Russell's Tree

©Robin Edmundson, 'Russell's Tree', watercolor 18 x 24 inches.

We have a beautiful crabapple tree in our yard that blooms gloriously each May.  It smells divine and draws thousands of pollinators of all kinds to each.   The air is literally abuzz from the moment the first bloom opens. 

I've never tried painting it before.   All those blooms confuse my eye and I'm not confident in simplifying a subject like that.

In the spirit of saying just enough but not everything, I tried anyway, with a more restrained approach - just to see what that was like. pushing the extremes of the lights and darks, leaving out everything else but the tree and the grass.

I'm undecided about how successful it is and will likely sit with it for a few weeks before I touch it again.

I'd love to hear your opinion...Is it done?

May Garden Harvest

May started slowly and built steam [literally] fast.   The garden has been loving the heat and I can practically hear things growing.   Here's what we harvested from the garden in May

• Lettuce,  tons and tons and tons from the cold frame and hoop house.  Planted last fall.
• Arugula, planted out this spring in rows, plus some that self sowed.
• Radishes, planted out in rows this spring.
• Strawberries
• Peas
• Onions - greens from sets I planted out in early April.

I made my first batches of strawberry vanilla jam from a flat of delectable berries that Eric brought home from Melton's and it was to die for.  It's Claire's favorite and she is jealously guarding every jar.

Now that jam season is in full swing, don't forget that my jam cookbook ebook is on sale for a while.  See sidebar for link and preview. 

Peonies

Peonies like it here.

A lot.

Almost every old farmstead has some of these blooming near the house or garage, marching along in a neat line.

It's so southern Indiana. I love it. 

Our house came with a regiment of these pink and white ones.   Palest pink on the outside, white fluff in the center...










...and pink markings in the very center.

They smell strongly - a bit like roses and iris.

The Terrace Gardens

Our lower flower gardens, including this terraced garden, love this time of the year and quite honestly, May is when they look their best.   Things get a bit wild and crazy the rest of the year.   We have a lot of iris, with bunches of the wild daisies [leucanthemum] that volunteered and stayed, plus a few poppies.  I like the dark red Beauty of Livermoor poppies the best.  There are peonies to the left of this shot.  

Later in the year, there will be a cloud of nigella and a lot of daylilies with some monarda.  The past few hot dry summers almost wiped out my monardas.  We'll see how they do this year.  In late summer we'll get some blue asters and black eyed susans.   Things change a bit every year. 

Click the pic to blow it up for a better look.

Up Close and Personal

Once in a while, K2 takes the camera into the garden and gets up close and personal with everything growing there.  I don't always discover this until I'm downloading, but her style is distinctive and the perspective is all her own.  This is what she found in the flower garden.

Open wide and say, 'Ahh...' 

This is the throat of an iris.

Clematis 'Niobe' just opening.

Its neighbor, open.

The heart of one of the very old peonies that came with the house.    

Veronica 'Crater Lake Blue'.

Lilacs

Lilac time.  

They bloom right at the edge of the season - around the very last frost.  They don't last long, but they smell divine. 

Ours came with the house and we divided them and let them get big.  This time of year they are glorious and they have loved all the rain and the slow cool spring.

They are the old fashioned ones.  Loosey goosey in habit.  Big blowsy bushes about 8 feet tall.  The buds start out rosy, but they open much bluer.  The contrast of pink and blue and purple is one of the things I like best about them.

The bees and butterflies love them.   If you stand still in front of the bush, you can hear the humming and buzzing.

And more roses...

K2 found these gorgeous things at St. Mary of the Woods College, near Terre Haute, Indiana, where I taught a couple of workshops last weekend.     This rose was blooming just outside the old greenhouse. 

Nice, huh!

So pretty, K2 climbed right on in.

May Flowers

This is the view from my lower garden looking back toward the terraces.   

I love the irises in May.

These are my favorite iris.  I think they're called 'Congratulations'.  

I have loads of siberian iris.   I love them.    I put them everywhere.   I have a whole bog full of iris.

These are on my terraces.  The rocks in the terrace walls were pulled out of our creek.  We hauled them ourselves.   I placed every single one of these rocks myself.

This is the view from my porch onto the hosta garden and the terraces.

 I can't wait to show you what the hostas look like in bloom. 

Photos:  Robin and K1

May Garden

The garden is growing.

Peas

Strawberries

Rhubarb - which is still alive after 3 years!    I can't tell you how many rhubarb plants I've killed over my career.   This one and its companions are big and gorgeous.

And fava beans.  Love those black and white flowers.

What's up in your gardens?