It’s continued to be a bit chilly and wet. Since 1 May, we’ve had two days with highs in the 40s, six days with highs in the 50s, 16 days with highs in the 60s (including the last two), 14 days with highs in the 70s (generally the low 70s), and 7 days with highs in the 80s, though I don’t recall any of them being that warm. Fortunately for fruit tree buds and the lilac blooms, the last low of 32F was over a month ago, on 9 May — though the last low in the 30s was only 11 days ago, 38F.

I planted arugula seeds on 16 May, and some extra peas to fill in where the first planting was scanty. We put up the vegetable garden fence on 18 May, to keep deer and bear out. On 25 May, I planted some beans given to me by a friend, plus some old zinnia seeds, and the next day I planted radish seeds. The first day of June I bought a lavender, another amsonia, two more tradescantia, and a Joe Pye weed — since mine hadn’t yet emerged — and I planted them all. The next day or so, of course, the Joe Pye weed emerged and now it’s about a foot tall. I don’t know why I doubted it. I finally planted my friend’s three very leggy cherry tomatoes on 8 June (they’re surviving so far, though they look a bit consumptive), along with a dianthus, two cucumbers, a carex grass, two annual honey sages (red flowers), and a coleus, all from a local plant sale.

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Here’s what blooming in my zone 4b-5a New Hampshire garden this month.

Yeah, I know there are an overwhelming number of photos but most of us who live in places where for six or seven months of the year there are no blooms at all, no leaves on trees, and only a landscape of stark white (and sometimes dirty white) want to feast our eyes on as many flowers and as much greenness as we can.

The back border and backyard:

Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata; from a friend)

Comfrey

Tiarella

And the big backyard show for May and June, the lilacs:

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The shade garden:

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Side garden:

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Sunroom border:

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Rock wall:

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Fruit Guild:

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Front yard – the big rhododendron show

These rhododendrons came with the house. I think they’re R. catawbiense but I’m really not sure. They are too big but I can’t bring myself to move them.

Besides the “rhode show” (get it?), there were a few other blooms in the front yard:

lupine

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“I looked across at the trees that had burst into full leaf and had a sensation of ineffable strangeness. Being alive is inexplicable, I thought. Consciousness itself is inexplicable. There is nothing ordinary in the world.” — Siri Hustvedt, from What I Loved (2003)

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Featured image: lilacs. Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.