The Garden in May

By Alternativeeden @markngaz

So how has our garden been doing in the merry month of May so far? The last week has been a very productive week for us when it came to getting more things done in the garden. I know on our blog then entire length of last week was dedicated to Chelsea (as it was ongoing then) but behind all of that we have been busy sorting out our own turf. 

Painting in progress

As soon as we got back from the event on Monday afternoon Gaz did a quick blog and then we started painting the jungle hut for the remainder of that evening. And painting was the main highlight of the week and a close second was actual planting out of newly acquired plants as well as the usual tidying up.

One other good thing about Chelsea is that it reminds you that it's time to do the 'Chelsea Chop', which the Lysimachia 'Firecracker' received

Our garden is not looking too bad at all, progress is relatively quick at the moment and lots of familiar sights are resurfacing once again. Here are a few more random snaps of our garden in May...

The painted lady is back! It's funny how one can easily associate or assign a gender even on inanimate objects and somehow it just feels right to refer to our red pergola as a 'she'. Well it's lipstick red and I'm so glad to see this pergola loud and proud once again, like how it used to be. Okay, side trellis may not be up yet but that should follow soon.

All the Scheffleras in the garden are busy flushing away and I ought to take a photo of them one by one. This one is the Garden House Schefflera rhododendrifolia. I think the lighting was perfect on this spot when I took this photo. 

All the rock daisies in the garden seemed very happy this year, happy enough to flower profusely. The ones nearest to the pond are Celmisia spectabilis.


A lot of our taller Trachycarpus fortunei are flowering this year too. I must try and take photos of all of them as it's quite unusual.

The Gunnera tinctoria by the bottom patio pond seems to be doing extra well this year, looking much bigger than it usually does on previous years and it's still not showing signs of maxing out size yet.

Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis 'Soft Caress' softly caressing a log of moss...

The jungle hut holding it's own right amongst the jungle-y foliage.

Schefflera aff. myriocarpa seems set to be multi-headed from this year onward.

Always brings a cheer to see these little bright fellows. And at this time of the year you get to know too which are males or females.

Oops, I must fish out those dead Fatsia japonica leaves.

Rhododendron 'Viking Silver' living up to its name.


Just a few images for now as a little update on our garden which will also set the tone for some of the topics I will blog about for the remaining days of May and in June. 


Mark :-)