Everyday Living

The May Garden

~ Gardening

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:105‬ ‭

Hello lovely friends! We have had a week of beautiful weather with cooler temps and lower humidity…perfect for working in the garden! The rain was great for all of my plants, but it was also great for the growth of weeds. I spent Monday afternoon weeding, but still have more to do. I guess you never get finished in a garden, there is always something to do! Grab your cuppa and join me in the May garden.

On Sunday, it rained off and on most of the day. Finally the skies began to clear in the early evening and a misty fog settled behind the garden!

There are a pair of tuteurs in the garden. This one is placed in the middle of the vanilla strawberry hydrangeas and gardenias!

Our bronze statue is the focal point of the garden. I have had so many ask where I found it. It was sourced locally and was a part of our front landscape for many years. It is actually a fountain, but my Renaissance Man was tired of cleaning and trying to maintain it! So now it just serves as a statue. On the other side of the statue is my cutting garden where I have intensia blueberry phlox in bloom. Several varieties of zinnias were planted from seed and this year I planted My Love Gladiolus bulbs for the first time. All of the glads are up and most of the zinnias!

The daisy gardenias are blooming with an abundance of promising buds. These have never performed well, but maybe they are going to show out this year!

The daisy gardenia is a hardy, deer-resistant low growing shrub that is heat tolerant, but yellow leaves are a frequent problem and have been for our shrubs. Their blooms are highly fragrant!

“Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint and the soil and sky as canvas”
-Elizabeth Murray

Pentas is a wonderful container plant and is also one of the best pollinator-attracting plants. Its clusters of star-like blooms make a great landing pad for butterflies and hummingbirds. Pentas is heat tolerant and provides a burst of color where needed in the garden.

My only lacecap hydrangea has buds…I am so excited because it did not bloom last year. The blooms are more delicate than the mophead variety.

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Oakleaf hydrangeas are native to the Southeastern U.S. This one has been in our front landscape for years. They are found in abundance in the 250 acre woods around our house.

My Renaissance Man decided to add a small flower bed next to the driveway this spring. He placed our old cast iron planter as the focal point. There isn’t much to show you except mulch, but he has planted dahlias and peonies. I hope to have dahlias blooming this summer.

I planted lavender in pots this year, previously I have always planted in the ground!

The sunshine ligustrums are one of my favorites in our garden. Their golden foliage intensifies in the sunlight and offers brilliant foliage color all year!

Gold mound spirea is a deciduous shrub grown for its spring and fall foliage…

…vibrant spring foliage accented by clusters of pinkish-purplish flowers, cools to a yellowish green in summer then a rich, yellowish-orange in fall.

A rusty iron tuteur stands in the rear of the garden. With all of the rain, you can see it is almost time for the first hay cutting. Sunflowers have been planted behind the fence, hopefully the deer won’t be munching on them as an appetizer!

I love the shades of green in the spring garden. You can see the bright gold foliage of the sunshine ligustrum against the dark green foliage of the limelight hydrangea.

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.”
          -Rudyard Kipling

Early evening as the sun begins to set is my favorite time in the garden. Mornings are for working the garden, but evenings are for enjoying a meal or just relaxing! Thank you for your visits and the sweet comments you leave. Wishing you all a joy-filled day and weekend!

Be sure to check out all of the fabulous summer tablescapes on this week’s blog hop!

Monday 
 

 

Comments

  1. Your gardens are a delight to see! Love the tuteur accents. That photo with the misty fog setting in is beautiful!

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  3. Your gardens are just incredible! It must give you so much pleasure to look out the windows first thing in the morning! We’ve been enjoying the cooler temperatures too, but it will be hot by the weekend. I hope to get more weeding done today too before it heats up.

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  4. Stunning! I absolutely love the garden in May. It is so refreshing with all the growth, even the weeding doesn’t seem to be such a bother because it’s all new activity. Your daisy gardenia looks like a real answer to deer, I must pass that along to my sister as a garden solution for her. Pentas are wonderful and hummingbirds love them too. Lacecap hydrangea is a plant I never had, but it is so delicately beautiful. I can’t to see more of your gardens, Pam & Butch. Lovely new bed too. Once those peonies start blooming in future years, you will be in heaven, I’m sure, with their fragrance.
    Love that misty evening fog photo at the opening of this post, Pam!

