August Roses

I adore my little rose garden.  Mark and I baby it together so it's very meaningful to us.

The bushes have finally gotten established enough that they are pretty self-sufficient.  Two heat waves and two ice storms and the hearty survivors are just that, hearty survivors!

The roses seem to have two seasons -- the bloom like crazy in May and then, again, after the heat, in October.  If we are lucky (like were were last year), we get a few November roses!

This pretty pink rose is called "Perfume Delight".  It is well named because it has that strong, heavy, old-fashioned scent that just screams "ROSE!".

Here is promise of another August rose!

I missed the sale this year but I usually buy the clearance roses at Walmart when they are marked down to $5 each.  Next year I'll try again.  I would love to have a Tropicana (orange/yellow), a yellow, and a couple of whites.

My favorite is the New Dawn climbing rose that grows up the arbor we used at our wedding reception.  It has small, pale, peachy-pink tinted white blossoms.  Here's a photo of it from last year.  Isn't it just luscious?

At the moment, it has an ant den under it so it's not exactly healthy right now.  Gonna have to fix!

What is your favorite rose?

Volunteer Pumpkin

Every Halloween, when we carve jack-o-lanterns, we throw some of the pumpkin seeds out in the yard somewhere.  Most summers, we have a pumpkin vine as a reward.  This year, one grew out of the clay pot we set the jack-o-lantern in.  I don't remember there being any seeds, but, apparently, there were!

You know... now that I think about it, I seem to remember Sara-Grace (who has such a green thumb she could grow crops for profit!) asking me if she could put a pumpkin seed in the pot.  Figures!  I make her do all my seed-handling!

I don't know if I'll really get a pumpkin off this vine but, even if I don't, I love the lush, green, heartiness of it in all its volunteer enthusiasm!

There's a blossom!  Could it be that I might get a pumpkin eventually?

I planted some butternut squash seeds this year and had one good vine.  But the squash beetles killed it -- as usual!  They kill my squash EVERY year.  I have never had a squash vine survive.  This year, I sprinkled cayenne pepper around the vine.  It seemed to work at first but the beetles won out in the end.  

I hear that autumn squash is more successful so I think I'll try growing some this year.  Autumn gardens are a totally new concept to me!  I always think I've missed my chance if I haven't planted by May 1.  Now I can try again in mid-to-late August!  Yay! 

You know what amazes this grocery-store-girl about vegetables?  You can take the seeds out of a squash or a melon or a pepper and put it in the ground and grown more squash or melons or peppers.  This truly amazes me!  I know it's kind of obvious but I see it as miraculous!  

And, one of the many neat things about it is that it's FREE (except for the water maybe)!  Love it!