Enough! Waving the white flag here after a week of rain. But, with the forecast for the week to come showing solid sunny days in the upper 70s, we enter the “perfect garden condition” phase. I am writing this blog in bits - today is May 28, and it was blue sky and 75 degrees. Delightful! The next 10 day forecast shows temps varying from 75 to 82, with just a few days with 30% chance of late day showers.

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Random gardening thoughts on the season so far:

I’ve really loved it. Stepping back from seedling sales meant starting far less plants. Needing less materials meant far less money spent. I already had enough square pots and plug flats, and a good start on plastic labels. All I needed were a few bags of Metro Mix planting mix. They discontinued my favorite, the 360 blend, so I went with 830, and thought it worked fine. Less plants meant less transplanting, less worry about frost, and less movement in and out of the garage. My typical schedule worked fine - March 1 seed start, April 1 transplant start, with plants looking good by May 1.

I did have some customers, but not through advertising - just word of mouth, or those from the past two years. Pretty much everyone who comes to get plants are delightful. The only hitch is that we have three pretty protective dogs that can get barky - each for its own reason. Getting them into the house is a must.

My two raised beds had - and still have - garlic, which hindered their use a bit. One bed had spinach that I planted as seedlings in September (along with some lettuce and chard). The rough winter (two nights with temps in the low teens, and one 11 inch snow) did in the lettuce and chard, but the spinach, once things started to warm up, was spectacular. I cut the scapes from the garlic a week ago. The spinach started to bolt, so was removed, and replaced with lettuce, and a few strawberry plants from a friend. I hope to harvest the garlic in a few weeks, and the beds will then hold microdwarf tomatoes, particularly a variegated find from last year, up to 10 plants between the two raised beds.

I seeded sugar snap peas against the fence and created string trellis, as in previous years. The peas are now 6 feet tall and we are starting to pick some. In front of the peas are iris, moved from other gardens, and in front of those, daylilies I started from seed, sent by a friend. We should be seeing the daylilies bloom very soon. I think the iris was perturbed by the move, so just foliage this year.

Shade garden - bleeding heart, pulmonaria, astilbe and more

We’ve had a great time with our flower gardens. Our shade garden is full of bleeding heart, Solomon seal, Celadine poppy, and astilbe. To that collection are a few plants purchased this spring - pulmonaria, two hellebores, a new foamflower, and an epimedium. Some foamflowers and ferns complete the dense mix in that garden, anchored in the corner by a Virginia sweetspire. In the same area, different corner, we relocated a nine bark that has made its way around the yard.

Main flower garden - all sorts of things blooming, and on the cusp.

In our big flower garden, all sorts of things came up early in the spring - tulips and daffodils, joined by phlox, miniature roses, clematis Princess Diana and a white one we moved from Raleigh, coral bells, lots of lamium, oregano, an unusual rudbeckia, several gladiolas, an echinacea, cardinal flower, lots of Kalimeras, a Husker’s Red penstemon, two different cranesbills, a threadleaf coreopsid, a Japanese painted fern, balloon flower, and four astilbes. To that we’ve added some new plants - we purchased a new Rozanne cranesbill (it died last year), some new Salvia Greggei, Salvia leuchantha, an epimedium, a new echinacea, a spider wort - as well as some annuals (snapdragon, zinnia, salvia coccinea). Right now, clematis, penstemon, cranesbill, lamium, the new salvias, and the miniature roses are all providing color. Soon to join them will be the phlox and cardinal flower and gladiolas.

Near the shed, the garden is primarily a pathway for the dogs, with mostly phlox, with some rubdeckia and a relocated butterfly bush and Miss Kim lilac on one side, and red bee balm and a relocated peony, and a large old type lilac on the other, with balloon flower emerging here and there. Oddly, we’ve yet to see Miss Kim bloom in Hendersonville. Right next to the shed is a huge Lady Banks rose on a trellis that bloomed fairly lightly - a late frost once again nipped buds. We are now seeing lots of daylilies and canna coming up.

Our big back flower edge garden is mostly shrubs. Everything in there is thriving - the hydrangea is budding well, the red rhododendron (which I am trying to propagate) was spectacular, choke berry and elderberry and forsythia are now huge, two red roses are gorgeous, and the garden ends with daylilies, crocosmia, a Russian Olive tree, a double white spirea, and a Virginia Sweetspire. It is overgrown, it is wild - and it works just great. Nearby is a fig that I rooted in Raleigh and we brought with us. It had the typical winter die back but is largely looking fine. Will it be in too shady a spot to give us figs? We shall see.

Near the deck is a garden constantly in flux. With a gorgeous Samaritan Jo clematis just finishing up bloom and a big spot of Green and Gold, it started with daffodils and tulips and an old fashioned lilac and a chartreuse foliaged spirea, and how is showing Japanese Iris (violet blue or yellow), gladiola foliage, Deutzia we brought from Raleigh, Russian Sage, a new Amsonia, and some annuals - zinnia and snapdragon. The soil isn’t great and we tend to move things in and out of this garden, depending on how they do.

Princess Diana clematis is the star here

A strip garden near the hose spigot was nothing but walking iris, lemon balm, spearmint and lamium with some Autumn Joy sedum. Sue and I stripped all of that out and it how holds daylilies - some from my friend Eddie, some from seed, with the sedum and some lamium, a a pot of Salvia coccinea. Near the heat pump, a wall strip garden is mostly Stella D’oro daylilies, with Wisteria on an arbor, and a flowering magnolia next to the arbor. The late spring frost and hard pruning meant no Wisteria blooms, but the magnolia, after early blooms got frosted, put on a nice show this spring.

In front, we have an azalea garden, with a Viburnum, newly planted Flame azalea, relocated hybrid Mountain Laurel, a yew and a quince mixed in. Some daffodils bloomed there early, and daylilies are now just starting. A strip garden on the side yard/front is mostly various hostas, with some sweet woodruff and a bright green leaf, pink flowered spirea. The main flower garden is anchored by a huge white flowered camellia, a smaller pink flowered camellia, two chartreuse leaf spirea, two recently hard pruned Rose of Sharon, and a holly. The garden has a few azaleas, a lot of lily of the valley, a red hot poker plant, lots of self seeded columbine, and some gladiola and daylilies. Early on, it was full of daffodils.

That’s a tour of our flower gardens, in general, but with some end of May details. Tending the flower gardens with Sue is one of the pleasures of the season. Sure, the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, along with the green beans, summer squash and cukes are great. But their seasons can be quite concentrated - while the flowers provide joy from early spring through late fall.