May: My Spring Garden

May 1st 2023 was a lovely sunny Spring day – so just right to record what was in bud or flowering. Like last year, we had decided to have another ‘No Mow May’ and it was pleasing to see the primroses and forget-me-nots taking over the lawn (as well as lots of daisies).

The daffodils were very well established by then, although they were out later than last year…

… but you can also see the brambles muscling in already.

In the shady part at the bottom of the garden, the bluebells were making a display.

I’m pretty sure these are native English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) and not the invasive thugs known as Spanish bluebells, althought there are lots of hybrids around now sadly. The English bluebells are a deeper blue, the nodding stems much less upright and the flowers fall to one side of the stem. The flowers are also narrower and more tube-like, with very curly ends to the petals and they have a sweet scent.

The fruit trees were also out in blossom.

and the White nettle (Lamium album) in one of the wildflower patches was already attracting bumble bees.

As you can see from the images below, May also began with a very early bee swarm, from a small hive of wild bees.

These were carefully caught and provided with a new home.

We had a few other invaders showing up too: some rogue wild strawberries and wallflower, making best use of small cracks in the paving.

In a more shady part of the garden, there were hellebore, Pulmonaria and Dog’s tooth violet were jostling for space.

While the Gunnera just takes up as much space as it wants! Even in early May, it was already around 4 feet tall.

By the end of May, there were red poppies (Papaver orientale) and yellow Welsh poppies…

and one of my favourite roses (Tottering-by-Gently) was starting to bloom

…with the promise of more blooming roses in June.

Maggie Kirk
Garden: Pitton