know I’m very fortunate to have so much outside space to potter about in, I hope you can enjoy my gardening updates too, even if only virtually. Thank you for joining me again, and I’ll look forward to sharing my June update with you in due course. Stay safe, meantime.
What’s been your favourite thing in your garden or outside space so far this May? Any successes or mishaps to share? And what are you looking forward to now that the warmer weather seems to be set fair (fingers crossed)?
I love all the colourful flowers that have bloomed in your garden. Whenever I see this post I wish I had a garden that I could fill with flowers. All the other plants as well are amazing x
Ah, thank you, Aaliyah, I do know how lucky I am but I’m very glad I can share it! x
Such gorgeous flowers and colours! I can’t wait to have my own garden one day x
Thank you so much and I hope you do, you won’t look back! x
Such a pretty garden! I love the range of flowers and plants!
Thank you so much!
These are such beautiful flowers! I wish we had a garden, but we live on the 4th floor of an apartment, so that’s a little bit difficult to have right now.
Ah, I feel your pain, I lived in a first floor flat with only a window box for 15 years so I feel very blessed now!
Wow your garden looks so nice, ponds are very eye catching.
I also have irises this time but some people have roses..
Thank you so much, that’s very kind 🙂
Wow all your flowers have turned out beautifully!
Isobel x
http://www.fashionistachic.co.uk
Yes, we are very lucky 🙂
Great post. The flowers look beautiful!
Thank you very much!
I never know what plant is what plant so this was a great tutorial for me as I’m trying to learn more. Thank you!
Ha, it took me a while and I’m still learning, but I love it!
So glad being outside in your garden has had such a beneficial impact on your well-being! I absolutely love all the blues and purples this month – those are some of my favourite colour flowers. I was really enjoying spending so much time outside but my hay fever has got SO BAD recently that I’m only outside for literally 2 minutes before I have to come back in! xxx
Ah nooooo, poor you! I have bad hay fever too (tree pollen in my case) but I’ve been taking Benadryl One a Day and they work like a charm, luckily, as I’d be super miserable otherwise! xxx
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures. This is my second year of vegetable gardening. Last year was a bit of a disappointment. Ona positive note, thanks to my new grow light, the tomato seedlings I started indoors this year are growing like mad. I just replanted then outdoors this weekend.
I don’t get on too well with veg, I find fruit a lot easier but that’s great to hear about your grow light, I might look into one of those!
I am so jealous of that pond! We have got some nice blues and purples in our garden at the moment, but I really need to get out there and do some weeding and trimming. Every time I try my daughter appears with a football or cricket bat etc and I don’t get far.
I now want to grow kiwi fruit 😂
Ha, I know what you mean but fortunately I’m training Flora to help me! And good luck with the kiwis, maybe you’ll have more luck than me 🙂
I might just drop the suggestion on my parents, since the both retired a few years ago their gardens starting to look like fruit & veg aisle at Morrison’s, they’ll more likely have success that me.
“Fruit and veg aisle”, love it! Ours was a tiny plant from Homebase about 6 years ago but it’s been cropping steadily for the last 3 years so Sainsburys don’t need to worry about me, haha.
So many beautiful colours! I love the idea of the bug hotel. We have been seeing an increasing number of bees around here the last couple years, which is exactly what we would like to see. I never thought of making a space for them like that – but I think I need to do something! I’ll have to do it in the front yard though… our dogs have been trying to catch the bees as of late. Luckily, the big flower covered tree that attracts them is in the front, so that’s where we see them most often lol
Oh dear, poor bees, I didn’t know dogs liked to catch/eat them! I think as long as you put a bug hotel fairly high up, at least head height, then it should be fine. If it’s near a source of nectar too then that’s even better – good luck!
I love these posts from you! Your garden always looks so bright and colourful, all of the purple tones coming through look beautiful. It’s great to see how your edibles are coming along too. And Flora’s little patch! x
Sophie
Thank you! They are some of my favourite posts to write too, even if they take a while and are VERY photo heavy 🙂 Fingers crossed for our edibles this year! x
Your garden is so bright and colourful! I particularly like the clematis and the way it drapes over the wall. I also think it’s sweet that Flora has her own little garden that she can enjoy. I can’t wait until I get my own house with a garden that I can make look pretty!
