The Madness of May!

May is the month when the garden seems to explode. Not only do new flowers appear everyday, but more appear during the day!

When I go and open the greenhouse every morning, I have a mooch around. By the time I’m out there at lunchtime, more flowers have opened.

The growing rate at this time of year is incredible! I keep toying with putting a time-lapse camera on the tomato plants. They seem to grow from hour to hour! 

The Edible Garden

Crops we are already eating

Breakfast has been zinged up now with the start of the rhubarb harvest. We simply stew it in it’s own juices, then eat it with granola and yogurt. Yum yum.

We started eating small amounts of Purple Sprouting Broccoli back in April, together with the Asparagus, these two are still producing. 

They were followed on by mangetout and white onions. Some of the onions have started bolt – For any non gardeners this means, they have started to produce a flower. Anyway, I thought why not pull them up and eat them. It’s proved very successful, as its just like eating spring onions. Which lets face it, they are!

I’ve grown red onions for the first time this year, but they seem to be slower, so we haven’t tried any yet.

Strawberries! We had our first one this week, it should have been last week, but the squirrel or blackbird (not sure which) beat us to it. Anyway it was certainly worth waiting for!

Imminent crops

I think we will be eating our first courgettes next week, as there are a few baby fruits growing already.

The shape of the Broad beans can now be seen in the pods, so it won’t be long… We have the chorizo in the fridge ready.

Huge figs are now visible on the fig tree. We normally harvest them in late summer so I don’t know what’s going on there! Not that I’m complaining, bring on figs, balsamic and goats cheese.

Crops in a few weeks

I was very excited this week to spy my first tomato flower! It came just a few days after the first flowers on the gherkins. We were so impressed with the gherkins that we grew for the first time last year. We decided to grow two plants this year and not bother with the usual cucumbers.

The chilli plants that we over wintered in the house, are now bearing huge amounts of fruit. It’s just a matter of a week or two before they start to ripen.

I’ve never seem so many blueberries on the the larger bush. That too is being covered up this weekend. I leave it as long as possible before covering, as the birds eat aphids off the bush.

They probably think their reward will be lots of berries, but I’m afraid were not sharing!

The purple potato plants are growing like jack and the beanstalk. It’s going to be very strange having purple mash!

The cherries are looking like we’re going to have a bumper crop. The netting is coming down over them this weekend, as the pigeon has been eyeing them up already!

The Apples and Pears are also looking set for a good harvest too, with lots of fruit plumping up nicely.

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The Ornamental Garden

Lupins

The first flowers to make a real impact in May are the large pink lupin plant. In past years I’ve counted forty plus flower spikes on it. I love knowing the names of plants, but I have no idea what this is called, except – lovely.

Rhododendron

The next is the purple Rhododendron. At the very beginning of May it’s suddenly covered in purple buds, that gradually open. It’s been covered all month in spectacular purple flowers fading to pale purple before now getting ready to drop.

Early May flowers

I only have one Azalea, it’s called ‘Gibraltar” and it’s bright orange. I can’t resist orange flowers, as I think they really lift the pinks and purples. I have lots of bright orange Gems dotted around the garden, as well as some yellow ones. 

The purple Alliums have been around for a few weeks now, their little star flowers gradually opening to form a globe of stars.

Two new flowers are Gladioli ‘Byzantine’, I planted the corns last October. They now have pinky purple flowers on top of tall stems.

And Trollius ‘Golden Queen’, another tall plant with a large bright yellow flower, like a giant buttercup.

Late May Flowers

The pink and purple Aquilegias that were in the garden when we came have seeded themselves around. I know they don’t last that long, but they are so pretty. I’ve just bought a new one called ‘Black Barlow’, it looks the colour of chocolate. 

The Pond

If you read last weeks blog you’ll know that the damselflies have emerged from the pond and are now dancing around the garden.

The tadpoles seem much larger than usual for the time of year, and there are masses of them. If they all turn into frogs it’s going to be a very froggy garden!

There are already quite a few frogs living in the garden and this week is the first time I’ve managed to capture a photo of a frog posing with Freddy. Freddy has been keeping watch over the pond since it was filled five years ago, and is looking a little deformed now, but he’s finally made a friend.

The Red Hot Pokers ‘Kniphofia’, are at the back of the pond and have been coming out for the last few weeks. The great tits love them and hang upside-down getting seeds out.

The yellow flag Iris are now flowering and the delicate little pond Geums have come out. I love sitting by the pond watching all the wildlife that are attracted to it.

The White Garden

Down in the white garden, there’s a lot of growth going on. Most of the summer plants aren’t quite out yet, although there’s the first signs of white on the Digitalis (foxgloves).

However the tall white Alliums ‘Mount Everest’ are like light bulbs all over the border. They have been merrily multiplying over the last few years and are now quite a show all by themselves. Even at dusk their white globes stand out.

So we leave the spring garden behind and get ready to welcome June, with all the abundance of the summer garden.

Stay safe & happy gardening.