End of May Weather

It has been really dry here for the past week. Predicted rain and thunder storms have not arrived, at least until today. So this afternoon, it poured and we really needed this rainfall. Unfortunately it seems to have brought the black flies out in abundance, just as we were remarking on how few there were this year.

 In the front garden, I planted about 100 daffodils last fall. Only about 1/3 have come up; the soil is very poor here, it is basically heavy clay. I will simply add more for next year. The trouble is that you can't cut the grass for a while, as the leaves need to be left to enrich the bulb for next year.

This is a photo of one of the brunnera that I planted in the side bed. The tiny blue flowers are exquisite.
Granddaughter Hannah took some much better photos yesterday on Nick's camera; I will have to get those on a stick and load them up here.

And this is a fringed bleeding heart that was planted last August. It is doing well, I planted it too close to a hydrangea, but I am going to leave it as it looks so good here.

And the property has one old lilac bush next to the driveway. Last September, I gave it a thorough cleanup, removing all the branches with dead flowers on them. I can't believe the number of blossoms on it this year; there are more flowers than leaves.

This town has some amazing lilac shrubs. And so much is in bloom at the moment, all the crabapples, the apples, the cherries and plum trees. Every street boasts a burst of colour with another flowering tree.

After planting the side bed with petunias, I had two boxes left over and put them into this balcony planter. Rather than plant them sparingly, I jammed them in; there are a dozen in this planter. With annuals only being here for such a short time, I want as much colour as I can possibly get.