Crocosmia and fennel

One of my favorite combinations is looking lovely in the front garden right now:

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' and bronze fennel. Both beautiful, and wonderfully carefree, fazed neither by our cold winters or out current week of blisteringly hot, dry weather.

May Day

May came in with perfectly glorious weather, so I spent the day out in the garden, weeding, looking about, and soaking in the beauty... here's some random shots of what I was enjoying.

A drift of Anemone blanda

The crinkly, purpley, glossy leaves of Ajuga 'Metallica Crispa'

Another favorite Anemone, 'Bracteata Pleniflora'

The feather new growth of bronze fennel

The unfolding leaves of variegated honesty (Lunaria annua)

And, of course, the obligatory daffodils

Working together

The beds infront of my house are in their second year, and things are starting to come together. I'm particularly fond of this section at the moment:

Here we have my beloved cardoons, fronted with the stunning Allium christophii mixed with bronze fennel. (It suddenly strikes me that this is edible landscaping... not that I could bear to cut and eat any of it, but still. All three are vegetables.)
Believe it or not, when I started planting here last spring, I was planning all hot colors -- red, oranges and yellows accented with purple foliage and a bit of blue. But somehow I started planting silver foliage (because I can't resist cardoons), and I don't like yellow tones with silver, so all the orange and yellows got ripped out. Then I started planting purples and blues, and... I'm liking it. A lot. It will be interesting to see the look evolve as the summer goes on and my Salvia 'Black and Blue' (from tubers I saved from last year) and Crocosmia 'Lucifer' come into flower.