Your May gardening

I thought it might be fun if we shared what is going on in our gardens each month.

For the first week in May--I've planted my pear tree and will plant my blueberry bushes this weekend. I also bought a pussywillow which also needs planting.

Here in Montana, we've had a cold spring, so I have only a few flowers blooming--hyacinths and grape hyacinths. The tulips and daffodils are budded and finally about ready to burst open.

I have a dwarf peach tree in a very sheltered place. Although I see leaf buds starting to come out, I don't see flower buds this year. Two weeks ago we had one night that was 18 F--unheard of for this time of year. I'm afraid it knocked out my peach blossoms. Peaches in Montana are iffy in even the best of years.

I missed the first Farmer's Market of the season this morning. I imagine it was pretty sparse except for hardy bedding plants (and lovely yummy homemade bread and jellies).

My lawn needs mowing (for the first time this year) :-( so I'm off to do that.

Looking forward to hearing what everyone is up to.

I am a rank beginner as far as gardening, so I am still learning the ins and outs of all this. When I moved in to the house I'm renting, the yard was just a dirt patch, completely barren, and I think I've been lucky in that birds and insects don't seem to know my garden exists yet. My mom is always having problems with birds and bugs getting at her fruits and veggies.

I planted a young peach tree in February, and a few weeks ago it had a bunch of little peaches on it about the size of pecans. And then they disappeared! I haven't seen them on the ground, and they're not on the tree anymore, so I am very confused. The neighborhood stray cats also use this baby tree as a scratching post, which irks me.

I have some bell peppers coming in on two plants, getting quite large, should be yummy.

Tons of little cherry tomatoes, still green, on some huge plants.

I have 6 strawberry plants, but the berries never make it indoors as I usually snack on them while I am watering the garden!. :)

I Planted some peas, so far four have sprouted. Two of those died right away, and the remaining two don't look very happy, although I try to water them every day. Some onions are growing and look fairly healthy. I planted carrots and lettuce like a month ago, so far no lettuce and the carrot sprouts all died. I guess I don't have a particularly green thumb (yet!).

Our lawn will be due for its second mow soon. I've had a piece of ground (formerly lawn) under a mulch of composted manure and black cloth over winter and I shall soon have to take that off, dig over what's underneath, and decide what to plant there. Probably a Knautia (crimson scabious) which is hiding behind a tree, and maybe a Potentilla.

Many of my rhodo bushes are in bloom, both the pink and the early reds, and the later reds are covered with buds. The daffs are pretty much finished and the tulips and bluebells are so pretty in my 'spring garden' in the backyard. We got a half wine barrel yesterday and plan to put it in the Japanese/zen garden we've planned for the side yard...I want to plant a Red Dragon Japanese maple in it. I'm planting my vegetable garden this week....it is already a month late! My cold greenhouse is bursting with annuals and tomatoes and clematis...but it's been too cold and wet to plant. Spring, where are you??

We moved the summer house last weekend - posh term for an 8' x 8' structure but I love sitting it in it and so do the cats. It is now at the top of the garden in a shady corner and one window looks over the field behind our garden. Have been watching the lambs and various wild animals this week - glad we moved it.

Next really big job is to enlarge the pond. Despite owning lots of books about ponds, we have spent a long time wondering how best to do this. We have traditional fish in it, nothing fancy, but one tench has become extremely large and we are worried about damaging it.

Someone told me that people always wish they had made their pond larger, so when we moved here we made what seemed to be a fairly large pond - but they were right. Now it seems much too small. It hasn't been cleaned out since we made it, so we have to do something this year.

I've begun to fill the cement planters that flank the entrance to my house. Coleus, vinca vine on the porch near the door and I'm going to try caladium in the pots on the steps.

I took advantage of the rain last night and fertilized the front lawn in my raincoat. Glad to have it done.

I spent a lovely couple of hours at local greenhouses and bought some creeping thyme, monkshood and baptisia, which I then planted in my front yard.

What I really SHOULD have been doing was digging over the vegetable beds and laying out the square foot grids and then starting to plant. I'm leaving next Saturday for a few days with my mum and then a conference and will be back the following Saturday so I will in effect lose two weekends in prime planting time.

I also have a community garden plot that I was hoping to plant before leaving, but the compost isn't spread yet and the plots aren't marked and I can't plant until they are, so probably can't plant until I get back.

tardis, I do square foot gardening too...have for years....and mine aren't in yet either this year....VERY late, but then our year has been odd. This week for sure my veggies will be planted.

I've just got a bit of a panic on due to the week away, which encompasses the May long weekend, which is of course the traditional planting time. However, today I got the beds dug over and the grids laid. Will do a bit of planting tomorrow. Even a few seeds would make me feel better.

If it makes everyone feel better about how late/behind they are...normally I have my vegetable garden planted the beginning of April...this year, I STILL have not got it planted! I dug it over today, and hope to get it ready this week. When I lived in Alberta, I generally still had my veggies planted before the May long weekend, but here it is much earlier. It's been a rotten year, tons of rain. We had frost two days ago. I am philosophical though...there will be veggies, and they will be fine. And the rhodos and cherry trees, the tulips,and daffodils love it.