Posy Gang Grower's Diary IV: Things get lush

​May is my favourite month. The season is still in flux, but can you feel it starting to gain momentum?

It poured yesterday, and all the weather websites are calling for more rain in an hour or so. I'm only halfway through my garden chores but I want to take pictures. I run in to grab the camera and begin stalking the grounds for subjects.

 The scent of wet earth is on the air. 

I have many memories tied to this scent, but what comes to mind first is a school-aged Allison, hastily shutting the front door and running out to the car in the morning just after it's rained. There is no time to take in my surroundings but that lovely muddy smell hits me anyway. It's 8:11 AM and homeroom begins at 8:50, several stop signs and ten subway stations away. I can see through the windshield that my mom is already gripping the wheel with both hands. I feel a little guilty. She always seems to be in more of a hurry to get me and my brother to the subway than we are...

If somebody is selling this scent of mud, I'll take a few bottles. FYI my chemist friend tells me the scent is called petrichor and is made up mostly of geosmin molecules. Hm...!

Suddenly another scent hits me. It's lilac season. I'm delighted to host a white-flowered tree in my space, but my neighbour's mauve flowers have the heavier fragrance. I inhale deeply while casting longing looks at those luscious blooms just on the other side of the hedge.

Loud rustling from within my compost pile breaks my reverie. A robin emerges with a long piece of straw in her beak. If this is the robin I think it is, then I'm cheered to know she's building again. She made her first nest under my eaves, but she abandoned it last week, around the time I found a blue, broken egg on the ground. Did I disturb her too much?

​A grackle lands on the roof, hops to the edge, and peers down at me.

Brooding robin a couple of weeks ago.

The compost heap looks rather inviting today. I feel compelled to lay down upon it and recite The Lady of Shalott. LOL. I think I have Anne of Green Gables on my mind. See how nostalgic I get, enveloped in a cloud of petrichor and lilac perfume?! That said, even if I were eleven again, the thought of slug slime and sowbugs all up in my hair would probably be too much to overcome. 

​By the way, that hosta growing at the top of the pile came from a yard waste bag I filled last fall while dividing perennials. Hostas are tanks.

​Okay, let's go look at what I'm growing now.

I only have one narcissus patch left to harvest. Double Poeticus, worth the wait.

And I got netting up for the sweet peas - climb, babies, climb!

I am really, really excited for these Iceland poppies (papaver naudicale). I recently heard someone refer to their flower buds as "fuzzy noggins," and ever since, I have been saying "fuzzy noggins" to myself while looking for them amongst the leaves. I think it'll be a few weeks yet.

Now that danger of frost is finally over, all the tender things have been put outside to harden off. Let's see, what have I got here... Some rose geranium, dahlia cuttings, cosmos, tomato seedlings.

The roses are leafing out and aphids have been snacking on their tender shoots. I've been trying out Ed Lawrence's spray bottle remedy. It seems to have worked. The aphids are not completely gone, but I think I can keep their numbers low this way. Recipe: 1 part liquid soap in 40 parts water sprayed all over; left on for 10 minutes; rinsed and repeated 3 times over 10 days.

More hostas. The one on the left is a giant. I love them best now, as they unfurl, and before the slugs begin their season-long feast.

Whoops, to get that last hosta shot I've made a lot of noise under someone's open office window. He comes to see what's going on and then gets camera shy. Sorry, my love!

Oooh, these are hybrid and tiger lilies. New soundtrack for the remainder of this post: Eye of the Tiger (the Jenn Grant cover, not the original).

DAHLIAS! I woke these tubers up on March 1 - hoping to have blooms sooner than I ever have before. August, September, October brides (hopefully July?!), please inquire within.

I was in the middle of planting these dahlias when I started taking pictures.

It's getting a bit dark and drizzly out here now - let's finish up quickly on the far side of the house.

Holly bushes make flowers! I'd never thought about it before, but of course they do! And based on those central green nubbins (ovaries?), I think this one's a female. Despite having no space for anything else, I consider finding her a mate so she'll bear those bright red berries. They would certainly make my winter wreaths more colourful...

Oh no, rain's falling heavier.

Decision to buy male holly deferred.

Okay, gotta run inside now to save my camera..............! 

Japanese maple, how do you stay so zen?

Talk soon, Gang!