wow, it's been ages since i made a journal entry! since then it's been quite a year: finished college, got married, just had another birthday....

but my garden's had a great year too :) We finished the patio I was talking about last year, in flagstone. We added an arbor, and LOTS more roses; I think I have about 120 now. And more raised beds, and an herb garden, and a little side garden with hops and raspberries, and a pond, and a shade garden... I guess I'm not surprised I've been too busy to post here.

Today we finally finished digging out all the unwanted shrubs that have been plaguing me for three years. And I planted climbing Crimson Glory on the arbor, along with white clematis. The loacl spring plant trade is at my house this year so the pressure is really on to make the place look great.

i finally got my patio as finished as it can get for now... filled the square hole in with gravel and got it as level as it can (all i need now is a lot of sand to make it really level, and some flagstones). i left two corners of it accessible, and built up raised beds around the rest of it with the floribundas, alternating solid and bicolor. then at the two corners that are beds i planted two climbing american beauties.

also traded for a yellow rose and a pink one that are unidentified as yet, but i'm happy to be filling in my HT beds. the pink one has a flower and it's beautiful- see below.

also some of my cuttings have rooted, which makes me happy as i've never tried that before. I acquired some of those half-barrels for plantng, and have a vielchenblau in one with a white china rose and a blue clematis. if it doesn't get too crowded i think the color combination will be wonderful, and the barrel allows for planting close enough to trees that the clematis and vielchenblau can climb up 'em without root interference. did the same with a work of art i was traded and what is hopefully white clematis.

mm, progress.

the rain has continued to turn my yard into a mudhole, but i'm not letting it stop me. i've got some new seedlings (leverkusen) under my growlights in the garage. i also received some roses in the mail that i traded for- a good-sized Barbra Streisand and some mystery ramblers. Can't wait until they bloom so I have some chance at an ID. I was also lucky enough to find a decent cheap potted rose at HD- a 2-gallon Sonia. My grandiflora/foribunda bed is shaping up nicely. And the Intrigue and Charisma are nothing short of spectacular!

the rain is holding things up a bit. i dug quite a large hole in the yard to borrow dirt from for the raised beds, on the premise that filling it with gravel before i put down the bricks to make a patio would help a lot with drainage. but with the torrential rain it looks more like a square pond than anything else... *sigh*
however, intrigue and charisma, troopers that they are, are blooming like crazy, so at least there's something decorative out there to prove it's not going to stay a mudpit forever. and wonder of wonders, a few of my seeds have germinated, so i have a few lil baby seedings- pink meidiland and rugelda. i've got my fingers crossed.