Roses and Our Garden Update.

Roses and a Garden Update

We live in a city that is referred to as the city of roses. We have a Rose Festival each year and have a wonderful rose garden downtown. So it is not surprising that we also have roses in our garden too. But our garden is not very well suited to grow these beautiful flowers.

Our yard has four huge towering trees and three more medium-sized trees all on an average in town lot. This makes the majority of our yard either dense shade to dappled shade, really not the best growing area for most plants. But we do have a few areas that our roses can grow with a little help.

Currently we have 12 rose bushes in our yard. Most of them reside next to the street on the side of our house, along with two in the front yard and three in the back yard. These rose bushes are a labor of love for my husband who enjoys caring for them. He fights the black spot each year, make sure to fertilize and takes care to trim them regularly. We all enjoy the beauty the roses add to our yard and the fragrance is just wonderful too.

We also have some hanging fuchsias that are doing really well this year. The fuchsias we have are all ones that wintered over from last year, and they love the shade.

Theses are just starting to bloom this year and the hummingbirds just love them. Our Hydrangeas are just starting to get blossoms on them. I can’t wait until they are in full bloom. I love the white and blue flowers they get each year.

My hostas are growing so big they are crowding out some of the flowers around them so I need to move a few of my flowers to accommodate the growth. Who knew in just a couple of years these hostas would be so big to crowd out my other flowers.

Our vegetable garden is coming along too. The past few weeks we have had cool temperature and lots of rain (I think it was 4 inches of rain in two weeks). But since I covered my tomato plants they did quite well. In fact they outgrew their cloche covers, at least the milk jug ones.

The sugar snap peas have really enjoyed the cooler weather and they are producing very well right now. We have been enjoying them fresh out of the garden as a side dish each day.

I also spotted our first almost ripe strawberry in the garden over the weekend. The weather forecast is looking good for this week with temperatures in the 70’s to low 80’s so I am hoping by the end of the week we can be enjoying strawberries from the garden.

Even with all the good progress the garden is making I had a loss this past week. 🙁 With the cold and the rain that came our cucumbers didn’t make it. I think the combination of the dip in temperature with the sudden increase in rain caused their demise.

I tried my best to protect them by wrapping their frame in plastic to shield them but it just wasn’t enough. I wish I could have left them a few more weeks in the cold frame but they were just too big. I have planted some more seeds I will hope for the best.

How is your gardening growing? Please share with me about your garden by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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