According to the calendar, we’re a week ahead of last year and even slightly ahead of May’s full moon, but we couldn’t wait another minute to start planting. And according to the temperature – hot! – we’re right on schedule. I do wish our timing didn’t seem to consistently coincide with the very hottest days of late spring… It would be much better for the plants to choose a week of cool, gray days. But it seems that when we turn the corner on night temperatures, we run headlong into the days of summer. We’re working against the clock of full summer heat all of a sudden.

We’re in good shape though because reinforcements have arrived – Cathy (Harvest Maven) is back to help Dick in the vegetable garden and Lilah (Weed Woman) completed her sophomore year at Bard and has joined our crew for another summer! They planted tomatoes in the vegetable garden yesterday and with the volunteers’ help, gave the weeds what-for.There’s room now for another round of vegetable planting.

Yesterday the Tuesday volunteers also planted the big Display Garden bed. For the last 3 years it has been slowly filling with perennials, shrubs and self-sowers but we have deliberately left plenty of blank canvas for painting a new picture every season – something the perennial plant addict in me can’t seem to do at home. This year Gail and I placed 300 annuals and tender perennials that we hope will grow to be a riot of deep colors and bold textures. It already looks night-and-day different from last year’s frothy haze of pale lavenders.

The Rockettes are planting annuals and tender perennials (dahlias!) in the North Garden tulip pockets as I write and, weather permitting, we’ll plant in the Rose Garden tomorrow.

But just because we’re planting this week doesn’t mean that by next week we’ll be finished and can go home. We aim to have everything still waiting in the greenhouse planted by the end of June even then there will be endless tweaking and editing to be done here and there. – The gardens are, in fact, a work in progress from here on out.

Are you planting this week too?

Waves of excitement have washed over me all spring long – it’s really been such an extraordinary season with so much coming into bloom early and then lingering. Since it’s all been about two weeks ahead, we’re on track now for the first week of June blooms – and right on time (?) the Chestnut rose is beginning to open!

Even when the season isn’t pushing us forward, we gardeners often cast ahead – especially when we’re in planting-mode, like now. Every year Gail and I try new designs, new plants, new combinations. We’re getting to exercise our creative muscles every day (a river of sedum!) and follow through on ideas that have been percolating and incubating since last summer (a Display Garden bed of bold textures and deep colors!). And I’m getting so psyched to see it all come together.

Simply being creative in the garden can sometimes be all the inspiration we need to be even more creative – like any muscle, it gets stronger the more we use it. But there’s nothing like talking to another gardener to really get the ideas and enthusiasm flowing. A few years ago Gail and I jumped at the chance to hear a talk by Fergus Garrett. Fergus, of course, is head gardener at Great Dixter, which is the home of the late Christopher Lloyd and one of the most inspiring gardens in the world, whether you’ve been there or not (I have not). Fergus spoke on how to plan and plant for a succession of blooms and made it look so easy. We have been jazzed to follow his advice in our gardens ever since – especially the North Garden where we just took out the tulips to make way for swaths of annuals and tender perennials whose blooms will carry us through the summer into fall.

And that’s why, when Gail and I heard that Fergus Garrett is coming here – to Blithewold! on Sunday, June 27 (12-2pm), we just about went over the moon. His talk will be about the gardens of Great Dixter and his work with the Great “Christo”. So if you’re looking for a little push to get psyched about your own garden – or even if you’re already excited about it – you should absolutely not miss this event. Click here to register.

Are you flexing your creative muscles in the garden? Do you try different things every year? Will you be joining us on June 27th? – Let me know and I’ll save you a seat!

It’s always a little frustrating for me when Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens) falls on the weekend. So much more will be open tomorrow! But for the very nearly middle of May, there’s plenty to see and much more on the way. It’s actually amazing, considering how many things are blooming on the property – and blooming early – that we’re experiencing The May Gap.  We typically cross the gap at the end of the month.

The North Garden and Rose Garden are on the quiet side today. That said, in the North Garden the Trollius ‘Lemon Queen’ and perennial bachelor buttons (Centaurea montana) are blooming more exuberantly than I’ve ever seen them. And there are still a couple of clumps of tulips in the picture. I have to say that Tulip ‘Jackpot’ gets my vote for all-around-best tulip this year. It was among the first to arrive and is the very last to leave. – Not winning behavior for an overbearing party guest but we certainly appreciate it in a flower.

