Very nice, Toni.

I am thinking of using them with the lamb's ear and something else in the lower tier in front of the house.

First, I have to create a dry creek bed/rock garden on the street level to correct a drainage problem. Then I'll work on the bottom tier.

The top tier just has Mrs. J's roses. I took out a hunk of lawn and widened the bed from eight inches to three feet. I am not going to do any companion planting in that bed because I've finally got the deer caging right and it would be too hard to move around if I had to avoid stepping on other plants.

The goal is to have kind of a different look for each level. The street bed will have different plants than the lower tier, then the upper tier has Mrs. J's roses and above that tier is the lawn level with the foundation planting ... to be done last. The foundation planting will have different plants than the other levels ... deer resistant .. oh yeah, in my dreams.

I actually spend most of my time in back of the house with the roses ...

This isn't the greatest of photos, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about.




Smiles,
Lyn

Challenging terrain, for sure!

That is challenging! I'd be tempted to do most of my gardening in containers on that nice front deck.

That is only the front yard ...

There is the house pad level behind the house, a slope that takes up half of the back yard and the top of the slope.

I haven't done anything to the slope or the top of the slope except to keep it watered.

None of the beds are completed and I have lots and lots of weeds, but I am working on that.

The biggest problem is time management. I often feel like I should be working on all of the levels at one given time. Of course, that is impossible, so I often feel quite overwhelmed ..

I took these photos before I disbudded the roses for the curculios. Not all of the roses were in full flush and I was further behind on the weeding.

Side yard as you come up the side stairs to reach the house pad:



Stairs to the slope:



One view of the house pad:



I try to work on only one level on a given day so that I am not always going up and down stairs all day long. That means that projects just don't get finished in a timely fashion because I am always having to move to another level to water. It's always something ...

Smiles,
Lyn

Looks great, but that slope is wicked. Talk about a challenge!

Zuzu ... Since I don't do anything to the slope, it's not my biggest challenge. It's covered with four different cultivars of junipers that have been there for at least 50 years. I am not going to mess with them ...

The biggest challenge, other than time management, it that everything has to be hauled up to the house pad level. I can't buy mulch up here, so I have to go out and gather leaves and shred them. That's how the weeds got away from me this year. I procrastinated ...

Each year, a major project does get completed. It's just taking a lot longer than I expected.

Smiles,
Lyn

PS ... if I gardened in your climate, I would use that deck. It's too hot in the summer months and too cold in the winter months.

Lyn's words: "None of the beds are completed and I have lots and lots of weeds, but I am working on that.
The biggest problem is time management. I often feel like I should be working on all of the levels at one given time. Of course, that is impossible, so I often feel quite overwhelmed .. Rolling on the floor laughing "

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

What a day! I've been fighting some mystery fever for 3 weeks now, and nothing tastes good. I've lost 20 pounds, not complaining about that, though. I went to the dentist today because I'm in the middle of a long drawn out process of replacing a tooth with an implant. Aha! The dentist solves my fever illness....the bone graft has been rejected and is a mess, and the whole expensive process needs to start over. Ugh. I was shaking in fear, literally. I told the dentist I left my big girl panties at home in the drawer, could I go home to get them, and he almost dropped his tools.
I had to focus hard on my happy place, (which is fields of iris) in order to keep my self together. Finally I get to head home, with a quick stop at the pharmacy.
This is a crazy busy week, and I can't afford any down time at all, but my body says On The Couch, Now!
Never mind that I have holes dug and roses waiting to jump in. Disregard those flats of annuals baking in the sun. And the grass growing inches taller by the minute, thanks to the 4" of rain falling in the last week!

So...the pain pill kicks in finally and I feel human enough to open the computer, and Wow! I won 3rd place in the Vine raffle! A real surprise birthday gift! Makes up for having to eat birthday soup.
So cool! But I feel a bit guilty because I didn't "spend" very many acorns! I somehow just got lucky!
I'll work hard to pay it back by getting lots of photos and actually getting them entered in the database. Comments, too.
Things are looking up!

It sounds as if you deserved a bright spot in your day. Congratulations! And I hope you are feeling fine soon.

