something is always changing in my little cottage garden in the country

It's amazing to me what can happen in one week in the gardens at this time of year.  Seeds sprout, flowers bloom and die, plants (and weeds) double in size!

My dark pink peonies have been pretty spectacular this year.  At seven blooms I almost, almost cut some to bring inside but in the end just couldn't do it.

Wouldn't it be fabulous to have a peony cutting garden?  Of course then I'd need a lilac, rose, hydrangea, tulip and daffodil one too!

At least when the dark pink one is done the white Maxima will be ready for it's show... plus I've added a few other peonies this year and last year so maybe even more!

My 16 acre field of dandelions gone to seed puffs....

It's changing too.

Gone.... and as we speak it's being disced and tilled... I'm looking forward to seeing what will be planted this year.  Although I could have done without the 6:30 am wake up call of a tractor in my field... on my day off... they joys of country living.

Our "sunny and rainy on the same day" days have really made an impact on my gardens this year.  Lots of weeds but also lots of flowers and plants are thriving.

And I have no idea where this Iris came from.... This is our 9th spring at Red Gate Farm and I've never planted any Iris' in this bed nor has it ever bloomed before!  It's a pretty combination of colors and will have 4 or 5 blooms on the one stem.

The veggie garden is doing well (you had a sneak peek above in the field picture) but the chives are the only obvious plant so far!

My white clematis is looking better and better every day.

Words aren't necessary....

And the little greenhouse way over there?

Well it is FULL this year of seed starts of sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumbers (like these), pumpkins, peppers....

And OF COURSE.... zinnias!  Lots and lots of zinnias once again.

With the guarantee of warmer nights I've finanlly gotten all of my pots and baskets out, including the imaptiens that usually go out last.

And last Saturday I spent most of the day planting my white imaptiens that I grow from seed.  I sorted them by size and planted out about 150 of the ones that were bigger leaving the smaller ones inside until they were ready for planting... of course in just a few days, yesterday to be exact, I had 100 more ready to go into the gardens.

My orange azaleas that are original to the house put on quite a show this year...

As did the mother's day Rhodie.

I've told you before that this Rhodie is at least from 1955 as the prior owner's father gave it to his mother before his father passed away in 1955.  And just so you can put it in perspective, size wise, it's almost as tall as our house!  I think I mentioned that I thought it was an apple tree when we looked at the place before we bought it!

My miniature lilac is still going strong...

But my old lilac is now waning.... in fact after a very windy day this week, it's waning all over the lawn!

It too was pretty amazing this year.

There's nothing like the smell of lilacs and this year with the warmer days you could smell them all around the yard!

Which is nice since in the "country" sometimes there are other not so fabulous smells... yep, those are cows across the way.

They're pretty funny too... if you walk over to the fence they all come hustling over... which panics me a little since that fence looks pretty flimsy...

And this one?

I think she likes me,

linking up to

Elizabeth & Co's
May Garden Party

AND

Fishtail Cottage
Cottage Garden Party

AND

deborah jean's Dandelion House and Garden

Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop