The Garden in May

I was talking to my dad in England on the phone yesterday and he commented "I was looking at your blog yesterday and you haven't updated it in a month!!"

Consider me chastised!  You would think, since I'm currently not working full time, that I would have all the time in the world for things like blogging.  But to tell the truth, since we've been having (so far) a very mild, pleasant spring, I've been more inclined to be outside walking or puttering in the garden than to be inside writing about it.

But in the last couple of days it has felt like summer has arrived in the Houston area.  The temperature has crept up and so has the humidity.  So today I went out early for my walk, and now I can sit in the cool and write about the garden!

The daylilies in the island bad are coming into their glory.  We have a number of different varieties, none of which I can remember the names of now.  I'll call this one "Peaches & Cream" - I'm sure it won't mind.

This is another variety I don't know the name of. Earlier in spring I divided this one and put some of it in the other island bed.  The newly planted cutting hasn't started flowering yet, but the original is bursting into bloom.

The other day I was sitting having breakfast when I caught sight of a hummingbird flitting from bloom to bloom on the Major Wheeler honeysuckle.  Naturally, my camera was not handy!  But at least I know there are hummers around now and am in the process of making some nectar to fill my feeders to put out today.

Here's a close up of the native honeysuckle.  I'm glad it's finally doing something.  I planted it three years ago and it was very puny for a while.

I was reading somewhere that this particular vine is not the sort that will vigorously cover a trellis so it's not great if you want it to hide an eyesore.  As it happens, I have creeping fig growing on the sound wall behind it and the combination of the two vines looks rather attractive and hides the ugly sound wall.

The Rose of Sharon is also bursting in to full bloom.  This has grown from a cutting I bought with me from my previous house, when we moved here eight years ago.  It's a favorite of bees and hummingbirds.

Here's another hummingbird favorite, Turk's Cap. I have a bit of a dilemma with this.  It's in a container, but managed to pop a root through the bottom of the pot and is now rooted to the ground.  It probably needs to be either repotted or planted in the ground somewhere (if I had anywhere for it) but I would probably kill it in the process.  So I'll leave it where it is for as long as it lasts and then replace it when necessary.

Well today is Friday the 13th, which means that Sunday is the 15th - Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

I'm going to link this post up with her May Garden Blogger's Bloom Day when she puts it up.

This post is also linked with the following memes:

Flower Friday, hosted by Aquariann

Floral Friday Fotos hosted by Nick V.

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise at An English Girl Rambles.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Magical Month of May

Earlier this week I noticed a mockingbird that seemed to be coming and going a lot. At one point I saw it on the fence with a beak full of nesting materials.  As I sat on the patio, I began to realize that it was probably nesting in the false cypress we have against the fence on the west side of our garden.

 As you can see from the photo, this was where we had put up the nesting shelf for the cardinals.  As of yet, the cardinals have ignored it, but if you look closer, you'll see that Mrs. Mockingbird was kind enough to build her nest right where I can get good photos without having to teeter on top of a step ladder!

When I took a peek this morning, I was thrilled to discover a beautiful speckled blue egg. Hopefully there will be more to follow.

The nest is very sturdily constructed, having been started last year, but never actually used.  I'm so thrilled that someone is nesting in it this year.  With the loss of habitat either side of us, I'm particularly happy to see that we still get birds in our garden and that they choose to nest in the habitat we are building.

I was going back through my iPhoto library because somewhere I have a photo of this particular nest when it was just a few sticks.  I couldn't find it, but I did find some other photos that reminded how magical May can be.

For example -- it was one year ago today that we had some unusual visitors to our garden.  I don't think I showed this video before, but we had a visit from a family of these little guys, drawn to our garden by the soggy ground under our hose reel.

They stayed with us for two days and I was fascinated, but a little relieved when they moved on -- my flowerbeds were starting to show signs of wear!

More magical moments in the garden last May when a Carolina wren nested on our patio.  I just happened to have a day off from work and be sitting on the patio on the day the young ones left the nest.

In last week's post, I celebrated the fact that we were finally hosting some Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed in the front garden.  More recently, I spotted a couple of tiny caterpillars no more than half an inch long on the milkweed in the back garden.

As I was heading out the garden gate to turn on the water so I could refresh the bird bath, I saw something I have never seen before in my life -- a Monarch chrysalis!!

As we head further in to May, I'm looking forward to more magical wonders in the garden.  I'll keep you updated on Mrs. Mockingbird and her family and let you know how things develop.


Happy gardening everyone!

 


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.