Summer approaches! The gardens are lush and bountiful. Six things happening right now down in the veg garden, up the hill, and all around:
1. It’s a great year for baby spinach, so great that I’m harvesting every few days and thinning plants as they grow. This is the Bloomsdale variety. Some years I don’t have the best luck with growing spinach, but chard always does excellently for me, so I just harvest loads of chard, freeze it, and substitute it for spinach year round in most recipes. But the baby spinach this year — wow — just looking at it almost provides an infusion of iron.
2. The very first peonies to open here are always P. officinalis ‘Alba Plena’ and my two bushes produced plenty of beautiful white blooms this year. I think our extreme cold snap helped all of my peonies, also causing the first blooms to be pinkish white, changing to pure white as they matured. A quick bouquet of peonies, viburnum, and columbine ‘Pink Barlow’ graced the table this week.
3. Tree Peony. This young beauty is P. suffruticosa ‘Kinkaku’ which loosely translates from Japanese as ‘gold.’ She does age into a paler tone. She is the second of my two dozen peony plants to open this year. She smells like the finest of fruit, and she lives in a big pot on our patio.
4. A ring of Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ is loving life in only its second spring here. This gardener needs to do some dividing! The penstemon planted there are barely competing. This view from the kitchen window brings a smile — and plenty of pollinators. I’ve included a second photo from 2022 when the ring was planted.
5. Still in the orange realm is this Chaenomeles speciosa (flowering quince) ‘Double Take Peach’ near our willow and pond. We planted this thornless, small cultivar about five years ago, and it’s thriving.
6. I’ll finish with this favorite small tree just outside the garden shed. It is Aronia melanocarpa, or chokeberry. Please do notice the lush weeds beneath! We prune the aronia pretty severely every couple of years. In full bloom this week, it will soon be loaded with clusters of shiny black berries that I’ll use in bouquets, especially with dahlias. Berries are followed by superb autumn color. More folks should grow this plant!
Gardeners worldwide are joining Jim in Six on Saturday. Visit to view some amazing gardens.
Gardens at Coppertop 
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