Eve x
The clematis do their own things, I just try and tie them in from time to time, haha. But that’s how we like it, I can’t be doing with too much faff. Definitely a good one for any future garden 🙂 x
Oh, I love your garden round-up posts! It’s so nice seeing your flowers blooming and changing. I must admit Iris is one of my favourites, ours didn’t really grow last year, but they are well on their way now. Hoping that they flower soon! We have just placed an order with Thompson and Morgan for a few new perennials in the garden. We are wanting to fill the flower beds a bit more to try and dissuade a cheeky cat that keeps using the garden as its personal toilet! Let me know if you have any tips on stopping cats in the garden!
Also love that your produce is starting to show, those mini kiwis sound lovely!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Thank you, Aimsy! Our irises are definitely having a moment, I’ve never seen so many out before. And how exciting, new plants, I hope you’ll share some pics in due course? As regards deterring cats, the only thing I’ve found that works, sort of, is chilli powder sprinkled on the soil. We have so many cats running through our garden (as well as our two) but that does help discourage them. You could also try orange peel, or water pistols – good luck! x
Your May Garden looks so beautiful. I love all the pretty blooms. I just made a herb garden this weekend so I hope I’m successful with it since I’ve never done one before.
Thank you 🙂 And how exciting, I’m sure your herb garden will be great – if not, just try different herbs!
I look forward to these posts every month, I adore your garden so much and well done on your gooseberries!
Love, Amie ❤️
The Curvaceous Vegan
Thank you, Amie, that’s so kind! And yes, never having grown them before, we’re quite chuffed! x
Beautiful pictures. We are just getting leaves on trees where I live and seeing these beautiful flowers just brightens up my day.
Thank you, Giulia, that’s so lovely to hear 🙂
May is here! It started out so very hot for us and is now raining, much to the delight of all our recently transplanted plants in the garden.
It may be a solitary Camassia, but it is a lovely flower! I love that clematis Montana Mayleen all over your wall; what pretty flowers it has; so like a haze of fairytale white, and the smell sounds amazing! The snowball bush is indeed aptly named; I never saw such white bunches of flowers.
I am drooling over your raised beds! That is the next step for our garden, but we have not got there yet. And I love seeing all the little fruits on your trees; ours flowered and are doing their fruiting business now.
Thanks for sharing this; my favorite garden diary yet!
A haze of fairytale white is such a pretty description of the clematis, I shall have to remember that, Jaya! And I’m hoping my two little raised beds will give us a productive harvest in due course – baby steps, but we have to start somewhere, haha. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 x
It looks like you’ve been busy in your garden! Beautiful colors and a great variety.
Indeed we have, and thank you 🙂
Wow everything is blooming so well! Your garden is amazing, I can only imagine how wonderful it is on a summers day hearing the bees flying around! I’d love to get into gardening & growing my own veg but I have no clue where to start!
Thank you! And to be honest, I had no clue when I started either, I just read lots of magazines and stuffed plants in to see what would happen, haha. Why not give it a go and have some fun!
Such lovely photos! I live in NYC and am not able to go outside and appreciate the flowers blooming due to quarantine, so these are really nice to see 🙂
Ah, I’m so sorry to hear that but I’m glad my photos may have helped a little 🙂
These are so beautiful! I’ve been meaning to keep a tiny garden but I just haven’t done it yet. Your post has inspired me to get cracking.
Aw, thank you! And yes, do give gardening a go, but I must warn you, it’s addictive, haha!
