May. I'm already so far behind.

 How does this happen?

One minute there is snow on the ground, then you turn around and the grass needs mowing, shrubs need pruning, plants ordered in the dead of winter start arriving and need planting...it's crazy!  I really meant to clean up the hillside garden before I started planting, but that still hasn't happened.  I did at least get the buddleia cut back.

I've planted out leeks, shallots, and potatoes so far.  This year I'm growing potatoes in bags, and I already feel like it's going to go so very wrong.  I've followed instructions, so I don't think it will boil down to my inexperience, it's just that the long range forecast is showing a lot of rain and very little sun.  This is how last spring started, and then the rain just didn't stop until July.  I'm really hoping the early plantings don't get drowned this season.

Below: leeks, freshly planted, and leeks, overwintered.  In the tub I've planted mesclun and salad mix lettuce.

 Now that I know leeks can be left in beds, I won't feel so pressured to harvest them.  And this is only one bed; there's another section with more leeks.  I'm not overly fond of them, but the company I buy from doesn't offer smaller lots.  If the potatoes do well, I guess we'll have potato leek soup by the gallon.

The shallots are planted in the stock tank this year, and I've tried to put the potatoes in the sunniest spots but where I wouldn't be tripping over the bags.

 Peas have been sown in the planters that flank the hay ring.  I'll plant cukes in the planters after the peas are harvested.

Garlic is looking awesome, if I do say so myself.

The onions are planted in the big container by the house this year.

It won't be very pretty, but I'm still having a hard time with crop rotation, mostly because perennial plants keep taking up valuable real estate in the veg portion of the garden.  In fact, because of that very reason I ended up planting my raspberry bushes in the back yard.

This was a decent spot that gets full sun most of the day, and not in an area where they might get damaged.  I still have to finish the trellis - I'm going with the traditional T shaped one.  These are Joan J raspberries and I chose them because they're virtually thornless.  As I get older, I look for ways to avoid hurting myself...well, for the most part.  

In the front of the house in the small bed I've made some terrible decisions that need to be corrected.  I do love the chaos and densely packed sight of a cottage garden, but I've really over planted this bed.

The tulips and hyacinth make it look especially crowded, but they aren't the issue.   I've allowed Queen Anne's Lace to take seed, I have three clematis, two lilacs that will only get bigger and bushier, two asters, a delphinium that loves this spot, horseradish, a low growing globe type flower (the name escapes me at the moment), and a Ragged Robin plant (bottom right of the above photo) that I pulled from a roadside last year.  Oh, and I added a creamish colored daisy to the mix.  Sacrifices must be made and plants will be moved.

In the dogwood garden, the Midwinter Fire dogwoods are losing the flame-like luster of their bark as they begin to leaf out, but I'm really happy with the daffodils I planted there last year.  I can't wait for the tulips to bloom.  Mostly because I can't remember what color they are.

The daffodils under the mulberry tree continue to spread and are just beautiful.  The deer have once again eaten every single tulip and hyacinth, so those are just lost causes.

The hot garden and the cottage garden were both impulse plantings directly into patchy grass areas.  I may regret that, as it's difficult to peel the abundant crab grass out, but the idea is to see how the plants that are there do, and add plantings throughout the summer, eventually crowding out the grass and weeds.  The Crown Imperial Fritillaria didn't get as tall as I'd hoped, and we had a week of below freezing temperatures recently.  I've never grown these, so I wasn't sure how hardy they were.  To err on the side of caution I tried covering the plants overnight.  One was short enough that a five gallon bucket over it worked perfectly, the other was a little harder to cover.  I ended up using a large muck bucket that wasn't quite tall enough, and it began to deform the stem.  Despite this, and the fact that the stem actually broke on one side, it still had enough oomph to bloom.  You can see the break just below the string here:

I guess that proves these are much more hardy plants than I gave them credit for.  Next year, no babying!

Across the driveway in the cottage garden, the species tulips are taking off, along with the Rip Van Winkle daffodils.  Unfortunately, since both are yellow and short, they basically look like dandelions from a distance.

 Live and learn, I suppose.  Maybe with a little less grass and a little more mulch, it will make them really stand out.  I'm mulling over the future presentation of these two gardens.  Add that to my ever-growing list of things to do.