Summer Begins!
May 26 - June 1, 2025
Weekly journal of a Midwest gardener…
Monday, May 26, 2025
Because it was Memorial Day in the United States, most stores were either closed or had reduced hours. No matter. I didn’t go to any of them. I put out my American flag and proceeded to weed out the long border of the Vegetable Garden Cathedral where I usually sow seeds for sunflowers and zinnias.1 This year, I think I’ll just sow zinnias and marigolds in that bed, though I could reduce my annual weeding time by planting perennials there.2
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
I finished preparing the long border on the north side of the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and sowed seeds for zinnias and marigolds. Then I watered them in and picked more lettuce, peas, and strawberries. I also worked on another method for keeping the wisteria trellis upright. All in all, a good morning in the garden.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Off and on rain kept me from the garden, but not from thinking about the garden. I finally decided where to plant my new herb garden. It came to me out of the blue when I walked out to check the rain gauge. Of course. Obviously. It’s the best place for it! The perfect location! Why didn’t I think of that spot earlier?3
Thursday, May 29, 2025
I had a lovely, busy day in the garden. I planted out the three kinds of oregano that I purchased earlier this spring in the new herb garden location.4 I weeded in front. I mowed and trimmed all around, all under cloudy, kind-of-threatening skies. Well, part of the time it looked like it might rain. But the rule is if it isn’t raining, you get out there and get going. Don’t waste a minute waiting for it to rain.
Friday, May 30, 2025
The unplanned over the planned was the theme of the day. My plan was to fertilize the lawn with an organic fertilizer applied through a hose-end sprayer first thing in the morning. But the hose-end sprayer didn’t work! So I went to Menards to buy a new one, briefly checked out the plants, didn’t find anything I wanted, decided to stop at Court’s for a look-see, and I bought another oregano and some chocolate mint.5 At Court’s, they told me about another local greenhouse that was closing for the season after the weekend, so I went there after lunch and bought two plants.6 One is planted, the other will be planted soon.7
Saturday, May 31, 2025
After planting out some seedlings of Signet marigolds and Zinnia angustifolia, two of my favorite annuals, I fertilized all the plants in containers, as well as the annual flowers planted in the ground, and the tomatoes and peppers. I also planted out the trial seedlings of the pumpkin Burpee sent me (‘Patch for Kids’) in the triangular-shaped bed at the end of the garden. That bed isn’t as thoroughly weeded as I would like, but I told myself that I could weed around the pumpkin plant later.8
Sunday, June 1, 2025
I decided to take a break from gardening and leave the weeds for another day. I’ll water container plantings and check my mole traps. Moles? What mole? I mentioned I found evidence of a mole in my lawn in last week’s newsletter. After a full week, the mole is still out there and still seems quite active. I am amazed by how far and fast he digs his tunnels and how he seems to be staying on my property, as though he knows where the property lines are. I’ve set two traps and moved them a few times, trying to find a spot where he’s active and might, well, let’s not think about that part of trapping.
That’s a Week!
This week, I finished reading Diary of a French Herb Garden by Geraldene Holt. I found out about it from someone who commented somewhere that I might enjoy it, perhaps after they saw the video of my chat with Noel Kingsbury about Lost Ladies of Garden Writing? I can’t find the comment now, but to whoever mentioned Geraldeine Holt, yes, I did enjoy Diary of a French Herb Garden. I call it a quiet read. Perfect for unwinding without a screen at the end of the day. It’s out of print, and used copies are pricey, so hopefully your public library has it. My library will have the copy I checked out back in circulation in a few days after I return it.9
What Else Did I Write This Week?
On Wednesday, my article about another Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Lucy Hooper, auto-posted early in the morning.
On Saturday, I wrote a blog post to wrap up a Garden Blogger’s Challenge.
Quotable
“Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and trouble tonight, and especially for your cleverness this morning!” - Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows)
Have a great gardening week!
Other Stuff By Me and About Me
My online home is my website, which includes my blog May Dreams Gardens.
Tune in every Wednesday to The Gardenangelists, my weekly podcast where Dee Nash and I talk about all things gardening—flowers, veggies, and all the best dirt, plus gardening books. We’re on YouTube, too, so you can listen and watch!
Curious about the women who shaped American garden writing? Check out Lost Ladies of Garden Writing—a passion project of mine with new posts every other Wednesday.
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The worst weed in that long border is evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa, a spreading perennial that I didn’t mean to plant, but somehow it ended up taking hold in that area, and is loath to let go! True story, I once saw a woman at a garden center with two one-gallon pots of evening primrose in her shopping cart. I saved her some money by telling her one would be plenty. I also told her to be careful where she planted it.
The problem with the long border of The Vegetable Garden Cathedral is that it is on the south side of the privacy fence, so I never get to see the sunflowers. They are always facing east, north, or west as the day goes on. I hope to have someone replace the fence this fall/winter (it’s going on 27 years old) so I’ll probably plant that border with annual flowers again and then think about more permanent plantings once the fence has been replaced.
I’m putting my herb garden in a part of the Vegetable Garden Cathedral, which is essentially six long beds, each about four feet wide by 20 feet long, with 18-inch paths in between. Last year, I added an arch between the two middle beds to plant scarlet runner beans on. That’s where the herb garden is going! Around the bases of the arch. I’ll start by planting some oregano there (I bought three kinds this spring). Then I’ll gradually expand the herb garden further into those two beds as I find and buy more herbs to plant. I generally plant flowers at the ends of each bed anyway, and have some little fencing to section that area off from the vegetable garden. By moving that fencing back a foot or two… oh, I think I need to write an entire blog post about this!
For symmetry, I need a fourth variety of oregano to plant! I also need three more varieties of thyme so I can plant two varieties at the end of each raised bed.
The oregano was labeled Italian oregano. I think Italian oregano and Greek oregano are two sides of the same coin, but they suit my needs. And, dear reader, I am definitely NOT planting the chocolate mint in the new herb garden area. I am planting it in a large pot that I’ve used for years to grow mint in. But the mint had mostly died out, so I scraped out the remnants of runners and roots, added some fresh potting soil, and planted the new mint in there.
The two plants I bought are a variegated Swedish Ivy and Cuphea ‘Funny Face.’ I planted the variegated Swedish ivy, along with a plain ol’ green Swedish Ivy, and another variety, ‘Lemon Twist,’ in three hanging baskets for the front porch. They are small now, but will grow quickly. I’ll pot up Cuphea ‘Funny Face’ in a container and see how it does. It needs a blast of fertilizer!
The one event that took place as planned on Friday was that Dee and I recorded another podcast episode.
Real gardeners may recognize that putting “later” in a statement means that there isn’t a great chance of whatever action is in that statement happening any time soon.
This week, I also read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend, and I listened to The Black Tower by P. D. James, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, and Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home by Nina Stibbe. Big reading week!
I have a copy of Recipes from a French Herb Garden by Geraldine Holt. Unfortunately, my local libraries don't have Diary of a French Herb Garden. I love your blogs and emails. Thank you!
I have the Diary Of A French Herb Garden but need to re read it, thanks for mentioning. Also I found my old copy of Gardening On Main Street! Thanks again! I trust you have read the herb books by Emelie Tolly and Chris Mead? Their Herbs and Cooking With Herbs are classics. So many good books of this genre were published in the 1980’s. I miss that now.
Quiet reads are the best. Every evening for me. Thank you for your blog, I enjoy reading it.