MAKING SOME PROGRESS

We’ve started cleaning up the yard and redoing some of the plantings. The roses in the actual “garden” were all Fred Meyer type $3.99 specials and most of them were twenty or twenty five years old. We really feel kind of like murderers but we pulled them this weekend. It’ll be a garden spot for awhile give the ground a rest. We still have the white and the gold climbers, the peace, and the Cecile Brunner. Ordered two from the rose gardens up north between St Paul and Newburg.

 

We stumbled on the idea of planting not a rose garden so much as a rose and other plants. Say a red rose, this one is called Don Juan. It's a red climber from Italy. It's supposed to have a really nice fragance.

 

 

And we need to split the Lady Scarlet daylily. This is one tough day lily. The leaves haven't died back yet this winter. They're getting battered but they're still green.

 

 

We can put some of  the white Shasta daisies from grandma's yard, some coral bells, and some Pacific Iris for one section.

 

Or a pink rose, this one is called Aunt Honey of all things. It also is supposed to be good in the fragrance department.

 

 

The strawberry candy daylily also is due for splitting so we'll add this to the mix.

 

 

Maybe add some candy tuft or white alyssum. And go a section at a time. If we get a couple of sections and most of the path done this year we’ll be doing well. Frankly we have a lot of our own flowers to draw from now and that’s good. Hopefully if we avoid the concentrated planting that basically hangs a sign over that part of the garden that says free food we can keep them healthier. Oh and the rose shots come from the Heirloom roses website.

 

There’s a subset of roses on the Heirloom roses site known as Buck roses. They’re named for a plant breeder at Iowa State. He came up with a line of roses that will survive Iowa winters (and summers) with no special protection. They have some really nice ones of this type and the really nice thing is that they’re not only tough, they’re compact. And in our yard that is a real plus.

 

And I swear the daffodil greenery grew two inches this weekend. At least it seemed like that. At least on the east and south side of the house. As it goes, there may be a lot of bark in our future too. LOL