Coming up on the May long weekend, the garden is at that luscious, fresh, bursting, 50 shades of green stage. We didn’t get out to do much work in April – the weather was not agreeable. But May has brought some favourable dry weather, and we’ve been able to get a start.

The rabbits did not get away with damaging too many shrubs this year. I double sprayed with Scoot last fall, and covered up anything I was really concerned about. Aside from the shrubs I left them, which they did their typical damage to, the others look pretty good.

There’s lots going on in the yard this year, but I’ll just start with the lilacs. They are doing really well, some blooming better than ever before. Like this one.

One from my dad is finally giving a grand show.

This was just planted last year, so it’s off to a good start.

This white lilac has been here for 20+ years, and some years it doesn’t do much. The blooms are really beautiful.

I really love lilac season, always bringing a bunch in the house for the fragrance. It is such a beautiful flower, and the season is so fast, it must be thoroughly enjoyed.

I have been taking my houseplants back into the house, and getting the tropicals and succulents into the workshop. I am pretty diligent about replanting most into fresh potting soil, and spraying for bugs.

However, I missed a few critters apparently.

This large toad was sitting calmly among the plants. I continued working around him, stacking pots and tidying up, when I was surprised by this guy!

A small garter snake. I tried to direct him with a branch, but he was intent on hiding in the shelves and pots. That evening Doug took the toad out, but the snake was nowhere to be found. The next morning, he showed himself, and he was still cold and sluggish, so it was easy to get him to the door and outside.

I guess I need to more careful when I bring the pots inside next year! I just hope I didn’t bring toads or snakes into the house!

This was the first summer to plant the circular bed around Celena, our new statue. It was a good growing season, and the cleome really grew!

Yea, so high that we couldn’t see Celena anymore!

Time to clean out the bed because I wanted to fill it with Daffodils for next spring. I first cut down all the stalks so I was just left with much more manageable stems to pull out.

Weeded, and cleaned up.

A few weeks later, and a lot of rain later, the bed needed to be loosened up and given a quick tilling.

I marked out the lines where I want to plant straight rows of marigolds next summer.

I had a LOT of bulbs, dug up from here and there, where they were overcrowded.

And I found this dibber when I cleaned out the trunk earlier this summer.

I just threw handfuls of the bulbs on the ground, trying to make sure there were some big ones in every section.

The soil was nice and loose, and the dibber worked pretty well, so I got them all in the ground in short order. Tamped them all in. Some rain is coming and that will be just the thing to help them get settled before winter.

Next summer, I hope to plant marigolds and blue salvia. Much shorter plants!

Although way too late in the season, I finally got around to repotting, remixing and replanting some succulent planters. Some of the old mixes were looking pretty bare and ugly.

I found some good containers at Thrift stores, but without drain holes. So we drilled small holes in them for drainage and found some cactus soil for planting.

I cut off bits from here and there, dug out small plants, and had a few new purchases. I tucked in small starter plants into the spaces.

This is a very odd shaped container that I thought would be very cool. The first attempt was not very cool. So this time I just tucked in a lot of small baby succulents, and we’ll see how that works.

The planters actually turned out looking really good. But they only have about a month outside before I’ll have to move them indoors for the winter. Next summer I must do the job earlier so they can really flourish in the sunshine.

These are some of the dahlias we are enjoying this year. I’m building up a collection of purples.

I have many plants of this pink one so I will be giving away a bunch of these tubers. They are good bloomers, the plants are really large and need really good support. Parts of mine are breaking off at this point in the season.

This orange ball is an amazing bloomer with long straight stems for each bloom. I hope to get a bunch of good tubers from the plant.

This one is red, but not an apple red. It’s kind of tricky in a bouquet, but it does sort of go with pink and fuchsia zinnias.

I actually have some new tubers that haven’t even bloomed yet! I’m hoping I get at least one or two flowers, so I can at least see what they look like. The dahlias planted out in flower beds have also had very few blooms – I don’t know why. Dahlias are addictive – there are so many beautiful varieties, providing plenty of flowers for bouquets.

I found this blue pot at a Thrift store, and I knew it would be perfect for succulents.

I’ve had the pedestal for many years, so once it was loaded on the cart, I carefully rolled it into place in the flower bed. I planted up a variety of succulents. It’s a full sun site – I think they’ll be happy.

Here you can see it in the flower bed. A nice shot of colour, and a fun focal point.

To build the new garage, we removed a cluster of poplars, and only the two on the right were left.

The bigger one had quite a lean to it.

So it finally gave in to the lean, and came down this week.

Fortunately, it missed hitting this hosta bed, missed my little dogwood and black lace elder, missed the other trees and the swing.

It did break the cedar fence, and landed on a few hostas. You can see there wasn’t much of a root ball.

That was a bit of shade for some hostas, so now they are in a lot of sun. I cannot completely replant that bed, so we’ll have to see how they do in the next seasons.

Giant fleece flower or Persicaria polymorpha certainly lives up to its name. I have one plant at each end of this bed. They are really big, looking more like a shrub. But all that growth starts out from nothing, as it dies completely back every year. It is imposing and beautiful and lush, with the wonderful white plumes. This is the size by mid June.

This statement plant is easy to care for, needing no staking or extra water. It grows here in full sun. I’ve had this bed since 2014. Some of the other plants have been changed.

But this fall or next spring I will need to dig some of the plant out. After this many years, it is starting to interfere with surrounding plants. I hate to toss the divisions – maybe a line of them at the edge of the field? Mmm.

A wonderful plant for a large garden space.

The window boxes on the south side of the house had been in shade for years. I always planted them full of impatiens and coleus and begonias. But the big trees are gone. The last maple had a big crack and had to be removed. The shady side of the house now has the sun beating down on it most of the afternoon.

So I get to plant sun loving annuals.

A bright fuchsia geranium, purple and pink calibrachoa, some blue ageratum, and such a pretty pink alyssum.

Aren’t those colours so vibrant and beautiful?

I filled the front brick planter with 4 ivies that I kept through the winter. They are very long, so they draped nicely on the planter edge.

Three coleus will provide some height, and two begonias are going to be added too.

The east window boxes are still in shade, under the old maple.

I was hoping the impatiens were fuchsia, but they are turning out more red. Some coleus, purple potato vine, and Swedish ivy will fill the boxes nicely.

The window boxes usually do really well. I always think they are such a beautiful addition to the house, and easy work. Once they are planted, I only have to water – no weeding there at least!

The garden holds surprises every season. This spring I got to enjoy this lovely fritillaria. Last year the lily beetles got it. It is pretty early, and pretty spectacular.

The viburnum beetles have been a big problem in my garden. The Snowball bush was destroyed, so we just chopped it down. But as we neglected to dig out the whole plant, it just proceeded to grow again. This year, it had lots of good growth, and a few lovely blooms. I was careful to watch for beetles, and treated them promptly. I cut back a few sprawling branches, and next year it should look great again.

The Highbush Cranberry is also looking especially lush and healthy too. Hardly a beetle to be found on any of the bushes.

That’s one of the highbush cranberry bushes to the left here, full of healthy leaves and blooms. The other blooming shrub is a beautybush.

Many years ago, I planted a Bears Breeches. Most years there was no sign of it. I would plant something else there, and late in the summer, there would be one leaf of Bears Breeches finally showing. Through time, I guess it finally got enough roots and enough room to grow. So this year, there’s some nice leaves, it’s really growing! (I’ve got to move that little coreopsis underneath.) Who knows – I might even get some blooms this year!

After all the rabbit damage, and the dead fish early this spring, it is pleasant to find some surprises and successes in the garden.