I know I’m a little late on the May Garden post, but I promise, I took these photos right at the end of the month. It actually works out really nicely that this post got pushed back because it lands on my favorite gardener’s birthday, my Ma (aka SugarMommaD)! She has instilled in me the love of gardening and nurturing schtuff, and she’s so fortunate to be able to celebrate her birthday during the most perfect and beautiful time of the gardening season. Love ya, mom!
The above and below pics are of our other Ruby Tears crabapple tree (aka Gus’ Tree), it flowered the second week of May, but I had to include it because it makes the backyard look super amazing.
Also, I’m having trouble with ‘Apple Scab’ on my other Spring Snow crab apple in our front yard, I guess this is common to happen after the tree flowers, and this year it was so prolific. I am treating it with a topical spray for now, and am having an arborist come to give me a consultation tomorrow — I am scared for it.
The veggie garden has been good this year, for the most part I like the irrigation set up. It has sprung a leak once or twice, but it’s really easy to repair. I would prefer it not to spring any leaks, though. Our timer is also kind of junky, one of the timers gets stuck, leaving the water running forever. Eventually I will be investing in a digital timer so that we can set it to water when we go on vacations n’ stuff.
The actual veggies are doing great, peas, radishes, carrots, potatoes and greens are thriving. Unfortch, my green beans sprouts have been obliterated by slugs, (eew). I read on the internet, that if I put beer in a pie tin the slugs would want to go drown in it, and it totally worked. There have been no signs of them since. I took a risk and planted my cuc seeds a week or two early, and when we hit a cold snap I botched the germination process, so I am a bit behind the eight ball on that front. All and all, it’s been fun, and the kids like it too.
My grandma gifted me a bunch of bearded iris from her garden after we moved in years ago, the plants are insanely large, and I need to split and edit them this fall. This purple and white one is my favorite.
The peonies and iris are nearly done blooming, soon there will be boatloads of pink phlox, purple clematis and salvia, and yellow day lilies.
I love this grouping of plants.
Heucheras rules! There are so many varieties, colors and sizes, and the flowers are so dainty and GD sweet.
Beautiful! I’m totally inspired now to get gardening.
Thanks, Betsy!
You should be really proud of what you’ve achieved. That garden’s an amazingly beautiful place. You’ve such an eye for colour and texture. Love the plants in your window box! Such much drama! Haha…
Such much thank yous! I feel like I’m still figuring it out though, but I appreciate all your kind words. I see so many gardens in the neighborhood that I drool over. I do love the space I’ve created!
your gardens are perfection! i need to hire you …
Hola, just wanted to mention that I am in MN and am dealing with apple scab on my crabapple tree too. I use Bonide’s Fruit Tree Spray to prevent apple scab and it’s been working really well for me. For a few years I didn’t know how to fix it and my crabtree looked like it was in the fall season as soon as the spring blossoms fell—leaves got brown spots, yellowed quickly, and dropped. No bueno. Since using the spray, there is minimal to no leaf dropping. Usually the only scab that occurs is on the inside of the tree where the spray didn’t reach. But again, very minimal. The spray typically needs to be applied a couple times in the spring (approx 2 wks between application), though, while the tree is pushing out new leaves, once flowers bud appear, and during the bloom, etc. It may be too far past the optimal time for your tree this year. My tree is quite large so I’ve found that using a hose-end sprayer to apply the product is most effective…especially for reaching high branches.
Otherwise, for this year, pickup the fallen leaves to prevent the fungus from spreading.
Hope that helps!
and p.s.–your garden look mega!
I bought multiple forties of Michelob for my slugs and felt judged by the cashier. My community is known for its abundance of micro breweries, explaining it didn’t seem to help :)
The Penstemon is really beautiful!