Late May in the gardens

" Weeping Golden Chain" and "Twisty Baby Locust" Blooms, late May

Such a busy time of the year for us. With all of the rain and sunshine we've had this spring in western Oregon (it's been nice... really, really nice) the plants have been growing quickly (as have the insect populations and the fungal colonies). Keeping up with the maintenance on so many different types of plants has been keeping us plenty busy.

People have been excited to get outside and get gardening this year. Of course fruit trees, berries, and vegetables have been wildly popular, but we see a lot of people interested in perennial and annnual flower gardening as well.

In an effort to show our customers some of these plants in a garden setting with a more developed structure, we began a couple of years back to create our display gardens. We planted lots of trees and shrubs and perennial flowers and ornamental grasses. Each spring we add annual flowers and lots and lots of veggies.

Over time, the garden has taken on it's own personality. Well, multiple personalities actually. It is always changing. A month ago the "Prairiefire Crabapple" was in full bloom with a groundcover of "Fen's Ruby" Euphorbia underneath it. The pink and yellow color combination was eye-catching to say the least. Now, in late May, it's the Locust and Weeping Golden Chain (see above) strutting their stuff.

Everything that we planted two seasons ago has really startd to take off now. This creates the backdrop for all of the annual plantings that we do. The tomatoes, peppers, onions, chives, chard, eggplant, cilantro, celery, cucumber, summer and winter squash, zucchini, and leeks have already been planted. Same with the cilantro, basil, marjoram, dill, parsley, and other herbs. We also like to incorporate annual flowers into all of our gardens and so far we have planted Marigolds, Monkey flower, Alyssum, Begonia, and Snapdragons.

Tonight we're having a planting party after work. We'll be trying to finish off most of the vegetable beds. There is still so much to plant and we'd like to have almost everything in by tomorrow.... So busy in the springtime, but that's OK. We'll be enjoying the fruits of our labor come August and September, literally.

Late May, the garden is filled with so much promise.