Another Blustery Day

The two big work deadlines for next week haven't left much time to work in the garden. The winds and 90s degree weather hasn't helped either. It's not yet June and we've already had several days in the 90s. Course, none of that has stopped me from plotting my next garden schemes, reading about gardening or hitting the nurseries last weekend for plants. I do have to get on the ball and put more time into the garden though, before it becomes so hot that I can't work in the yard after noon.

Here are some images of what my strolling garden looked like in spring, about a six weeks ago before the roses and irises burst alive with the bulk of their blossoms. The garden is going on three years old now. There was no landscaping when I moved in, except for the bermuda grass the builder had put down two weeks before I moved in. I HATE that grass. It creeps, crawls and leaps everywhere, particularly in my flower beds. Someday I hope to have all the grass removed [except maybe for a very small plot] and replaced with either gravel or a hardscape of some kind. But I digress... annoyance over the grass can do that!

This is looking south. The grass along the right edge by the fence will hopefully be gone by this summer to expand the bed. Then only the grass walkway through the arched arbor will remain. The plan is to have this walkway end at the back bed and to the left of that stepping stones would lead me out to the main grassy area to the left. The Dutch irises had just started going to town around this time.

This view is taken from that grassy walkway looking east. The winds ripped the pretty bird house off the top of the pole so that's something that will need to be replaced. The stone bird bath in the background sits in a small circular bed which will be a herb wheel.

The three-legged, metal rose arbor is still standing... though it's already starting to rust. Have no idea what I'm going to do if and when the thing falls apart. The roses, Climbing America, are going strong. One bush is already over six feet tall and had over 100 blossoms on it when it started blooming.This rose really lives up to its claim to be a vigorous grower. The bush in the foreground is a Bird of Paradise bush that is starting to bloom this month. The bees and hummingbirds love it.

This is the beds in the southeast corner of the yard. It was the first one I dug up and looking back I probably would have put the arbor at an angle in front of the bed but oh well. That's gardening. It's ever changing and I think that's a big reason why people garden. There's always something new. Plants expand, produce "babies" and/or die which requires the purchase of new plants. It's a living canvas which you can make as monochromatic or vivid as you, the gardener, want.

A third matching arbor is sitting in the garage, waiting to be erected. Just have to expand one of the beds to put it in, which would require me to dig out more of the Bermuda grass. Did I mention I HATE the grass?