Rounding out May

This month has been quite busy!  The pace has been manageable and the weather, perfect. 

A few successes have been taking place... My rhododendron in the West Village that I was told never blooms had bloomed this week .  It's quite exciting for the client.  I took on this garden a few years ago, hacked it back the first year, gave it some love the next and this spring- it's back on track!

Her irises have also bloomed beautifully this week.  They were transplanted from Sagaponac when her family moved years ago to the city.  The yellow iris is still opening up.  

The roses are battling an attack of the aphids.  Those nasty little pests ruin everything!  Ugh.  

Half of my gardening time, if not more, is finding out what is going on with a sick plant or getting rid of some bug or disease that drifts in or just the constant battle with black spot.  

...

Today I planted a garden in Park Slope that I cleaned out a few weeks ago.  I ripped a ton of ivy out, painted the concrete walls, removed a bunch of rotting whiskey barrel planters and two lower rotted garden beds.

Before

After clean out.

After the annual planting today.

 Snapdragons, lobelia, Angelonia, Coleus, Calibracoa, Leucothoe, Nicotina and Columbine were added to give it a sweet colorful country mix. 

A corner "Before" view.

And the same corner after.  It will be really nice in July when everything fills in and is full of color!  I can not wait!  

 This is also the garden that has two naughty dogs that like to dig in the corners of the beds. 

The naughty dog:

(But really, she is such a sweet dog.)

To amend their habits, we left Ace and Roxy one flower bed full of sand as well as mulched the flower beds with Ponderosa pine cones.  

The cones work great!  Ace cant find her footing and I imagine it pricks a little so she stays in the low sand bed!   Problem solved.  (Well, the new flowers may be tempting for her, we we shall see.)

On the home-front, I cleaned out my back yard and started a garden.  I've been here for 5 years, so it's about time... but you know what they say, "A cobbler always has the worst shoes".  I'm about to change that.  

June seems to be looking good.  I'm going to do a garden at one of my client's lake houses up state. I have an install to take care of in Williamsburg.  Maintenance maintenance maintenance... it never ends.  

Happy gardening!