Small Yard Garden Tour - May 2020

The backyard cottage garden is putting on it’s show and you’ve got front seats to the beautiful views via my small yard garden tour.

In its third year, the perennials in the bed are slowly maturing which means loads of blooms. Since it is gonna be a lot to write I’ve added a video as well to the 25 pics below.

Looks like we had a lot of casualties in the garden bed this season. All the Alliums from previous years, 3 Coreopsis, 2 Catmints, 1 Incrediball Hydrangea, and 1 Lacecap Hydrangea. I think my clay soil is taking quite a toll on the perennials. Also last year I wasn’t able to pay much attention to the garden during the growing season. So I’m brushing these losses off as a learning experience.

Thankfully I had planted some Alliums last Fall or else these happy looking purple balls would have been sorely missed.

Here’s my Pink Penstemon or Beardtongue in all its glory. This is the mama plant that I made so many babies from, to plant around the garden.

The Venice Blue Speedwell also seems to have reached its full potential this year.

My Queen Elizabeth rose is an 8 feeter now!

Another newcomer is this beauty, my David Austin rose, Lady of Shallot. Totally in love with the color and the fragrance.

And ofcourse, our dear Rebecca Clematis put on a great show for over a month.

Here is the cottage garden bed in mid May before the Red Hot Pokers sprung into action.

One of the first flowers in my Spring garden were these Anemones.

Here you can see my winter sown Oriental Poppies, Spanish Lavender, and Alliums against my Magnolia.

Another newcomer is this Baptisia Lunar Eclipse. Actually I winter sowed the seeds that a friend shared in the Winter of 2018. Finally it is blooming! Right next to it I have a direct seeded Baptisia Australis (from 2018) also blooming for the first time.

Early on the garden had specks of yellow thanks to another winter sown warrior, Perennial Alyssum or Basket of Gold.

More Alliums in our small yard garden.

My Foxglove ❤️ I’ve had tremendous success with winter sowing these cottage garden essentials. The plant and flowers are poisonous, so please avoid planting if you have small kids and pets.

Another reliable Spring bloomer, the Woodland Phlox.

This year my Red Hot Pokers or Kniphofias are on steroids. This guy is almost 5 feet!

I’m realizing that I have a weakness for plants that bloom on a tall stalk or have the spire shape.

This was how my Rebecca Clematis looked in early May. By the last week all that green was covered in maroon.

See, what I told you about the Red Hot Pokers?

Here’s another early Spring bloomer, Columbines. Only the top one is a store bought plant. The other 2 are winter sown in 2019.

Cannot tell you what a relief it was to see my Spanish Lavender blooming! Last year the plant took a very long time to recover from Winter and had no blooms.