What's Blooming in my Garden Now

If you're a gardener, this is the best time of year and the worst time of year. Let's get the bad over first - the weeds. I can weed one area of my flower beds, and *pop* as soon as I turn my back, I swear another one sprouts and grows 6 inches. Thank goodness for my son (who, as you may remember, is in the process of becoming a junior master gardener). Without his help every week, the weeds would be taller than me. Hopefully, I am slowly outsmarting them, planting perennials in bare areas to shade out the weeds' preference for sun.

I don't have the weed trouble at all with my new raised vegetable beds this year. Thank heavens. I am loving the Square Foot Gardening method.

Here's a look at what's newly sprouting and blooming in the garden in early May:

Japanese Maple

Hosta (I have two varieties in my back garden). They are a lovely addition if you can keep the deer away. Deer love them.

In the shade, there are many things blooming:

Creeping Jenny. I find it cascades beautifully if you place it in one of those half-turned-over-looking pots. You've got to keep an eye on it if you live in the country like me - deer like it, too.

Autumn fern, a beautiful perennial. It has really added some new leaves in the last week.

Mountain laurel, which is surprising in our Lower South location, but this is in a very cool, shady spot.

And...

Salmon-colored impatiens, which every shady Southern garden needs. They are also known as deer candy :)
That's why they only get planted in my deck planter that hovers out over the ridge. Deer lips cannot reach them there or they would be goners. (The impatiens, not the deer. Not yet anyway. It's not deer season until the end of the summer).

I just read an excerpt from a Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology study that said gardening was more relaxing than more sedentary activities like reading. I know exactly why after busting my rear end all day planting and pulling weeds. I crash my showered body onto the couch to read a good book, knowing that my hard work for the day is going to make my house look like a million bucks (and my stomach happy as soon as those tomatoes ripen).

Happy gardening.
Love,
TCB