That is cute Chelle!

your yard is lovely! Is that a hosta in the background? It's huge!

Thanks, Cindi!

Yep, that's a hosta. I don't have a name for it, but it's very vigorous. Hosta do very well here, and the bunnies don't like them.

Hostas are prime deer chow here.
I love them, but the only place they survive is right up next to the house.

That's rough.

Have you tried Milorganite or granular Plantskyyd for summertime? The liquid Plantskyyd is working perfectly in my veggie patch, but the liquid would look unsightly on your hostas.


The deer here will nibble in the yard in the wintertime occasionally, but of course the hosta are safe then. Strange thing is though, even though we're way out in the country and right next to a wildlife area, you probably have more deer. They get hunted here.

Your yard is beautiful. no wonder the bunnies like it so much!

If the bunnies like dandelions, you could try saving seeds and growing a bunch of them away from your garden. Some restaurants use dandelions in salad. I got the kids who hang around when I am gardening to dig out dandelions. They like anything that lets them borrow a tool. I keep loaner tools for my helpers.

I really like the place that I saw. I sent in an application, hope that it works out. I am still searching in case it doesn't.

I am glad that you mentioned the deer and hosta. The potential new place will have more deer. It faces Northwest, and has place for a northeastern shady bed near the house.

Update on the damaged roses...


All have flower buds forming now, with the exception of Nahema and Pierre de Ronsard. They're in a less sunny area so their regrowth is coming along at a bit slower pace.

I think I even see the start of a few bloom buds on Chloris. Oh, I'd be so happy if it actually bloomed!

Wow! Good news!

Pix are requested now.. politely of course...

Before they open, Toni, or after?

This one didn't get damaged, but it's one I haven't shown before. I like it. It smells pretty, too.


...more pix of the same rose here Rose (Rosa 'Fruhlingsmorgen')

We'll have to wait just a bit longer on the recovering roses.

Chelle - Well, considering I spent a good 30 minutes this morning trimming winterkill off my roses and I don't have a single bud on any of my roses (not even Austrian Copper, which is my earliest bloomer), any & all pix would be good! Most of my roses are between 1-12" tall right now. *sigh* depressing. I do have a few that are bigger (most of Escapade didn't have to be trimmed & actually looks like a bush rather than a few leaves sticking out of the mulch), but I have weeks & weeks & weeks before I get any blooms.

Okay. I'll take some more.

Sorry about your slow start. They'll likely explode into growth for you soon.

Our ground is very, very dry but we've had lots of high heat since our last frost, so I guess that's helping things here. High 30's when we woke this morning, with some tender plants showing cold stress, but the roses are loving it.

Oh, I just remembered which other rose was showing color! Whew, I'm out of duh's-ville...finally...and thank goodness! I'll see if it's open yet.

Grocery store mini, happily nestled in some iris and mint. It blooms a really pretty apricot-pink.





Johann Strauss was chewed down to a nubbin -doing well now.


Armide -about a third of this plant was stripped.


All but one of these had moderate damage -Cinco de Mayo center, Lavaglut foreground center, LaMarne foreground right.


These sustained heavy damage -a pair of Sunsprites, Susan Daniel, Celily Phippen Marks and City of London.


Another Sunsprite -this poor plant never has a chance to get much bigger than this.


And here's poor little Nahema -you can tell how small it still is by the size of the clematis leaves next to it.



That's it for now. I took pictures of the south hillside roses too, but they're so washed out that you really can't tell anything by them.

gg5, my dad was a service manager for Ford before he defected to Volkswagon, then back to Ford....

Chelle, I LOVE your arbor. Did you build it? i NEED one in cobalt blue. I have a thing for cobalt blue, especially cobalt blue glass and blue & white dishes and tiles. I got an idea from about.com container gardening to paint bamboo sticks. Some of mine are getting icky, so they will get painted cobalt blue! It will be a good accent to my pink, yellow and apricot roses.

A bunny was hopping down the sidewalk. Winston the pug sat and watched it hop by heading towards my potted strawberry plants. It was about a foot away from him! If it were a Pomeranian, Winston would have attacked it without warning! It makes me miss Tiffany, aka the great White Hunter, my beloved late Westie. I am considering the possibility of a Westie or a Norwegian Elkhound joining our ranks this fall. Or maybe a Norwegian Barn cat or Polydactyl Tabby (aka Hemmingway cat). I still miss Max and Socka my beloved orange and grey polydactyl tabby tom cats. Each was about 20 lbs of love. Max the cat didn't chase bunnies either. He was a lover not a hunter....

Living in the country, one needs organic pest control.

I wanted to finish digging out my plants today so that I could know how many more containers to get tomorrow. We are having cool weather and scattered showers today and rain tomorrow. That should help the monsters recover from their ordeal. This may be the last of the cool weather. It will be in the 80s this weekend. My viking blood overheats easily.

My drunken white trash neighbor is outside yelling at his shell shocked toddler and his junkyard dogs. This little girl makes Honey Boo Boo look like a Mensa candidate! If you didn't pick up after your dogs would you allow your toddler to run around the yard barefoot? Me neither. I keep Winston the pug out of the back yard, away from the junkyard dogs and their vermin (aka my nightmare neighbors.)

Perhaps it is a good thing that Santa didn't get me that Red Rider bb gun for Christmas. Some days I would be tempted to use it.

Chelle - Any buds/blooms?

It's a bloomin' arbor today. See the nesting robin?


More later...

Oh, yeah...almost forgot your question about the arbor, Andi. The two of us hashed out the plans -daunting enough because the path curves a bit, then my better half built it. It was a Mother's Day gift a couple of years ago.

I love it! When I finish refinishing my china cabinet and recovering a reclining chair, I can think about building some garden stuff. I had dropped hints to Grumpypants, but I wasn't surprised with any tuteurs or structures. Just as well, I have enough stuff to pack and move!

I also want to do some papercrete and concrete projects.

Wow, Chelle! You'd never know there had been any damage of any kind in your garden.