Starting about 2005 I took up gardening again and started planting flowers and had to dig big holes for the roses which is fortunate because my back will only allow no more than half hour of light weeding now although I can still dig a couple of those big nasty dandelions that get in the beds with a shovel.
The first photo is the view from my kitchen breakfast room window this spring which is glorious due to our mild winter. I'm slowly trying to weed and maintain the long strip but you can't see too many flaws in the photo. The huge dark pink rose I scouted around town for cuttings and rooted two, that's one. Way in the back by the alley is a different pink I rooted which I hope will eventually spill even more over the terrace. There's two more in the back yard I rooted you can't see. The others I purchased.
Second photo is Crown Princess Margareta (sp?), a David Austin own root rose. I got six bare root plants from Jackson Perkins and was it a job to space and plant them. I let them do what they want, and the first flush this spring is spectacular. I still need to clear dead stuff from last year out of that long strip which doesn't look quite as long as it is in the photo.
The purple in the bottom left corner is Baptisia "Purple Smoke". I get a lot of plants from Bluestone Perennials because they usually ship healthy plants in very small pots which make it easier to dig. They take off in no time but some take up to 3 years to get established to make a pretty showing.
I don't do veggies and the only edibles I have are the cherries (lost the mate to that little tree when a huge limb came down) and some black raspberries I grew from seed in an exchange I wintersowed. Five of those plants survived and are thriving around my compost heap but no signs of blossoms yet.
