Brenda Landrum

May starts the gardening season and it is always such a joy to be digging in the dirt, getting new plants, and most of all seeing flowers and green again. We are going into our 4th garden season here and we are so happy with how everything is doing so far. We’ve had a couple losses and I wish I would have planted a few things differently but that’s just how gardening goes.

This year my goal is to simply continue to add to what we already have. I have some favorites, obviously, but if I see something I would like to try I’m not afraid to do so. The only challenge now is figuring out where to put new plants. Most of the free space is in the front of the terraces and I have been shying away from doing anything taller in the front except in the spots where I have swooped tall plants down to create little “room’s” if you will. Overall though I’m so happy with how everything looks!

There are so many things blooming right now! Chives, Irises, Nepeta, Salvia, and the Lilac. These all started as the Daffodils and Tulips were fading out which was perfect timing if you ask me. Next up will be the Peony, Baptisia, Pincushion, Daylily, Zinnias, Echinacea, Roses, Daisies and Russian Sage. I love all the blooms!

In the edible garden so far I have planted potatoes, tomato, edamame (I have failed several times yet I’m trying again), strawberries, jalapeño, chive, zucchini, cucumber, and cantaloupe. I have never tried cantaloupe so we will see. I have not planted pumpkin this year. That has been really frustrating getting those to even get to pumpkin stage at this climate/elevation. I think the short growing season and how my garden is situated is not ideal for pumpkins. I’ll try again (maybe I need to plant like the potatoes) but may not be this year.

A change I’ve decided to make is to start planting perennials and shrubs where I have left open ground for the larger edibles. That space is so bare in the winter and when I first started this garden I really wanted to just tuck in things like tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini and pumpkins within all the other plants. So I started adding a couple of things to that slope which I think will help with water runoff and look a little better in the winter.

Here’s what the garden looked like on the very last day of May! Can you tell what my favorite color in the garden is? I can’t help it! I’m so drawn to purple blooming perennials. At the end, you can see what we see from inside the house. It’s the best view!!

Thanks for dropping by the blog today. Please leave a comment so I know you were here.