May ’26: Real live gardening
At long last.
Welcome to my garden blog! Thank you to everyone who’s been reading my garden-dreaming/garden-planning blog for the past 10 months. After having been planting plants into this formerly plant-free yard for the past three summers, slowly but surely, this month is when it started to actually feel like I’m gardening again. And that what I’m making will soon feel like a garden. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very much a construction zone out there — big pile of gravel in the driveway, tools and edging parts strewn about. (I spruced up for the photo above.) But the backyard is already worlds away from the asphalt parking lot it was just a couple of months ago. And I couldn’t be more excited about where it’s going.
WEATHER
Despite another nasty (albeit brief) heat wave, with temps hitting 95º, May has been mostly cooler than average. This is anecdotal, but every time I happen to have noticed, the high for the day has been ~15º below average. I noted in my garden journal on May 3 that I was watering and weeding in a puffer and hat, but all in all it’s been a really lovely month by my standards: mild, softly lit, occasionally drizzly. And no more frost since April 21st (!) so that was the last of the season.
Highest high temp: 95º on May 19
Lowest high temp: 55º on May 9 and 24
Lowest low temp: 37º on May 3
Rain days: 9 or 10 by Sunday
Dealing with edgings and under-gravel, while the pretty pea gravel waits in the driveway.
INFRASTRUCTURE MONTH(S)
I know in March I declared that April was meant to be Infrastructure Month in the courtyard, and it was, but we’re almost through those chores at the end of May! The former asphalt behind the house is not quite replaced yet by the aforementioned pea gravel, although we’re days away from that happening: It is in the driveway! We finished painting the garage army green, so tranquil and inviting as compared to the giant white reflector box it had been when it was white, in this small space. I had my landscaper friend A here for a few hours this week helping me with the big stuff — digging in the threshold and edgings, once I had shaped and placed everything; planting the big grey birch once that was done. He’ll be back at the start of next week to dig in the final edge pieces with me and then tackle the gravel. And the infrastructure will be complete! I’ll have so much to show you in the coming weeks and months.
Native viburnum lentago (nannyberry) and non-native viburnum mariesii (double-file), in bloom.
Non-native peonies, of course — Cora Louise on the left and Kansas on the right. The latter has a bit of powdery mildew for the first time this year, also its fourth.
GARDEN NOTES
The shrubs I sprinkled into the back hedgerow late last year — two nannyberries and a serviceberry — are already beginning to fill the gaps in the evergreens that were planted a year before, which have themselves grown so much. The peonies, viburnums, dogwood and potted lilac all did their beautiful thing, mostly ahead of schedule due to the heat wave. The fava beans also put out blooms at that moment, despite being just about a foot tall, so we’ll see where that goes. (The only thing the heat wave cost me were the teensy buds on the mystery peony. Maybe I’ll get to see it next year!) And we talked about the big serviceberry, omg. Generally speaking, though, all attention has shifted to the courtyard now that it’s underway.
Planted this month:
• The big redbud that had been waiting 2+ years in its nursery pot
• The second Juniper ‘Taylor’ alongside the one I planted in ’23
• A trio of tiny native yarrows, already growing fast
• The multi-stem grey birch(es) at the carporch corner, which is about to be my favorite spot in the garden, more on this soon
• The makeshift vegetable garden, including pots of greens and herbs scattered around
• The start of the tiny fruit garden (the pear stick and blueberry ‘Duke’ so far)
And I have a handful of woodland plants ready to go into the ground this weekend. Woodland plants! Here! So much more to say about that ...
Squeezing in greens and herbs anywhere I can — from the stoop to the a/c roof. Those are arugula seeds sprouting around the lettuce trio.
JUNE TO-DOs
I finally have a pick-up date for the plugs I ordered back in March, and they will be in my hands by this time next week, just moments after the courtyard beds are complete. I also mulched out a bit of planting space out front for the ones that want more moisture, and there’s the fruit garden planting to complete. Plus it’s June already, so I’ve got my work cut out for me. It is time to plant.
As always, I would love to hear what’s happening in your garden!
