We're almost at the end of summer, and what an odd summer it has been here for a variety of reasons. The weather has been quite tolerable, with a few mini-heatwaves, but never approaching triple-digit temperatures. My garden has been full of birds this year. These are the very birds that once avoided my cat-fillled garden. I think they took one look at my lazy old cats and decided they were no longer a threat to anyone. I've had more lizards than ever before, and a few more snakes than usual. Insects, however, have been scarce. The curculio weevils have all but disappeared. I think I saw two or three this year. I've seen only two snails this year and only one large garden spider. That's quite extraordinary for a half-acre property. The mosquitos were active for only a couple of weeks and then disappeared. Bees have been plentiful, but wasps have been scarce. This has been great for me because I was stung only once this year, in contrast to the dozens of stings I've had in previous years.

September is the month when we've traditionally started planning next year's gardens. After years of choosing appropriate thumbnail photos for these monthly chat threads, I've already used all of the roses with September in their names and have started using roses with names expressing the anticipation we feel when we look forward to the coming year. This month's thumbnail rose is Sweet Promise, a Romantica hybrid tea that's packed with coral-colored petals.

So glad Sept is here. I'm eagerly waiting for Regan nursery to open for order. I have a vision of what my garden will be next year. Sweet promise it is.

Not so glad it's Sept. already here. It means the season is nearly over and it's time to start thinking about putting the roses to bed for a long winter's nap.

That is a lovely picture of Winter Sunset - beautiful rose, artistic photography.

I'm in California, cooler weather is a plus for roses. My roses practically did nothing in the summer. Except for the ones I recently planted.

Seil, that is one spectacular photo of Winter Sunset - thanks for sharing.

I am hoping for an autumn revival. At the moment most of my roses just look like dead sticks. They are nearly all dormant due to drought and heat. Fall is usually our best season; I am counting on cooler weather to work the usual miracle on the roses.

I'm also looking forward to that wonderful October flush of new blooms.

I guess it's like Jeri always says, it's all about location, location, location!

Thanks everyone. I can't take credit for the arrangement. They just grew that way! I just took their picture, lol.

Today my husband has finished putting in the drip system. All I can think of all day is I'm going to plant Grandmother's Hat rose in one corner and the rest will be J&P roses, the easy to bloom kind. No fussy DA roses in this bed. I'll be happy if some will survive here. This is the area I've been growing xeriscape. But I've been sieving my worm compost, I have a whole container ready to supplement the clay soil.

We just had the hail storm to end all hail storms...I've never heard the like!!! I wasn't sure if the windows would hold. My goodness!!!! So I'll see in the morning if my buds/flowers are no more. I really want the buds (at least) to be alright. But that was some hailstorm!!!

Leaves are starting to fall already. Tis the season. This was the worst summer I've ever experienced. Bar none.

GardenNut - I've been musing on worm leachate...my roses were the best ever when I had worms. Maybe I should get back into that. But...how do you separate the worms from the compost...I found that to be so tedious....picking worms with my fingers took forever.

Seil - lovely roses!

Zuzu - oh that's a heavenly choice!! Gorgeous!

This is the first year I didn't see the medium sized red dragonflies (I think they're dragonflies) doing their mating flight in my backyard. Maybe too wet for them??? It's always so funny to walk in the yard and have them doing "their thayng" everywhere around me.

Canadian_Rose,
My newly planted roses near the compost pile are doing so well so it must be the worm compost.
About the worms, I threw in stack of papers from either my kids old homework or spam mails and the worms buried them in there. All I do is throw some back in my worm bin, enough worms that I don't have to worry about them. I have never run out of them. They multiple somehow.

The reason for the stack of papers is that I didn't have time to cut my kids name out of the paper homework, I figured I let the worms do the job. Why waste perfectly good paper anyway.

GardenNut - oh sure ...the difference is I grow my roses in pots...I didn't think that it doesn't matter when you put the soil with worms in them in the ground. I don't want tons and tons of worms in my pots.

I misunderstood your question. If you want to remove the worms, spread them out on a cardboard or something, and the birds will take care of them. I know I have one bird who always circles around my worm bins for food.

Here it is. Finished product. For this my husband will reward himself with new speakers.
I will cover the wall with mulch like tan bark once all the roses are planted. The lower wall is not supppsed to show.

GardenNut - Your husband did a great job! New speakers sound like an excellent reward.

I never thought of that....birds would love the free buffet. Then I could keep the soil separate and wait for the worm eggs to open and the worms to grow...and then let the birds have at it again.

Thanks Canadian_Rose. I'm also making Rhubarb & peach crisp for dessert, it will be served with ice cream. He loves rhubarb.

Rhubarb and peach...that sounds great! What a treat!

Road trip! Going to SoCal's beautiful garden and get some rhubarb and peach crisp--YUM!

INTRODUCTION
Greetings all! Being new to this forum, I would like to introduce myself. I am Pauline Brigden and I live on Vancouver Island, Canada. Zone 8b. I participated in the rose forum at Garden Web for several years, but many years ago. On navigating this site, I see a few familiar names from that time as well as on HMF and that is comforting. I do not expect to be remembered by anyone as that was such a long time ago …It is also comforting to know that we have all aged TOGETHER
I am so looking forward to meeting some new rose growers here too. I am very impressed with this site, so well put together and some great features.
I have recently, moved to a home with a much smaller garden, read "Sow's Ear-on-a-Postage Stamp" and I think we managed to transform it into the "silk purse" I hoped in 2 1/2 years. But can only squeeze in a fraction of the roses I once had, so tried to pick some of my old favourites to move with us and took delivery of a dozen new ones this Spring. I have half in pots as we are on a rock. Never been a pot gardener before, but they are doing well. We have had mega top soil brought in and created a separate rose garden strip on one side of the house. It takes about 14 roses, so am happy with that progress.
Great to see you all, Pauline