31 May 2009

More luck than judgement

The small cultivated areas of the front garden aren't parts I pay a great deal of attention to. They're poor relations, really, to the vegetable gardens and the greenhouse. I do occasionally sow and plant things there: mostly herbs, salad greens and flowers, but there isn't any sort of a master plan to the area (as the post about the lilies-of-the-valley probably illustrates!).

May is a good month for the small stretch of garden in front of the veranda, though, despite the lack of attention. In early- to mid-May the tulips look lovely:


And then at the end of May the irises (planted in our first year and a gift from our neighbour) take over:


This year I managed a small piece of forward planning and sowed some sweet peas indoors (a bit too early, to be honest). I had a mental picture of them growing up the front of the veranda and drenching the area with their perfume. I put them out at the end of March (seven groups of three plants in each) at the back of this bed. This is how one of the groups looked then:


This particular bed gets a lot of sun and is quite warm, as it is next to the house. Otherwise this would have been far too early to plant them outside (as it was, I think I was pushing my luck). For a long time they did nothing at all, but now, at last, they're beginning to grow away well and perhaps the reality will match up with my imagination one of these days.

2 comments:

Heather said...

All the bulbs in bloom really brighten up an area, then to have the show continue with the iris' is a great thing. Good luck with the peas. Mine are 1/3 as tall this year as last year, it got hot early here.

easygardener said...

I find my attempts to produce a wonderful display of some annual climber is often doomed to failure. I can see the dream in my head but the reality is something different. Where I want exuberance I get wimpy growth. This year it will be Morning Glory. We can but hope!
I'm sure your sweet peas will do extremely well :-)