Early May Garden (Grapes, Irises, Dappled Willow)

I went out to water plants in the garden this morning and thought it was a good time to show you how the garden was growing this morning.  So far the first week of May have been warm and sunny and the garden is responding accordingly.  Here is what you can see in our zone 6b garden this spring:

Our Concord grape vine is putting on fruit!  This is the first time it has started to produce anything and looks like it could be loaded with grapes if everything goes well.  I planted it next to the arbor in the side garden so that it could be used to trellis the grapes.

Our ‘Hiroku Nishiki’ dappled willow shrubs are growing like you would expect.  Fast and beautiful!  The dappled foliage makes for a very unique deciduous hedge line along our property.  All of these started from just a few cuttings taken from this dappled willow.  (Or you may like this post on How to Propagate dappled willows from cuttings).

The kids love it too.  I’ve pruned the underside and it creates a play area under the shade where they make their forts.  Dappled willows aren’t for every garden though, each one has the potential to be large. To give you a little perspective, the top of the swingset to the right stands at 8 feet tall.

Japanese dappled willow

The irises have started their bloom period.  Here’s Clarence.  I added him last year in the self-sowing garden.

We have quite a few purple irises with a grape fragrance.  The whole garden smells like grapes right now!

The white Dutch irises are in bloom too.

Self sowing lyre-leaf sage makes a good ground cover if allowed to spread.

Columbine and Golden Ragwort

Snowball viburnum is a favorite of many gardeners.  Ours has never looked better!  It’s planted in a part-sun/part-shade spot on one corner of our house.

There’s the quick update on the May garden.  The vegetable garden is still in progress.  The potatoes, asparagus, and strawberries are performing perfectly but one of the downsides of running a mini-nursery business is the time I would spend in my garden is spent growing plants for other gardens.  Hopefully I’ll have a few minutes each day this week to get our tomatoes and peppers going!

How is your May garden growing?