The Lusty Month Of May

It's May, it's May, the lusty month of May!  (Actually it's June 1st today - I was too exhausted to blog yesterday).  Do you remember that song from Camelot sung by Queen Guinevere (Vanessa Redgrave)?   I'm talking plant lust though around here.  When I lay my head down at night I think about plants and try to stay awake so I can keep thinking about plants and as soon as I awaken, I think about plants!  Take a peek at what's been happening in my yard.  Isn't that Tree Peony to die for in the photo above?  I have two of those trees, about 13 years old, that I brought over from the yellow house.  The transplant gave them both a shock two years ago but they have recovered wonderfully.  I bought a third last year from a plant sale at Fuller gardens with a label stating that my purchase was the same as the two I have but look below and you can see that it was mislabeled.  I can live with that - it's gorgeous too and the blooms are about huge!

 The beginning of May, I brought out all the plants I had started from seed inside under grow lights.  They've all been planted in various places and are growing and thriving.

 This area right here in the pool yard was an ancient and huge white lilac that was in bad shape.  It was underplanted with vinca by the previous owners.  I tore all that out, Dan cut down the lilac and we planted a Japanese Maple that will top out around 12 feet.  I underplanted the area below it with dozens of nasturtiums seeds.  It will look like Monet's Giverny in a couple of months ( a bit of an exaggeration, much smaller scale of course, but it will be lush and over the top)!  A couple of weeks later, look how the nasturtium seeds have taken off.

 That nasturtium bed will be loaded and overflowing with orange, red and yellow flowers and trailing vines.  Look at Monet's nasturtiums below that I visited a couple of summers ago.

 I will certainly take after pictures when all the blooming is going on and you will see for yourself what transpires underneath the Japanese Maple.

We uncovered the pool and are working very hard to get it from green to lovely crystal blue!

Our 50 or so pots have all been filled - here are a few examples -

Look outside our kitchen door at the patio below.

 When we bought our house, this is what the previous owners had planted below the kitchen window - so totally blah.  Now look -

Perennial peach coral bells, hot shot azaleas, and three pots (one not shown) that just get bigger and more colorful as the summer passes - color from May to October.

 View outside the kitchen window - sorry about the screen, it doesn't go up.  Have I mentioned we are getting 58 new windows this week?  It's a mess in the house right now with workers here all day long and all week doing the install.  I know this is a 200+ year old house and I can't imagine living in anything but an old old house but I am so over old, antique windows.  What good is a wavy glass if you can't see the view outside?  And the freezing drafts in the winter, the inability to open some of them, the misery of washing old windows with two storms on top - I could go on and on.  I am so excited for clean, easy to open and wash (tilt) windows that have been built to look just like our antique ones.

 The first one in!

The view from the front porch this week.

Remember the new planting area we've made around the back porch?  Where we had all those yews removed, lattice replaced boards and stone laid?  Here is an update - I put the last plants in today.  Some (the ones with color) I bought locally, the rest are ones I ordered that came in the mail - harder to find varieties.  I also added many packs of annuals as fillers until the plants mature.  I haven't painted the new wood yet or mulched - that will happen later this week.  Two small trees, 3 shrubs, 4 rose bushes, a clematis with a tower for climbings, lots of perennials and annuals.  It's gonna be gorgeous when it grows up!

Here's what's going on in the pool yard gardens:

 The veggie garden is planted here and also in the area outside of the pool fence - three more tanks are out there.

The super long sun border is coming along:

 Those pinks in front of eupatorium are a great combo.

In May we've had lily of the valley bouquets for days!  We've got huge colonies of them in the woodsy area of the yard along the stone wall.

When I come in for dinner most days this month, I have had to hop on the counter and do this because I am so filthy.  You just can't eat a proper meal with dirt covered feet.  I love ending the day dirty, filthy and tired!

A couple of weeks ago in downtown Portsmouth, these beauties were happening:

Good bye May!!!