The Rose Garden gap will close in the next couple of days as roses (a couple of them are starting!) and Oriental poppies, allium and peonies open. I waited as long as I could for this poppy to open… I might have to stop through the garden again on my way home…

And in the Rock Garden, the tree peony which looked like this (below, right) this morning, is probably wide open now that the sun has come out. Maybe I’ll take a walk down there too… The last couple of years, the tree peonies opened 10-12 days later.

In the Water Garden, the best blooms are in the water – there are gajillions of tadpoles! (They are such tricky little buggers to try to photograph. Click on the photo for a larger view.)

Are you surprised by any of your mid-May blooms? Did you jump up and down or otherwise intervene to get any to open just a little sooner? (Not that I did that. Well, maybe just a little.)

We’re currently experiencing the weather that your local nursery professionals warned you about. We haven’t had a frost here but I’m still glad that our tender plants are still safely tucked up in the greenhouse. The wind over Saturday night was fierce and brought distinctly April-like (a true April, not like the April we just had) temperatures with it. And those temperatures are here to stay for the next few days. There may be a little residual warmth left in the soil from the last few weeks but such chilly nights will likely set it back a bit again.

Just like most of you, we’re anxious to plant the vegetable garden. We’re even itchier to get into the garden than usual because it was recently redesigned. Blithewold’s director of horticulture, Fred and his able assistant Dan have given Dick, our vegetable gardener extraordinaire, four large quadrants to plant in. They even built an adorable log cabin support for a super abundance of pole beans. (We might just make up for giving them all to the deer last year.) The whole garden is fenced against the deer (though not against a hapless neighborhood pooch who will hopefully remember that it’s there the next time she takes off running. Then again, she is a lab…) and perhaps as soon as the beans go in, the garden’s gates will too. We’ll have to be careful to lock the woodchuck and rabbits out rather than in…

Gail and I have commandeered the center of the garden – we couldn’t help ourselves – and have plans for spokes of flowers – millions of nasturtiums (dozens anyway) – and some of our favorite ornamental vegetables. We also want to do a little experimenting with companion planting and Dick is game to try it too. Do beans really hate onions? Will aphids go for nasturtiums over broccoli? Why would peas love carrots? Have you noticed any particular successes or failures with companion planting in your garden?

Our tomatoes and basil (they are reputedly good partners, not just in salads) are growing on inside the greenhouse. The only things that we have planted out so far are the cool season crops – like peas – and our sweet peas, spinach, lettuce and cabbage. Artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower and kale are hardening off and waiting in the wings for another planting session with the volunteers this week.

Are you being set back by the weather or pushed forward? Are you planning and planting anything new and different in your vegetable garden this year?

It’s official and I have the pictures to prove it. For the first time since I started this blog, I won’t be repeating myself on bloom day. The usual cast of mid-May characters are blooming now! Which isn’t to say that some won’t still be blooming on the 15th – but by then a whole new group will probably be showing off in front of my camera.

I don’t usually pay much attention to rose buds at this time of year but I might guess from the looks of these, they might not wait until June to open…

It’s interesting to see the exuberance of the heat-triggered bloomers and fully leafed out trees in contrast with the plants that take their cue from day length. The temperature sensitive ones are the gamblers willing to take a chance on frost and the timing of pollinators for the pay off of a possibly longer season. But “late” ones strike me as the smart ones. It’s as if they know something everyone else doesn’t.

We gardeners are left to wonder and speculate about the rest of the season. Do early blooms signify a longer season or will winter come two weeks sooner? (I can’t believe I just said that.) Will we sail through the North Garden’s May gap on June flowers or will there be a lingering bloom delay after the tulips are well and truly done? Should we take our cues from the gamblers and risk planting annuals ahead of our usual schedule or should we play it safe and wait?

We’ll actually do a bit of both here. May’s full moon – our usual cue for getting the annuals in the ground – is as late this year as everything else is early. So we’ll just watch the weather. Because the tulips in the Rose Garden have gone by, we’ll start there. We’ll take them out and in their place plant the cold-hardiest of the annuals/tender perennials first. The North Garden tulips are still looking stunning so we’ll wait one more week at least before taking them out by which time we’ll be right on our usual track in that garden – ready to plant by the last week in May.

I’ve noticed that some garden centers already have a few annuals out for sale. Will you wait or take a chance on planting now?