Garden Diary: Mid-May

I was busy and neglected to post some mid-May photos, so here goes ... The garden is quickly changing from a flat plain into an undulating mass of planting, making a new landscape as the individual plant forms emerge from the earth.

On this rainy day, we start in the woodland garden looking down toward the main prairie garden ...

Ground covers are essential to controlling weeds. Here Ajuga 'Caitlan's Giant' and Sweet Woodruff (Galium orodatum).

Planting the utility area, where piles of chipped trees were stored for years, with Carex pennsylvanica, Pulmonarias, ferns, Helleborus foetidus ... who knows what else? Have to see what works here.

Out into the rain soaked prairie ... looking down the long pond.

Ligularia japonica ... it's becoming a magnificent specimen ... three others haven't attained this size, but they get less water ...

Massed plantings of Filipendula rubra 'Venusta' and Iris virginica against a background of horsetail (Equisetum arvense), which become significant structural elements as they grow larger ...

These giant coneflowers (Rudbeckia maxima) have become a signature plant in the garden. They're everywhere, even starting to self-seed. I read they like dry conditions, but they have thrived for years in my wet clay. Off to the left, one of two spreading colonies of Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'. The color makes them a dominant presence in the garden.

Shaggy boxwoods and bergenia ...

One of three Gleditsia triacanthos 'Sunburst' for early color.

Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis), a native ...

Marc Rosenquist's bronze, which is becoming an organizing feature of the garden (more on that in another post). Its dominating presence draws the eye, and its shape strongly echos many plants (particularly the more formal shapes of Thuja and box).

More Rudbeckia maxima (there are many such surprises) ...

Another source of early gold, Euphorbia palustris, with Miscanthus ...

And bracken ... it was here before I was, and it will stay. Beautiful form and autumn color.

The mid-garden sitting area, added last year. That wretched Magnolia 'Little Gem' is coming out, to be replaced by ... what? Grasses? Cercis canadensis 'Hearts of Gold'?

A self-seeded Silphium perfoliatum, which came up last year, has grown like topsy, as they say.

Many of these self-seeded Silphium laciniatum have appeared this year. Can they take the competitive pressure and grow? I don't know so must wait and see.

Another self-seeder, Eupatorium perfoliatum, a native that just appeared three years ago.

A planted Sanguisorba, amid native Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).

Views from a bedroom window.