I’ve been eating asparagus, rhubarb and young walking onions from the garden. I’m also harvesting chives and pinches of my basil seedlings. And, of course, spending hours each day outside. Digging. Planting. Transplanting. Weeding. Watering. Tending.

And also just sitting, observing, being.

It feels so good.

(Do you remember what my garden looked like just a month ago?).

May is a time of renewal and rebirth in the garden. And I feel as if I’m getting a chance for renewal and rebirth as well.

It was a long winter and apart from how hard that was for me, I’ve been struggling for a while. Among other challenges, life’s in a bit of a transitional state. Creatively. Personally.

One of the things that’s been hard lately is that Matthias and I have been house hunting. Even before we moved to Wisconsin it was our goal to buy a house on a piece of land. (To be honest, it’s been my dream since I was a child). For many reasons this was delayed and delayed again (I first moved with my Mom to Wisconsin in 2010. Then I moved back to Ohio in 2011 before Matthias and I moved together in 2013… life has its own timeline).

At the end of last summer, we tried buying our dream house on 12 beautiful acres. After months of back and forth, it fell through. We started looking again in March with a new realtor and a renewed sense of hope.

In our immediate area, there is very little available; the prices are high and the competition fierce. And so we recently decided to stop house hunting and turn our time and attention to our current home.

Waiting (for a year or two or more) is the smart thing to do, but it’s taking me time to be OK with our decision. Being able to plunge my hands into the dirt has helped.

Once the Winding Roads Art Tour* is over and the flurry of spring gardening has slowed down, I hope to regain some of the creative spark I’ve been missing for months. I’m looking forward to making new art and working on new classes.

For now I’m trying to savor each day. Things change so fast once spring arrives for real (which some years takes longer than others) and I want to be in my garden so I don’t miss any of it.

This early in the season my garden is a mix of bulbs, perennials, tiny seedlings — both direct sown and grown under lights inside — as well as colorful annuals purchased locally.

So many Amish farms nearby have small nursery businesses. Each year my mom and I drive from one to the next, filling the car with color and fragrance.

It’s one of my favorite things about the spring and something I dream about in the depths of winter.

May is also a time of work and waiting.

Last month I shared that I would be pulling out the Above and Beyond Rose and a gooseberry bush. And now that space is filled with other things, including this year’s tomato seedlings.

I’m constantly starting new projects and dreaming up others. (And my garden helpers are always nearby, hard at work).

Daffodils were some of my favorite plants last year and they have been again this year.

I’ve enjoyed their progression through the season and the fact that they’ve multiplied. The last of them are just finishing. This variety is Sunlight Sensation and I love their clusters of delicate flowers.

I think they might be my favorite.

There’s a lot of yellow in my spring garden, which wasn’t entirely intentional. These Batalinii Bright Gem tulips

were described as being butterscotch flushed with orange and raspberry. Even if they’re more yellow than I thought they’d be, they have been amazing this year, sending up many more flowers than their first spring. I have clusters planted in three spots in the garden and I think I’ll eventually be able to divide them.

It’s one of the things I love about the garden, how plants multiply over the years.

Sometimes it takes a bit of patience. Like with my lily of the valley.

Quite a few years ago I planted bulbs from my mom’s garden and this year I finally had enough to cut a nice bunch.

They smell delicious.

And speaking of delicious, my peach tree was filled with flowers again this spring.

And now it is filled with baby peaches.

I hope they do as well as they did last year!

The spring perennials are lovely right now.

Columbine.

And bleeding hearts.

Pulmonaria.

Such a beautiful plant. It begs to be painted.

Other leaves that beg to be painted are my gorgeous new begonias.

More lucky finds at the Amish greenhouses.

The flowers on some are stunning, too.

And until I was tucking them into pots, I didn’t realize that one of the varieties is fragrant!

Because only so much can be conveyed with photographs, I created a video tour of my May garden. In it I share more about the projects I’ve already tackled and the ones to come.

I look forward to sharing more of my garden and those many projects (including our new deck and my new studio!) throughout the season.

Let me know if there’s anything you’d especially like to see or hear more about.

I’d love to hear about YOUR garden, too. What are you growing? What’s bringing you joy?

I’m thinking about doing another Tour of Reader Gardens again this year. If you think you’d like to participate, let me know so I can begin planning for it.

Although spring definitely gives us a chance for renewal and rebirth, I need to remind myself that renewal is possible whenever we invite it.

Perhaps you need the reminder, too?

As always, thanks for being here. Wishing you lots of garden joy.

*If you’re local to Viroqua, Wisconsin, I hope you’ll come say “hi” to me at the Winding Roads Art Tour. This is my second year doing the tour. I wrote about it last year on my blog here and here. I’m a guest at the same studio (with the same two artists!) as last year and I hope I can remember to take more photos than I did last year because it’s a truly lovely location.