Garden Notes

Front garden in late May with tulips blooming

We are now in late spring and the garden is looking very lush and beautiful. I have been busy trimming the shrubs that were decimated by our resident meadow vole population. We need more foxes and hawks to hunt those little varmints or some other means of control because there are just way too many to ignore.

On the bright side, we did not lose any plants during our long hard winter, which was amazing because I have a few shrubs and a magnolia tree that are zone 5 and I was a bit worried. All our shrubs are alive, but some have dead branches that still need to be removed and a lot of mulching still needs to be finished. As always, spring is a busy time.

Last weekend we attended a open house and garden party at our new neighbor’s home. She spent a solid year renovating her house and converting her yard to a Japanese garden. All of the guests were encouraged to look through the house and stroll around the garden. The house was beautiful and the garden was calm and serene. The food was great and she even had live music. This was by far the best party we have attended in a long time.

All the guests were given tags to wear with their name and a line stating how we knew the owner — ours, of course, said neighbor. During the evening while mingling and getting to know some of the other guests, we visited with a young couple whose name tags also said neighbor. My husband asked the young couple where they lived and they replied that they lived 7 houses down the street. When we said that we lived right across the street from the party, the young man replied,

“We know where you live. We call your yard “The Garden of Envy.”