Let me tell ya 'bout...

OK – we won’t be addressing birds and bees here, for those who remember that Roger Miller song. Too many of you have young ones and your time to struggle with that conversation will come eventually. Been through it – and in some evil way, will probably enjoy watching you struggle through it.

But the flowers and the trees… planted 2 clumps of Aspens and one Emerald Queen Maple today to replace trees that had died off or just simply needed removing for whatever reason. Had a landscape contractor do it to save my back (and heart). Great result. TLMK is going to be pleased when she gets home tonight. The maple is supposed to turn bright gold in the fall – will match the aspens. And it’s a hard maple – will make good furniture a few generations from now, but not maple syrup. And never a MBL bat!

I’ve pretty much given up on tomatoes in this soil. Way too much clay, and believe it or not, not quite acidic enough. I’ll do what my Great White North relatives did last year – buy the tomato strainer and a bushel of Roma tomatoes at a Farmer’s Market and make sauce from there!

Ah, but we do have roses and day lilies and Asiatic lilies and Salvias that my landscaping friend is envious of. And one Holly bush that is quite vibrant – the best he’s seen in the Valley according to him.

I’ve been dead-heading my roses regularly for a couple of months now. Makes them thrive like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t realize that there’s an art and science to trimming roses until I was asked at church “Does anyone know how to trim roses?” I have a lavender rose (free-standing) which by next year I hope will best the world record for the tallest free-standing rose. I have a deep pink rose bush which I just found out last week is a “Perfume Delight” bush. It’s one variety of roses that are used in making perfumes. We have one. Go figure.

I also have my three JP2 roses which I found out last week were requiring more calcium. So we’re saving up egg shells and crushing them up to put around the bases of the three plants weekly. A tip from a gardener friend.

I suppose I ought to take a few pictures of the place to let you know what it looks like. Or of course, you could come out here and see for yourselves.

(Oh, no – seriously. No need to thank me for the guilt trip – it’s on the house!)