Wandering around the garden I can see that the herbaceous planting is now mature (note to myself that next year we will need to start dividing up the clumps), maturity is coming to shrubs, trees and hedges. The trees are getting taller and with that will come a change to the light in the garden as their leaves create shadow and filters. Hedges are adding division, perspective and compartmentalisation of spaces. The Lavender are now cobbles of green that pepper the beds they are planted in.
Their time is Summer so at present their role is one of extras in the performance.
But my excitement, at this time of year, is always focused on the Alliums which flow through the garden in great drifts. They are my personal favourite. At the beginning of May they are merely large pointed shafts of leaf with green rods and small developing balls atop. But by the month end these will be a bobbing array in purple shades and white washing across the garden and reaching their ultimate show in the central round border under the canopy of Hawthorn and its white May flower. This is the very centre of the garden around which every bed and border revolves. Within the Alliums grow Foxgloves (also white and purple) which will take on the baton and run with it well into Summer.
The temperature can still be cool at this time of year but it is generally benign. It is the start of the season with all the promise and excitement that brings. But this also brings with it our first opening for the National Garden Scheme (NGS) and this year we open between 1pm and 5pm on Sunday 25th May. Tea, cakes and a garden unfolding. What's not to love!
(Picture of main herbaceous bed taken by Nicola Stocken in early June 2013)
