Where'd May go?

     Holy cow peeps!  Where did May go?  All I know is that classes started up, my bestest friends got hitched, and it's transplanting time here in good ol' Wisconsin.  The windows have been open for the last week and the cats have raided the back porch, claiming it as their play spot for the summer.  And I don't blame them, especially since the robins, cardinals, and a slew of finches now hang out in our back yard.

But on to what's been transpiring in the gardens!  Apparently, everything decided to started blooming while I was away.  I didn't snap a picture of the palm sized poppies in the back, but the 'champagne bubbles' variety are already open. The pic shows the snapdragons (who survived winter), dianthus, and the campanula.  There are, of course, many more flowers blooming around the yard.

A few weeks back, I collected a few of the bleeding hearts and pansy flowers for pressing.  The colors stayed quite nice and it did thin the herd a bit, as they say.  The pansy have since overtaken the front retaining wall and I'm pondering thinning them out again.  Never mind the fact that the Chinese Lantern in the maple garden is running amuck...

And on the porch there is the normal suspects of black petunias.  This year they are paired with orange pansy.   I think it's a very beautiful contrast and as they grow it will be even more striking.

In the vegetable garden, the golden boy tomatoes are housed in their cage while the red bell and banana peppers are sitting cozy in their  shared tote.  I still have to get the melons seeded not to mention the bicolored corn.  This year, I picked up some apple mint that will go with the mint garden quite nicely.  In addition, I planted a 'red wine' mixture of sunflowers with the strawberry corn and blue corn on the side of the house. The chocolate sunflower from last year decided to repopulate the garden bed itself so I didn't bother adding more to the mix, lol.

the fence so far with the maple garden behind it

On top of that, I get to expand the gardens even more!  We split the yard in half to make a true back and front yard.  The walkway for the fence goes through a wooden arbor.  And since there's space, I'm going to spread out the gardens with lavender, oregano, chives, and a few other herbs among the flowers, because I can.

Needless to say it's been a busy end to spring.  Next on our list is to finish the fence, paint the house, and at some point, I need to put together the garden bench I've been planning for.

Boo-berries and pumpkins

This year I'm giving seed starting (yet) another chance.  Every year, I try to start my own seedlings for transplant; however, the blasted things never take or just don't like to be transplanted.  This time around I got a heat mat for my eggplant and pepper seeds, something I didn't have when I tried two seasons ago.  I'm going to give the seed experience another go tonight after dinner.  While this is an epic moment it brought about utter chaos.

If I start these seeds then where will they live?  How many should I start?  And the plan I had created back in January went out the window....not just because of thinking about seedlings but because I picked up a few things while out and about over the last few weekends.  Namely blueberry plants and pumpkin seeds....and not to mention the red and blue corn seeds...oh! and more sunflower seeds...can't forget those...

The blueberry plants are now occupying the self-watering containers (SWC) I had planned for the pepper plants and well the pumpkins and corn seeds...they're hanging out for the moment.  That brings me to the present.  I've cut out pictures of all the seeds and plants I'm planning for this year's garden out of an extra Burpee's catalog.  I'm planning on taping them (or somehow arranging them) onto an over-sized piece of paper as an impromptu planning guide.  But then, I'm getting into the dilemma of finding out I might not have enough pots for this year's idea unless I get/make more...what's a girl to do?