End Of Month View ~ May 2013

As May departs the sides of the lane leading down to our house are awash with a froth of cow parsley. I can almost convince myself albeit briefly, that I'm living in the country and not just off a busy main road in a town. It's a magical time of year which never lasts quite long enough. It will not be long before either himself or next door comes out with a strimmer and it's back to reality.

It's my favourite time of year in the garden with all the plants that I love the most making an appearance although they are slightly behind schedule this year. I'm about to launch a search party though for aquilegia 'Nora Barlow' who seems to have gone absent without permission. I'm rather sad not to see her and will have to replace as soon as possible. The main work in progress has been planting up the new border at the bottom of the gabion wall. There are still shrubs and more perennials to plant but so far the following have been planted - hellebores, cardamine quinquefolia, astrantia 'Gill Richardson', pulmonaria 'Blake's Silver', hemerocallis 'Catherine Woodbury', and an actaea (not sure which one). I would like to repeat the astrantia and the hemerocallis but will have to wait to either find duplicate plants or divide the ones I've got. The pulmonaria will be coming out and moved elsewhere as I noted scorch marks on the foliage yesterday. The border is getting more afternoon sun than I thought it would do. I should have snipped off the flowers of the hellebores so that the plants will put all their energy into rooting but I'm greedy and want the seeds. I'm also going to plant some of my special snowdrops in there but am waiting until at least next month to see which ones I've got enough of to plant in small groups in the ground. Finally bags of 2011 leaf mould are lurking somewhere which I intend to spread over the border before covering it with bark. Hopefully the remaining bags of top soil, the wheelbarrow and other work paraphernalia will soon disappear.

Progress at the allotment has been slow going and hard work. I think I could start a knitting circle with the yanks of marestail that I've been pulling out. This major weed issue seems worse than ever and I'm wondering whether its a consequence of last year's wet summer. The rabbits have been munching the green tops from the shallots and gooseberry sawfly have decimated the foliage of the goosegogs. On the plus side I've planted 'Douce Provenance' peas, 'The Sutton' broad beans and 'Speedy' French beans. The new strawberry bed has been planted with 'Cambridge Favourite' plants and a new variety called 'Albion'. I did not plant any potatoes until the beginning of May when a bed of 'Pink Fir Apple' went in. These have just started to break through in the last week. There is still much shuffling of plants from home to the allotment to be done including sweet peas, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, runner beans, more French beans, beetroot, leeks, onions and kale. The beginning of June is going to be busy.

I have been most restrained as far as plant purchases have been concerned with just three plants - a tayberry, sweet cicely and a begonia all bought at the garden club plant sale but June and a visit to a Plant Hunter's Fair is just round the corner!

Thanks to Helen over at The Patient Gardener's Weblog who came up with the excellent idea of an end of month view. Do pop over to see what she has been up to in her garden as well as visit other blogger's posts of what has been happening in their patches of earth.