What a beautiful garden! I really admire your garden and how much you maintain it. I am excited to gardening centres to reopen so that I can start making my garden look a little more appealing! Your pictures are stunning, and I love your little bug hotel! I am excited to see what next month brings for your wildlife 🙂
Em x
Thank you so much, Em, that’s so kind. Our garden does take a lot of work but I never mind, it’s so relaxing and calming and we love seeing all the different wildlife who visit us. Have fun at the garden centre, I hope you find lots of lovely things! x
I adore your garden! It’s so colourful and full of life! My daughter and I have been planting lots of seeds during lockdown. We’re not particularly great gardeners, but we’ve started to grow some vegetables too (for her school project). I was surprised to see something grow from our little pepper and cucumber seeds! xxx
Thank you, Ashley, that’s very kind. And I wouldn’t call myself a great gardener either, I just like experimenting and having fun – luckily we have good soil and eager seeds, haha! xxx
Beautiful flowers😍 in my garden I planted tomatoes, strawberries and chives. It’s such a satisfaction to grow your own food!
Oooh, that’s a lovely combination, yummy!
Such beautiful pictures I love how in bloom your garden is! I wish I could pop some if it in mine! A beautiful post thank you for brightening up my day
Sarah
http://Www.simplysarahjayneloves.com
Ah thank you, Sarah, it’s still very much a work in progress though and I don’t have much control over what decides to self seed and pop up! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post though 🙂
Your flowers are GORGEOUS! I don’t have a house yet where I can do this, but I can’t wait to build a garden of my own.
Oh thank you so much, that’s so kind! Do you have a window box, perhaps? That’s what I had for 15 years!
Honestly Lisa, you’re gardening posts are my absolute favourite – it makes me so happy seeing your updates and all the gorgeous things that you grown in your garden. I wish I was so much better with the upkeep of mine, I really need to plant something in it.
I love that you have a mini garden for Flora, that’s adorable, and I hope her raspberries comes through amazingly. I love the look of the May perennials they come in such lovely colours. Thanks for sharing, I’ve pinned this and I can’t wait to read your June update!
Oh wow, thank you so much, Kayleigh, that’s absolutely wonderful to hear! I’m so glad you enjoy them, they’re among my favourite posts to write as well, even if I do ramble on, haha. Flora is a lucky girl, and I tell her so often, even when she rolls her eyes 🙂 Thank you so much for pinning and yes, I’m looking forward to June too! x
Lisa your garden looks amazing! I’d never leave if that was my garden. It must be so satisfying when seeds you’ve sown have grown into foods 🙂
Thank you so much, I am always glad to get back when we’ve been away, it’s true! And yes, we do love our home grown tomatoes and cucumbers, they taste completely different to shop bought 🙂
Your garden is so beautiful! I wish I had the space here to do more. I’ve got some butterfly bushes to put down? I don’t know much about them but they looked pretty in pictures, so I’m going to try to get them to survive. 🙂 I’m still developing my green thumb. 🤣
Thank you so much! When you say butterfly bushes, do you mean buddleias? If so, you will need to keep on top of the pruning, especially in a small space. They are beautiful and fragrant but can very easily take over completely! I learned this the hard way 🤣
So beautiful and so much colour! It looks like you’ll have plenty of edibles this year.
Thank you – and yes, fingers crossed, especially on the fruit front!
Beautiful flowers! I wish i could have and pet one. 🥰 love your post 💕
Thank you so much 🙂
Its good to keep track of the garden’s progress each month. Its blooming and looks pretty this month.
Thank you, Jack, that’s very kind, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
May is full of gorgeous flowers! Wow your garden has a ton of different flowers. Love it. I am all about the food! pRetty cool that you’re growing your own strawberries too. Thanks for sharing your amazing garden!
Nancy ♥
Thank you, Nancy, we are very lucky! And yes, although a lot of our strawberries are wild so nothing to do with us, haha!
I love it when a garden starts blooming. As always yours look stunning. And so many fruits and vegetables 😍 I am happy to hear that your cucumbers and tomatoes are doing well!
Thank you so much, Susanne, we are very lucky – and yes, so far so good on the fruit/veg front! 🙂
This flowers are happy. All colors are beautiful. The dark pink is powerful!
You are a very flowersv expert. Congratulations!
Thank you so much 🙂
I love the flowers in your garden! They’re all so pretty and colorful.
Thank you very much 🙂
Wow, there is so much life and color in your garden already! I absolutely love seeing what everyone is growing and updates like this. It makes me even more excited for my own garden. I love the variety that you have, and all those self-seeded plants are a major bonus. We have a few flowers that come back every year in the front yard because of that.
