July 12
I am sitting at my workbench, an ambitious word to describe the small desk on our screened in porch, watching the birds and the squirrels frolicking just feet away. It’s lovely. OK, so one of said squirrels just ran off with a precious tomato and then another pulled off a rosehip from The Generous Gardener and ate it right in front of me while making unbroken eye contact, but mostly this view is delightful. I say this because I feel I’ve recently gotten myself into the trap of “trying to be helpful but mostly sounding like I’m complaining.” The reality is that starting a garden, any garden, whilst renovating a house is hard work, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Jesse and I were just talking about this the other day, how we both agree that even with the headaches, this is still the nicest place we have ever lived. I might add to that comment that growing up, were it not for the graciousness of friends’ parents I wouldn’t have had a place to live at all, so this home is especially meaningful to me. Now then. Let’s see what’s been coming into flower this week. Some more roses and lilies, pickings for my salad, pollinator friendly plants, happy bees on recent inspections and…what else. Oh, you know, summer in the garden. Here come some photos….
Have there been projects? Of course. But, it’s been tricky because it’s been raining, heavily, just about every day. So, in between showers and braving the hordes of mosquitos we’ve tried to continue our work on various outdoor endeavors but it’s been slow going. I’m still really enjoying these long summer days, though, how about you? Hang on, more photos….
Next week I’ll be back at Biltmore for another judging day. The last time I was there, the roses were looking rough from all the heat and rain. It will be interesting to see which ones have bounced back. I’m always making mental notes about that, for instance: during the last visit you know which rose still looked very nice even though the others around it did not? Ivor’s Rose! It looks good in our garden, too. Do you have it? OK, here’s the rest of the snaps from the week…
Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!
Amazing.
🙂
Hi Laurie,
I really enjoy your blog – I only started gardening two years ago when we bought our first home. I love that you talk about the challenges and ways to overcome them – there are too many Instagram-perfect garden pics out there which gave me, at least, unrealistic expectations when I started!
Having said that, your garden looks amazing!
We’re in the depths of winter here in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Australia so it’s nice to escape into your summer flower pics.
I am putting in a (mostly) native Australian garden because we live so close to a national Park but I’ve got about a dozen roses and counting in pots – I just love them.
Claire
Hi Claire, welcome! I can’t begin to tell you how much your comment means to me–so encouraging to hear that you’re getting something of use out of my recent posts! Truth be told, I have been feeling a bit bad about the direction the blog has headed as we build our new garden with none of the pictures exactly “Pinterest Worthy.” 😉 So, thank you! I love that you’re utilizing native plants in your new garden. It definitely is the way to go, benefiting wildlife and, of course, more adaptable to changing climate. Isn’t it fun to grow roses in containers? It is such a great way to enjoy them up close and kind of addictive. There always seems to be room for just one more. Hope you have a wonderful, cozy weekend and thank you again for your visit!