May is always a busy month - both in and outside of the garden. The garden continues with its growth spurt and aside that it’s a month full of bank holidays and my birthday. This year it’s also the month that I stopped working full time, my brother’s covid-delayed wedding took place and we had a week in Northumberland. In fact I was surprised I had so many photos to choose from for this post at all, but as any gardener knows, there’s always something to be done.
I finished last month’s update looking forward to seeing the ferns unfurl, and they’re pretty much there in all their glory. It always amazes me that many of our fern plants were ‘rescued’ and replanted from an unused old stairwell along the side of the conservatory. So from somewhere quite unglamorous, they really are something special.
One of my leaving work gifts was an entwined cherry tree, which I was blown away by. Not literally, as it was in a large box, with soil and feed and polish (still need to look into that more) and was heavy. So heavy, that along with other gifts it meant a taxi home, even though it’s not that far. Ironically my colleague who brought it to my leaving do also needed transport to bring it, and we realised afterwards it would have been easier for her to drop to my house as she lives a few roads away. But still, it’s a really thoughtful gift and symbolises good fortune and happiness, which as a leaving gift really struck a chord.
It came from ‘The Present Tree’ and came with everything you need, bar the pot. It doesn’t need to be potted up straight away but obviously benefits from being unboxed and being outside - it’s a tree after all. To give it some protection from the local squirrel tyrants I popped it into this small terracotta pot, one that we’d brought back from MOH’s parent’s garden. It definitely made itself quite at home here, as when it came to putting it into a larger, long-term pot it was quite snug!
With the demise of my tulips and all the colour they brought to the garden I took a trip to a local garden centre to help rectify that. It was only when I was there that I worked out it was my first visit to any garden centre since before the lockdown, which is probably the longest time ever. It’s not like I hadn’t spent money or wanted things for the garden, but like everything else even more of that was done online than before.
Potting up the plants I bought turned into quite an operation. The choice is always move the pots to a space, a bench or table, and pot them up there - or take the plants to the pots around the garden. As you can see I opted for the latter. It’s not the most efficient way of working, but it’s good to see where plants will be, and what’s around them, and that helps me determine what goes in what pot, so it works for me, especially when I have time.
For a north facing garden, we get a good amount of sun with two spots being veritable sun traps. Since we’ve had the trees cut drastically we get a lot more sun, but even with their unintended canopy (thanks lockdown) the patio and the stone circle are hotspots - there was a reason we put the stone circle where we did! My pots aren’t huge (well apart from the very large black metal ones) and I don’t go for overly fancy planting. I love the multi-plant versions that Monty Don does, but equally I like things simple too and opt to group pots and plants together for impact. This eight-combo grouping is the most I’ve ever grouped together - it’s since reduced, but it got me the impact I wanted this month.
The sunflower was just tiny in height, though it commanded that group with its bright and sunny flower. There were smaller flowers set to follow and I was full of hope. Sadly it didn’t go unnoticed by the snail population, I think every single one in the vicinity made a visit for a munch or two. And if that wasn’t enough the squirrel tyrants took a fancy to the flower and started on the seeds. My sunflower held strong for a fair while, but I knew it was all over one morning when half of the bloom was on the other side of the patio. I managed to get hold of some of the seeds before our wildlife visitors and so I’m hopeful that I’ll have more of these next year - surely the best sort of response.
I potted on the entwined cherry tree before our trip to the North East with plenty of time to see it settled before we left. It’s still doing well and new leaves are appearing (as yet unpolished) and so it looks as if it’s settled in just fine.
At the back of the garden the foxglove that sprung up at the front of the bed in a “look at me” kind of way started to flower, and it started to lean - to get the light, I’m sure. It’s impossible to photo the whole plant and show its detail, but oh the detail is exquisite.
The self-seeded aquilegias have their pretty pink flowers, and the strawberry plants are also full of promise.
And you know that feeling that you’re being watched? Yes, me too - quite often when I’m working at the back of the garden I’m joined by this little tabby, who’s getting braver and not running off. It must be quite strange for her to have this human invading her day time space, so I’m grateful to be tolerated in my own garden!