We’ve had a very mild winter so I think that’s a lot to do with it, I can’t take the credit, haha. And yes, I know what you mean, I love seeing what other people are growing and how they feel about self-seeders as well!
So beautiful Lisa! We started a veggie garden this year but I’m afraid it’s not going to be very productive; the rabbits got into it last week and ate most of what was growing well! I’m not replanting until the hubby gets a temporary fence built around it.
Thank you, Cassie, and oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear about your veggies, that’s such a shame. I only have slugs to contend with, fortunately, and birds who keep pinching our soft fruits!
I’m so jealous! I really shouldve got my butt in gear with ours but I’m so behind. I have some little m&s pots to do with Joshua though xx
Ohhhhh, you’ve just reminded me, Flora got some of those little M&S pots too – so guess what we’ll be doing this weekend, thank you!
Your garden is beautiful! We’re currently doing up our garden at the moment and love all the new bright colours coming through like blues/purples/reds. A great post and really lovely pictures too!x
Oh thank you so much, that’s so kind 🙂 And how exciting to be doing up your garden, a blank canvas is so much fun! x
You have such a gorgeous garden Lisa! We’re making more of an effort with ours this year and planting plenty of colourful flowers. Some good inspiration here!
Oh thank you so much, that’s so kind of you, and how exciting to be planting lots of colour!
Your garden looks beautiful this May with all the flowers blooming. I can imagine how pleasant it must feel spending time sitting there. You work so hard for this beauty Lisa. If I ever buy a property like yours, (unlikely but not impossible) I will have my little corner where I plant beautiful flowers. 🙂
Via | https://glossnglitters.com
Thank you so much, Via, you know how much I love my garden 🙂 And yes, it’s a lot of hard work, but I don’t begrudge it at all, the results make me so happy 🙂 x
Your garden is gorgeous! I love the flowers and the bug hotel.
Thank you so much 🙂
Your garden looks and sounds amazing! What a great variety – would love to have a pond one day. We’re having to make do with a “balcony jungle” for our flat, but definitely plenty of inspiration for what sort of flowers and plants w could go for. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you so much! And I feel you, I lived in a first floor flat for 15 years so had to make do with a window box. Now I have so much more space I’ve gone a bit mad, haha 🙂
Beautiful garden. Thank you sharing some knowledge about gardening. Lovely post.
Thank you so much 🙂
Your garden is beautiful! Great pictures too, I always love photographing nature and my own garden
Thank you so much, that’s so kind, glad to find a fellow nature lover 🙂
I totally am with you, the cold winds have really been such a bummer! Especially when they are so on and off! I was looking into the no dig method and it interests me as well. Good to see it actually works in practice!
I’m keeping everything crossed that we’ve seen the last of them! And the no dig method Flora employs is more of a hands off to be fair but hey!
Your garden is so beautiful! I love that photo of the Snowball Bush. I thought it was a hydrangea at first!
Mari xx
Thank you! And yes, they do look very similar 🙂 xx
Great post! I take great comfort, even as a total novice gardener, looking through your photos and gazing (virtually) at your plants and flowers. So beautiful! As a new homeowner, I definitely have a new appreciation for impressive gardens and I’ll be looking to yours for inspiration in the future. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much, Savannah, that’s such a lovely thing to say! I’m certainly no expert but I do have a lot of space to experiment with 🙂
Your garden looks beautiful, and so colourful! it’s nice you are able to make the most of spring there! 🙂
Hope you are having a good week 🙂 It’s a bit cold here – winter has arrived a week early!
Thank you, we are enjoying slightly warmer weather – fingers crossed it stays that way! Hope you have a good week and stay safe and warm 🙂
I love all the purple flowers popping up in your garden Lisa. Your garden looks beautfiul as always and I’m in awe of the hard work you put into it.
Thank you so much, Kim, that’s very kind 🙂 x
Your garden looks amazing at the moment, my space has not done much at the moment, which is a shame, but hopefully the plants should come back 🙂
Nic | Nic’s Adventures & Bakes
I think it depends where you live – friends in Scotland say they haven’t got much early fruiting yet – but thank you! 🙂