Garden Journal :: May 2007

May 5 :: warm and dry

Commence hosta splitting. Today it's golden tieras under the back lilacs.

May 8 :: hot and dry

Split hosta alba marginata and plant under the mulberry. Water water water them.

May 14

:: A butterfly feasts on the Korean Lilac.

May 15 :: very hot and dry

Split Suzie's hostas in the morning and plant alongside the albas in the evening.

:: soaking rain came two days later!

May 17th :: mud! ... glory!

:: Seize the day and transplant sweet woodruff

This is where the blackberries used to be. Last year I had to rip them out because of orange rust. I liked the look without bushes. It felt like a room, so I decided to add more sweet woodruff to make a lawn and a secret place of rest.

I start a path and plant berginia next to it, under the azalea "Golden Eagle" that didn't bloom this year.

Sow three kinds of lettuce.

May 18th :: less overcast

:: Hosta Bold Edger still looks good after taking a split

Sow seeds throughout the secret place lawn: Aunt Mil's 2005 columbines and forget-me-nots.

Transplant white hosta in the lawn too, for effect.

Move hosta Gold Standard to base of the mulberry. They were getting too much sun by Neo's spot.

May 19

:: Azaleas peak against hosta Sum and Substance

May 24 :: cool and overcast

A good day to plant the ostrich fern and mountain laurel (kalmia) "Olympic Fire" we bought for our 24th wedding anniversary on May 21.

:: I also separate out some dutchman's breeches from a tangle of sweet woodruff and plant them over Neo's "spot."

Plant out newly boughten thyme and lavendar. Both beds were loved on by Onslo last winter and needed help.

:: Onslo is a constant source of niggling when he repeatedly drops the frisbee on my foot. He is all eager to retrieve, this dog.

May 28

:: the Bold Edger and Sum and Substance babies are doing well, and brighten this dark shady spot under the other mulberry tree.

May 31

:: I've got strawberries!

:: blue on blue— Siberian Iris peak at the same time as geranium Johnson's Blue.

Note: I might want to move some geraniums to the secret place and move something yellow into this bed early next spring.