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  5. So beautiful, Pam. I could sit and scroll through the photos for the entire morning. I love the misty evening photo, one can imagine being there. I know you are excited for your peonies. They should do well and are hard to beat. I planted a few glads this year also and my zinnias are on they way up. Your garden is amazing and I know you love every moment in it. Have a lovely weekend, my friend.

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  7. Your gardens are so beautiful! The structure you have in place is such a pretty starting place for all the plants. Makes me realize we need to pay more attention to that.

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  8. Your garden is just a showplace. I love the new garden that Butch is working on and a beautiful piece of statuary. Love your daisy gardenia and I can almost smell the fragrance. The yellow against the green is stunning. You have planned and executed so well so you have something blooming all the time. Hard work yes but oh the joy it brings and we too are the recipients of all the beauty. Thank you Pam.

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  9. Your photography is amazing. The early morning fog, the daisy gardenia bloom, I could go on but what really stands out is how large your beautiful garden has become and how much love you and Butch have put into it. I love the tuteurs and had my sweet hubby make some out of rebar for my porch. I designed them and he carried out the design very well. They are hard to find in my area. Spring has arrived finally and we are having the house painted. There will be a big change in the color, new garage doors and new light fixtures. Had to explain to the painter why the ceiling on the screened back porch had to be a light blue.

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    • Alice, thank you for your sweet comments. Yes, there has been much sweat equity in our garden. I can’t wait to see your new paint job on the outside and your personally designed tuteur. You must send me photos when it is completed. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  12. The garden looks beautiful, maybe the rain has done a favorable job. The statistics of the children look very good and the grass is also very beautiful. I, who have known your garden for years, noticed the difference of the beginning. After all, this time and your work and your husband are in a very elegant and beautiful place.
    I feel that my last comment has gone as unknown, I did not realize that my data was not expressed. Read it, I said something interesting.
    Dolores

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    • Querida Dolores, gracias por hacer este viaje con nosotros todos estos años. El jardín es un arduo trabajo, pero me encanta verlo volver a la vida en la primavera. No encontré otro comentario tuyo, pero tus comentarios se muestran anónimos por alguna extraña razón. Te deseo un hermoso fin de semana mi amigo. Abrazos ~

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  13. Your garden is gorgeous Pam! You have such lovely statuary. The long shot with the misty morning fog is spectacular! You have such a serene setting to enjoy being outside. Your May garden is so pretty with all the blooms bursting forth. Thanks for sharing it with us! Clara

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  14. Your beautiful garden in the morning mist is surreal. Madame Jekkyl could not have executed a more lovely garden domain..
    each segment so well thought out and implemented…You and your Butch know how to create an Eden… The statue sans
    fountain is a wise choice…no fuss and no distraction for the flowered surroundings… Sheer serenity.

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  15. Absolutely gorgeous garden!!! We recently moved to another state and downsized our home and land. I have (for now) finished decorating the inside and porches of our cottage and now get to plan a new garden. I am learning just which plants will and will not work here. I have already starting to move some things around, so it is officially becoming a garden!! Oh, how I do love to plant a lovely garden!!! Got some great ideas from you and yours! Thanks!

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  19. Beautiful Pam! (Of course!) Your May tends to be our June or July so it’s like a sneak preview — only better because you have such wonderful style!

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  20. Oh Pam, you have one of the greenest thumbs I know! Just this morning I noticed a white flower in bloom on a low shrub by the kitchen door and thought it looked like a gardenia but was confused, but now I know what it is, a Daisy Gardenia! The bush is full of buds too, I can’t wait to see it all in bloom! I did some gardening myself this week, I went to a nursery and bought potted plants! That’s about the extent I garden! I guess Summer is here now, getting hot today! Your garden with the mist in the background is an incredible sight!
    Jenna

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  22. Your gardens are amazing Pam…I know there is hard work involved to get it to be so beautiful. What a pleasure to walk through and enjoy all the beauty. I have planted lavender in pots too as I had problems with it growing in the ground. God’s beauty is all around us. Hugs my sweet friend.

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  24. Your garden was most clicked at Best of the Weekend this past week; Congratulations! The pictures and plants are beautiful; I can almost imagine that I am there. Thank you for sharing!

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  25. I am in paradise just looking at the photos of your garden. You have a beautiful garden thank you for sharing.
    Have a great weekend,
    Kippi

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  26. What a wonderful visit I just had in your garden. I think I will have to visit more than once. Every shot and angle has something so special.

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