THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY

 "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."

-  William Shakespeare

May is one of the busiest of months -my birthday on May 1, followed by Mother's day and then the birthdays of my son and daughter.  I'm not hard to buy for and usually receive several gift cards to my local Garden center.

In the garden so many perennials are popping up and very early too because of our warm Spring .  Due to a December freeze I lost a lot of  my 'purple heart ' and will have to divide and transplant the overgrown ones.  The shrub roses are blooming early this year, along with the Japanese roof iris and woodland phlox.

                                                

                                           April showers bring lush flowers.

My favorite long blooming annual that acts like a perennial -dianthus  has spread and   I'm adding more this year .  

I planted deer and rabbit resistant wildflowers in my roadside pollinator garden.  The red yarrow, shasta daisies,  Japanese roof iris and catsmint have also bloomed early this season. The pollinator's favorite Lantana will need more hot weather to make its appearance.

My goal this season is to use living mulch, i.e., plants, instead of wood chips and I think I've achieved that in my boulder garden, below .  I've also planted the Oriental Poppy for the first time and various colors of coneflowers for their long bloom.

I have lots of blues and purples and to that mix I am planting flowers with yellow , red or orange blooms such as   Coreopsis   Gaura, Monarda and Black Eyed Susan .  My favorite early blooming perennial is Autumn Sage ( below ) which puts on a show from early Spring to late Fall and now comes in shades of pink, white and purple .

I'm so excited !  This is my fourth try to grow a rhododendron and this Spring I finally succeeded in getting one to bloom.   Below is Rhododendron catawbiense 'Alba'  in all her glory !

This cultivar is reputed to be one of the most vigorous and it was highly recommended by my local garden center.  Rhododendrons are difficult here to grow here in the South, probably due to our hot summers.   I planted this one in a partly sunny nook and on a berm of good soil and compost and I was finally rewarded for my efforts.

The only flower ( above ) from my Chicago garden is now blooming -the antique iris 'Loreley ' and it brings me great joy to see it .

And now out to do the task of dividing and conquering some of the more prolific flowers such as the Hellebores and Sedges !

PROUD PIED APRIL

"From you have I been absent in the spring,

When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,

As with your shadow I with these did play."
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 98

                    My gardening buddy Odie is ready for Spring !

We've enjoyed an unusually mild Spring since February and almost everything is early this year.

   View of my boulder garden.  The Japanese roof iris are blooming, as is the Chinese snowball viburnum.

    My favorite annual/perennial is Dianthus which is cold-hardy here. It's a great bargain sold as annual price but it acts like a perennial.  

   A  touch of red with my early-blooming autumn sage.  In the far background the woodland phlox is blooming.

     Odie has spied one of the many lizards that live in the garden.  Woodland phlox are beautiful this year .

          April showers have been ample this month and as a result everything is lush !

Now onto the Merry Month of May !

FEBRUARY BLOOMS IN THE GARDEN

 "Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalog that can ever be knocked out in hand-to-hand combat in the garden."

-  Neely Turner

One of my gardening goals is to have something in flower or leaf every month of the year.  Even here in central North Carolina the winter months of December-March can be challenging.

This February has been an unusually warm month starting off with 72 degrees on February 8 .  

The hellebores are still in full bloom and I've allowed them to colonize in my woodland garden.

Some gardeners consider Hellebores a nuisance since they spread prolifically but I just remedy that by inviting friends and neighbors to come dig out what they want.

February is also time for the wonderful fragrant Edgeworthia with its attractive blooms.  When the blooms are done an attractive tropical looking leaf forms.

Another great February bloomer is the evergreen clematis 'armandii ' that I have drapping over a twig trellis .

Rainfall has been ample this month and with the unseasonable warmth many Spring bloomers, including daffodils, have emerged earlier than usual.

JANUARY BRINGS NEW YEAR AND GOOD WEATHER

 

"No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.  It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left.  It is the nativity of our common Adam." 
-  Charles Lamb 

Unlike the previous January this month brought very mild weather, with the exception of one week of freezing temperatures.  My evergreen 'Lady Banks' rose  dropped her foliage as did  some usually evergreen viburnums.  'Spring bouquet ' viburnum was an exception and was not damaged at all.  'They will however, return next Spring.  I will miss its beautiful blooms this year .

