End of May Garden Report

With our mild Winter and extremely early Spring, I guess the garden is about a month to six weeks ahead of where it "should" be. Well, there aren't really any "shoulds" in gardening -- it is what it is. And this year it's early.

Tree Peony, bachelor buttons, and the white climbing rose

Our mature tree peony has 20 blooms on it. It is amazing. I can't wait for the two we planted this year to get on with it. This picture shows our fountain - an anniversary gift to each other about five years ago - the climbing white rose, which is loaded with blooms, some of the bachelor buttons, and the tree peony.

Newly painted bench in the meditation garden

Every year there is some sort of building project that seems to need to be done. This year's project is the garden bench in the meditation garden. Joanne bought this a few years ago. It's one of those metal and wood benches you see everywhere. I guess we have had it about four years. A couple of years ago it started to look pretty beat up, so she took it all apart, sanded it back, and polyurethaned it. It was difficult because the metal parts of the bench are cast iron, and they are HEAVY! We always wrap the bench up with a tarp and bungie chords. But this year, when we unwrapped it, it looked terrible again. J wasn't really looking forward to taking it all apart again. She decided that this time she should paint it. So when John and Nic came up for a few days, John helped her with the project. He was really wonderful. You can't imagine how much easier a job is when it's a young (strong) guy helping you! I love the way the bench came out, and I think I'll like it even when the paint starts to look "old". I tried to talk J into distressing the paint, to speed the look along. But no luck!

Clematis "Crystal"

The clematis are coming along this year. I think we will probably buy a couple more to help them get to the level of coverage we want quicker. J says she is a little disappointed, but I figure it will take a few years, and it has only been 2 really. J's favorite clematis is one called "Crystal" - it really looks like a lotus, I think. The picture isn't a very good one. The color of the clematis is a very very pale blue, almost transparent.

I hope you are having a wonderful time in your garden too!