Cindi - Sounds like I missed your birfday.. so happy happy Birfday to you!! And I'm so glad that you have happy drugs to take away the pain.. dental pain is one of the worst! Yikes! What are they going to be able to do about the bone graft? The yard will still be there.. you need to rest & recuperate so you can take care of your yard at a later time. Don't overdo it.. trust me, there's always tomorrow. I'ven't gotten much done in my yard since I went to DFW last weekend.. taken me almost 3 days to recuperate from that. I finally did some stuff last night and am planning on more tonight. But dental pain.. *ouch!!*

Brought in a teeny bouquet to work. Just a single Golden Masterpiece, a Singin' the Blues, an apricot NoID mini, a Scentimental, & a Dr. Huey. Dr. Huey stinks. It has that nasty peppery smell to it. Yuck. I have at least 3 roses that are blooming Dr. Huey, so they're gonna get shovel pruned this weekend probably. Really sucks because one of them was a Judy Garland that the Dr. Huey took over. Can't remember who one of the others was, but I also lost a Sterling Silver graft to a Dr. Huey. Another rose is blooming, but I don't think it's Dr. Huey as the rose color is a lot darker than the deep red of Dr. Huey and doesn't have the small leaves & multiple blooms. But I don't remember planting a red rose there. In fact, I have very few red roses. Oklahoma, Mr. Lincoln, Firefighter, Europeana.. I think that's all the "red" roses I have, so I don't know who this is. I'll take to take pics tonight if it's not raining (which I hope it is.. wash some of this smoke from the horrible fires down in NM/AZ away).

@CindiKS, Cindi ...

Sorry about you having to deal with an awful dental experience.

As I am learning to garden in an older body, I am learning that listening to your body is as much of a vital gardening skill as anything else we do in our gardens. It's important because if we listen to our bodies, we can keep on keeping on more productively than if we just push ourselves to work at what we think of as our usual pace.

It's an adjustment, but it does allow us to enjoy our gardens even when we have not met our own expectations about what we can do and what should be done to meet those expectations.

I think enjoying our gardens should have the highest priority of all that "needs to be done". If we are too tired, hurt or are simply ill and keep on working in spite of what our bodies are telling us, we miss out on those precious moments of joy both in the process of gardening and in the results of our efforts.

I think it is wise to take the time to remember why we garden. So, if you body says, "Not, now.", listen. You will enjoy the gardening so much more, if you allow yourself time to heal.

Yes, we often have to push beyond the aches and pains, but not so hard that we miss out on the joy.

Smiles,
Lyn

Toni, the dentist went ahead and replaced the graft with another graft right then and there, yesterday! I had texted my husband to tell him and he asked if he should come home (from Col Spgs) and I said sure, if you can get here in 10 minutes... because this dentist isn't wasting any time!
Birthday is today and I went a bought a long pretty sundress in a new smaller size, yippeee, and a Ghost fern!
Lyn, after seeing both my parents deal with cancer last year, I decided to make some changes in my life. I've been going to a physical therapist and now to a trainer, and the effort is paying off. The paleo diet has made a huge difference in how I feel. It's hard to just walk the garden and not pull weeds, but holding the camera in one hand and a coffee cup in the other kinda helps! We're supposed to have more storms in the next few days, so I'm getting pictures while I can.
Oh--can anyone identify this rose? It's a beautiful coral single that blooms all summer.

Got a few more blooms going on.. mostly in the front yard. Not so much in the back yard yet.. still need to weed & weed & weed!!! I weeded for about 5 minutes this morning on my way into work (nothing quite like wandering around the yard in heels & dressy clothes pulling bindweed) while trying to take some pictures of some of the roses. Not much is blooming.

English Perfume, Leonardo daVinci, Barbra Streisand


Artistry, Tuscan Sun, Della Reese


Scentemental, Camereux, Betty Boop


Pandemonium, Twilight Zone, Bolero


HoneySweet, Outta the Blue, Koko Loko


Voluptuous!, Intrigue, Vista


Incognito, Magic Carosel, & I think HoneyOrange (not 100% sure)


Have a few irises blooming still (everything's running so late), penstemons are blooming, salvias are blooming.. I love it when things no longer look winter dead!! But I don't really care for the weeds blooming...

They are all beautiful Toni! And of course, so is the healthy deep green foliage, that's not something we see here too often. I am getting most of my color from daylilies, poppies, clematis and lavender right now but another rose flush is coming in a few weeks.

Calif_Sue said:They are all beautiful Toni! And of course, so is the healthy deep green foliage, that's not something we see here too often.

You have TONS of foliage.. your yard is breath-taking!

Calif_Sue said:

It would take my yard about 15 years to look like this, and you've done this in, what, 3? And with a broken ankle, to boot?

Thanks, well, non-backspot, deep green on the roses I meant! Although my best looking one is Brothers Grimm, always is.

yes, 3 years, we just don't have winter kill so things keep growing. I still have ankle pain if I overdo walking on it.

Calif_Sue said: Thanks, well, non-backspot, deep green on the roses I meant! Although my best looking one is Brothers Grimm, always is.

yes, 3 years, we just don't have winter kill so things keep growing. I still have ankle pain if I overdo walking on it.

Lawdy lawdy lawdy that's gorgeous... *sigh*

I'll just keep dreaming that my yard will look like that SOME DAY !!!!

I found a garden gnome I really want!!


www.thinkgeek.com/product/1c81/

Definitely not run-of-the-mill!