Notes from Havenwood

May: New Garden & Fountain, Open Days & Bagpipes!

Banner up in the Kitchen Garden for our plant sale on our first open day at Havenwood!

“In spring the blue azures bow down

at the edges of shallow puddles

to drink the black rain water.

Then they rise and float away into the fields…”

🌿 Mary Oliver, Spring Azures

Welcome to Notes on Havenwood…

where I share more of the inner workings of my one-acre town garden in western Pennsylvania. We are located in horticultural zone 5/6 between the Great Lakes and the Appalachian mountains.

We’ve had a month of the blues at Havenwood: native blue Camassia, Bluets (Houstonia caerulea), and Spanish Bluebells have all been glowing about the place in the rainy May weather. I have rather enjoyed the cool rainy weather this May, as the past five years or so our Mays have been very hot and dry. It has made working in the garden so much nicer, and is an aid to dividing and transplanting perennials at this time of year.

All our busy activity in May lead up to our very first open garden day at Havenwood! So of course there were last minute projects and improvements, as well as lots of weeding and planning for everyone’s visit.

Here are a few things that we were up to at Havenwood in May, including a couple of videos of the new fountain and the bagpipes in the rain…

Laying new pea gravel down on the Cottage Garden paths, ready for raking and tamping.