May may be the best month in the garden this year

 This is the Geum, Mrs. Bradshaw.  A very nice plant.  I have it growing in the center garden at the front, with the burgundy leaves of the smoke bush above it and the silver/burgundy of the saxifragia under the shrub. 

 One of the Oriental poppies that grow beside the old garage at the back.  Very showy and messy when the foliage is dying. This is shot with the white of the garage as background.  I have been experimenting with these white backgrounds.  I do not want them all white, but with a bit of color for interest. The poppies are still in bloom now. 

 This light pink lupine grows in the rectangular bed next to our driveway.  The light pink peony is now in bloom with this light pink peony.  The little hot pink geranium is filling in along the edge.  These plants are fronted by the honeysuckle pilea hedge and backed by the tall cedar hedge.

 This is the lewisia redivia in the little rockery at the back.  Hopefully it will seed and continue to grow into a larger clump.  It had more flowers after this photo was taken. 

 This is the tiny lewisia pygmaea, with a multitude of delicate white ribbed with pink flowers.  It has seeded around quite nicely in this little rockery, that I call the lewisia bed.  In reading about lewisias it seems they go dormant for the summer, after blooming, and resume growth in the fall with green leaves that they keep over the winter.    I must devise a system to keep the rain off of them over the winter. 

 The female house finch

the male house finch

These male finches are much redder from the back or sides than this one appears to be.

I have lots of birds in the garden this year, but cannot seem to catch photos of them.  The humming birds and others have been bathing in the water fall.  They mostly ignore the bird bath on the deck.  The finches and others have been grooming the trees.  I do not know what they are finding to eat but it is good to seem them on the job.  There are wrens, chickadees, titmouses, house sparrows, of course,  the ones with yellow on their feathers... might be yellow warblers.., robins on the floor of the garden, towhees in the leaf mulch, flickers calling loudly.  The crows seem to stay higher up in the trees, and there are not too many of them.  I have heard hawks, and seen our resident eagles out hunting over the park and panama flats. 

I have finished weeding the paths at the back and around the pond and the moss garden.  The moss and ferns are looking really good.  I have been adding epimediums, more hepaticas, and a new hosta to the shade areas.  The primulas are looking good and healthy, and are finished their show for the year.  The tulips are finished and I have mowed the front crocus field as the bulbs were hardened off already.  This usually takes until July.  We have had beautiful weather for the month with a thunder and lightning show and a lovely inch of heavy downpour of rain with it.  I have been digging bamboo shoots out of the thyme circle.  Hopefully that is the end of it for this year.  I am slowly thinning out the bamboo.  It looks good and is worth the bother of keeping it in check.  I am slowly getting more heathers and mounding shrubs growing.  They are lower maintenance like the hedges.  The yellow decorative oregano looks good in summer, but is a bare patch over winter.  The thyme stays green, and is probably a better choice for low maintenance.  The roses, irisi and rhodos are in full bloom. 

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Posted By Blogger to My Garden at 5/30/2015 01:11:00 AM