May Day

"A delicate fabric of bird song 

Floats in the air, 

The smell of wet wild earth 

Is everywhere. 

Oh I must pass nothing by 

Without loving it much, 

The raindrop try with my lips, 

The grass with my touch; 

For how can I be sure 

I shall see again 

The world on the first of May 

Shining after the rain?" 

- Sara Teasdale, May Day 

May Day and I'm another year older. I'm so easy to buy for -plants, and more plants.

May is always a delightful month in the garden as the season begins in earnest.

Since I was unable to grow a small round patch of grass, due mainly to the dog and the hot Southern climate, I decided to tear it up and create another garden bed full of perennials.



I created a gravel path to run through the garden and one that I hope the dog will use instead of rushing through the beds.

Unlike last year when we had the worse drought since I've been here, rain was abundant.






Started the vegetable garden. Planted Japanese eggplant, romaine, squash, tomatoes, basil and green peppers.

I'm so tired of seeing nothing but 'bloodgood ' Japanese maples . I finally found a Japanese Maple that I liked named 'Summer Gold ' and its suppose to be able to tolerate the Southern heat. It's a dwarf with large gold leaves that turn pink and orange in the Fall. It'd also a good sized 10 year old tree .







With all our rain and early warmth the weeds have out-grown the flowers and I've been constantly after them. Whoever named 'creeping Charlie ' got it wrong - it should be runnning Charlie!


I'm spending as much time as I can with my terminally ill Aussie Duke as he enters the last stages of lymphoma. It is sad to see this once vibrant 4 year old turn into a lethargic dog with a ravenous appetite and constant thirst for water, caused of course by his meds. He mostly sleeps and eats all day.









The boulder garden is full of blooming daylilies, autumn sage and verbena. It is my aim to plant so close together that I don't have to mulch. I cover bare areas with pine straw and shredded leaves.

This year for the first time I had mums blooming in May ! I've never seen them bloom this early but of course we've had a very early Spring, but still I'm accustomed to Mums blooming in late Fall in Chicago.

While we had more than enough rain, and actually way too much, I promised myself I would not complain after last year's terrible drought.