Spring Blooming – How Does Your Garden Grow?

Spring Blooming – How Does Your Garden Grow? – My update of my zone 6 gardening for early May, 2014.

After a warmer than normal April, May has been fairly chilly. Mother’s Day is our usual “safe to plant” day, and I am not convinced this year that will hold true. On the other hand, all those April showers made for a green, green, green May! The flowers are sprouting, the bulbs have bloomed, the grass has been cut several times, and the leaves are unfolding from their buds.

Unfortunately, it is all a bit late. We are about a week later than last year in sprouting. No idea when/if it will catch up, or if it will make a difference to flower and vegetable production.

While the landscapers are coming today to clean up my backyard, I expect a decent portion of the front yard to look like this by the end of this week – early next week at the latest. We are having sewer work done and in addition to the lawn being torn up, we have to scrape away a lot of dirt from the front gardens. The current landscape is going bub-bye.

That cone is there because our all-sorts-of-awesome sprinkler guy was out last week to cut some lines and remove one of the boxes, before the plumbers started digging, saving us money.

One of the things I won’t miss, are the sprocket junipers. They constantly lean over. We get very strong winds in the Buffalo area, and even with heavy-duty staking, those junipers always lean after winter. They also grow crazy high, and have to be trimmed yearly. IMO they add almost nothing to the landscaping or framing the house, and I won’t miss them.

This rhododendron is being saved. It is very pretty, and fairly full for being so large. I just want it place somewhere better. Our front gardens have few flowing plants, and to have one of the few plants that does flower in the back of the garden where no one can really see it, doesn’t make much sense to me.

This cherry tree is beautiful – from behind!! From the front it looks deformed and it leans. I am not sure it can be salvaged, and even if it can, I question whether I want it to be saved. Unless they can turn it. And straighten it. {sigh} I guess I need a serious discussion with the landscapers.

We have piles of tiger lilies, and they are staying.

This bush isn’t going to make the cut. While there are buds, most of it is woody. Every year it gets less and less leaves, and right now it looks like a stick with a few leaves.

That, and I don’t know what it is.

We have ground cover growing. I don’t know what this is, but they have nice little white flowers. When I yanked out everything else to make way for the herb garden, I left these in place.

‘Cause I like ’em.

This is our thornless blackberry bush. It is now 5 years old, and gives a lot of fruit. I worry every year that it won’t come back (I don’t know why), and am always relieved to see green.

This and the holly have already been feed. I will feed them again when I buy the new thornless blackberry bush to plant. And then again in the fall. Twice a year is usually enough, but with a new plant, I will definitely feed at least once, probably twice, more this year.

How is your garden coming along? Anything sprouting? Flowering? Are you planting a garden this year? Sticking with a CSA? A flower or herb garden perhaps? What’s happening in your green-world?

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