Some of you have mentioned that you would like to stroll through my garden. Your admiration thrills me to the core but there can be no strolling in a garden that is a mere 400 square feet unless you take a little eyes-only promenade from the oh-so-remote distance of the adjacent window (same goes for the front yard minus about 200 square feet). The fact that 350 of those 400 square feet is cement, most of it pretty consistently pee’d and poo’d upon by the resident “bad-girl” princess-dog who is, as I write, sleeping off a particularly strenuous night of deeeeeep slumber, makes for an even shorter ramble. .JPG)
Fortunately, I keep a number of plants in pots, a habit I acquired when our propensity to rent turned into a downright tradition. Most of my 13 rose bushes have been dragged from local to local (as we have an even deeper tradition of moving frequently) which is how, over the years, I have satisfied my thirst for roses at my fingertips.
However, we were so very lucky as to purchase our little cottage over three years ago, prompting me to plant many of my roses in the tiny squares of available dirt as well as to invest in (gasp!) perennials. Since I have long been an “annuals” (cheap, plentiful, frost-vulnerable, “I want it now”, floozies-of-the-garden blooms that give you instant results--sort of like “blue ruin” whiskey, but without the capacity to make you drunk) kind of gal, rather than a “perennials” (the more expensive flowers and plants one buys for the long run—responsible work horses of the garden that take time to develop and mature) lover, the pay-off of this trade-off (perennials for annuals, for those of you whom I confused) has been a very happy surprise.
To illustrate this point, I present a photo of my trellised arch as of August 2008.
See the tiny whitish-pink daisy plant at the base? (I no longer have the brain capacity to memorize the names of everything I plant but we waive that point. We do not press it. We look over it!) (Extra points to whomever can tell me from what play/movie/musical starring Kevin Kline that quote(ish) is from(ish).) See how sweet and petite it is? See, also, how my New Dawn climbing rose has only climbed as high as the height of the birdbath? Now take a gander of a photo of the same spot (different angle) I took in April of this year.
Little daisy plant is a huge daisy plant! My climbing rose has reached the top (and one month later is actually blooming!) Yeah. I know. It so rocks! The fact that, in my area, annuals such as sweet alyssum, lobelia, bacopa, snapdragons and nasturtiums just bounce right back in the spring, year after year after year, means that as the gardener of the household, I have pretty much planted myself out of a job.
In short, if you want to save on money in the garden as well as on fresh flowers to admire from within your four walls, perennials are the way to go, a lesson this floozy-lover took way too long to learn.
However, we were so very lucky as to purchase our little cottage over three years ago, prompting me to plant many of my roses in the tiny squares of available dirt as well as to invest in (gasp!) perennials. Since I have long been an “annuals” (cheap, plentiful, frost-vulnerable, “I want it now”, floozies-of-the-garden blooms that give you instant results--sort of like “blue ruin” whiskey, but without the capacity to make you drunk) kind of gal, rather than a “perennials” (the more expensive flowers and plants one buys for the long run—responsible work horses of the garden that take time to develop and mature) lover, the pay-off of this trade-off (perennials for annuals, for those of you whom I confused) has been a very happy surprise.
To illustrate this point, I present a photo of my trellised arch as of August 2008.
See the tiny whitish-pink daisy plant at the base? (I no longer have the brain capacity to memorize the names of everything I plant but we waive that point. We do not press it. We look over it!) (Extra points to whomever can tell me from what play/movie/musical starring Kevin Kline that quote(ish) is from(ish).) See how sweet and petite it is? See, also, how my New Dawn climbing rose has only climbed as high as the height of the birdbath? Now take a gander of a photo of the same spot (different angle) I took in April of this year.
Little daisy plant is a huge daisy plant! My climbing rose has reached the top (and one month later is actually blooming!) Yeah. I know. It so rocks! The fact that, in my area, annuals such as sweet alyssum, lobelia, bacopa, snapdragons and nasturtiums just bounce right back in the spring, year after year after year, means that as the gardener of the household, I have pretty much planted myself out of a job. In short, if you want to save on money in the garden as well as on fresh flowers to admire from within your four walls, perennials are the way to go, a lesson this floozy-lover took way too long to learn.
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