Spent a lot of time inside the studio painting when the weather was too cold to go out.

The cheerful blooms of 'Peggy Clark ' were delightful and not affected by the freeze we had .  'Kobai'  ( below ) a more shrub-like cultivar, bloomed even though it was just planted in the Fall .

Buds are forming on the variegated Daphne 'odora  '  that I planted last year.  Can't wait to smell it !

I've been doing battle with the voles who seemed to have chosen my garden to set up winter homes in.  I've spread castor oil about and coyote urine, as well as destroyed their tunnels.

I see buds forming on the evergreen clematis 'armandii ' so its unscathed as well.  I'm crossing my fingers that Spring will bring out a lot of new growth on those damaged by the freeze.

Time to start thinking about preparing the vegetable garden for Spring.  Going to plant kale, chinese broccoli, bok choy, green onions, and  spinach soon.  They can tolerate some cold temperatures.

Also working on two client's garden designs for this Spring.   Love that I can garden inside and out all year round in this mild Carolina weather !

DEEP IN DECEMBER

 Yes Virginia even in December there's still flowers blooming !  Below is the very late blooming native mum 'raydon's favorite ' that persists in this the last month of the year.

December started off mild.  I cleared the garden of excess leaves and began to battle an infestation of voles by spraying with a castor oil mixture.

Because I have a variety of evergreen and deciduous shrubs the garden has a strong structure that looks good even in the deep of December .

Below, Edgeworthia, aka, Chinese paperbush, shows off her December finery.  Her fragrance is very powerful.

Christmas week brought a deep freeze with temperatures in the teen's.  My Lady Banks rose, an evergreen, suffered damage as did other usually sturdy perennials.  Overall the good news is that many plants were able to survive.  The hellebores are going to be late this season.  

From a daytime high of 15 to 70 degrees is predicted for our New Year's day weather.  

NOVEMBER IS A BUSY TIME IN THE SWEET HOME AND GARDEN

  

"If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year's beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener's calendar.  This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect.  People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth."

I always pray for good weather in November because I open my studio to the public the first two weekends to see my paintings.  This is a tour of about 100 artists in the area and is very popular with the residents.  We had a lot of visitors and sales this year and the weather was good - no heavy rain or snow.

The entrance to my studio is through the garden gate and visitors are always pleasantly surprised to see a garden still filled with texture and color.  The Japanese mums and Autumn sage are still in bloom and the brilliant Fall color of dogwood and viburnum is stunning.

         Fall color of the 'Koreanspice ' Viburnum

Because of our warm Fall the leaves were late in dropping and I have been busy raking them into the forest to compost.

While cleaning up the garden I noticed voles had quite a few tunnels dug and I sprayed them with castor oil and dish detergent mixed together.  

After a few chilly days I finally got around to planting the alliums I bought to add to the daffodils for the Spring border.

The garden still looks good in November and my plan for Spring is to plant as many evergreen groundcovers I can to fill in bare spots so I won't have to mulch.  We call this " living mulch. "  I have a lot but I need more.

                 A corner of my November   garden.

OCTOBER IN THE SWEET GARDEN

October

Robert Frost - 1874-1963

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes' sake along the wall.

A few of my October favorites, left to right :  Autumn Sage, 'Bolero '  mum, Japanese roof iris,   and Euphorbia 'ascot ' .  'Autumn Joy ' Sedum is peeking out from the boulder on the left corner.

I planted dwarf Fall blooming anemones  to add to next year's blooms.  This year the asters were a disappointment.  I suspect they were affected by an early Spring fungus that also attacked my daylilies.   To remedy that in the Spring I'm going to spray with a fungicide.

The star of the late Fall garden is the latest blooming aster 'raydon's favorite'.  It spreads nicely and I've divided and planted it throughout my roadside garden, a deer resistant pollinator garden that fronts the entrance to my home.

While it takes the poets to write about the glories of Autumn it takes us gardeners to rake them so it's onward to composting a half acre of fallen  leaves and pine needles, some of which I'll leave for mulch but I have to be careful because I've seen signs of voles getting ready to nest for the winter.