Bob And Susan

A few years back Bob built me a couple of raised beds ~  one for various whatever and the other is suppose to be a rose garden.

I worked really hard today in the raised various whatever garden.  In the half that is close to my magnificent compost I planted a large beef steak tomatoe, a big Bertha pepper, a sassy red pepper and a few cucumber seeds ~ these are close to the oregano plant ~ hence “Greek Salad” garden.  I put the tomatoes and peppers in between assorted chive plants hoping that the deer will not want them since they don’t like chives.  I also planted lots of flowers in the various whatever garden:  sunflowers (in sunken pots so they don’t rob the soil of nutrients that other plants need) zinnias, pom-pom zinnias, cosmos, calendulas, nasturtium, red rocket snap dragons and marigolds.  This was hard work and took a couple of hours but I hope the results will be worth it.

Then I moved onto the rose garden.  It looks like most of my roses have died this year as well as some lavender shrubs.  I think that it could be a combination of two factors: one is that we had some lovely hot summer like weather a few weeks back then it started frosting again and being chilly.  Also in my rose garden I have this weed that I have been battling for years – Blue bells.  At least twice a season I take out many wheel barrels full of this obnoxious weed with it’s tubers that grow towards China and I think with the aggressiveness that I battle this weed and the fact that I think it is strangling my roses and lavender has caused the demise of these plants.  So again today another battle and to make matters harder it had been raining a lot here for the last couple of days so the soil is very heavey.  I shovelled, pulled, tugged, lifted and tossed about in the rose garden for quite a few hours (I am hurting –  my back, my bad knee and my hips) but I got it just about done (I had to stop or I was going to pass out).  If the weather is nice tomorrow then I will plant lots of different cut flowers in the no-longer-rose garden.  I have quite an assortment of bedding out flowers that I think would make Monet want to grab a canvas and paint brush.  I have cosmos, zinnias, salvias, asters, snap dragons, nicotina and lobellia ~ should make some lovely bouquets (provided the deer stay clear). 

I certainly did enjoy my well deserved bath with a muscle soak of epsom salt stuff that Lindsay and Jeff gave me for my last past birthday.  I think that the soak must have of worked as I really do feel better. 

I will post some photos when the show starts.