When we have to let go of favorite plants in the garden... and we're not ready yet.

[Geila]

I just spent over an hour enjoying my favorite simple pleasure: watering the garden by hand. And was reminded yet again that it's time to let my roses go. Our garden has changed over the years and the roses don't have the right growing conditions anymore. I will write some more later, but for now I just wanted to publicly witness this sadness and feeling of loss at the thought of digging up all of my beautiful roses. :(:(

[BikingLady]

I feel for you and the roses. I too have a terrible issue pulling any of my beauties. All the volunteers that I really did not plant but they joined the garden. I still have to work at pulling out the assorted ones that grew between the pavers. Once a year or so I do that sad job.

[Geila]

Oh, what a beautiful garden, BikingLady! Thank you for sharing. I bet you get lots of bees and butterflies. We have moved to a more woodland feel to create shade because we don't have A/C and we've also added lots of evergreens to make it a year-round garden to enjoy in the winter. But I miss the full-sun plantings like you have. The roses are the last ones. I planted a bunch of old-fashioned David Austin for fragrance and charm and I'm going to miss them so much. But we have a small city lot and just don't have a good spot for them anymore. So sad.

[iris lilies]

bL, your yarrow is so pretty! Here it gets old fast due to hot weather.

[rosarugosa]

Great picture, Biking Lady! I miss my echinacea and rudbeckia and phlox, but now we can only grow things groundhogs don't like to eat. So developing this new area of expertise, trying to look at the bright side. I'll try to get some pictures posted as well.

[pinkytoe]

The house we just bought has beds full of roses of which I know nothing. Pinks, reds, corals, maroons. I guess they get woody when they are old? Thus far, they have bloomed and bloomed so I will keep dead-heading and see what happens. Not sure what to do with all the poppies though as they look spent but for some new blossoms near the base. Back in TX, just about everything was dead by now so I was used to cutting it back. I didn't mind cause I knew all the perennials would come back in the fall.

[catherine]

I know how you feel, Geila! We just had to dig up a dead rose bush yesterday! It's been in our front garden for years and years, but last year we noticed it was diseased: it started growing these monster thorns. We pruned off the bad parts and waited a year, but we had to get rid of it. I agree.. so sad to see plants die.

Similarly, when people hire tree guys to take down trees in the neighborhood, I can't listen. I have to hide away in my office and put on music. The sound of the trees being murdered and destroyed is too much for me.

[iris lilies]

Oh catherine, that is too bad! I cant imagine being that bothered by tree removal. DH used to work for a tree mirdering company. But they also treat trees for better health, so there's that.

We are trying to murder a tree on our parkng. It has become old and unhealthy. The city came by and put a big orange X on it, but so far they have not cut it.

[BikingLady]

I could not spin the picture. That is my road garden and the point was how filled it is, because I can not pull and toss! The one side of the house I have filled with mints of assorted varieties, I can stand there for a long time watching the bees, honey bees, bumbles and everything else.

While the post about trees are happening, MY peeve is something I had never seen till TN a few years ago. The chopping off the tops of old established trees. OMG the horror of it. I read the TN Agricultural dept release while I was there, asking people not to do this. Here in MI I have only seen this once at a home in the next city, the large trees did not return this year it was way to much for them:( I can't even look at the home when I drive by, I figure the owners must have been from TN or something.

[BikingLady]

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1791&stc=1I can not figure out how to spin this. I love this little cement boat with Hen and chicks. MY joke is my ship hit the rocks in this city, neighbors all know what it means!

[Float On]

The house we just bought has beds full of roses of which I know nothing. Pinks, reds, corals, maroons. I guess they get woody when they are old? Thus far, they have bloomed and bloomed so I will keep dead-heading and see what happens. Not sure what to do with all the poppies though as they look spent but for some new blossoms near the base. Back in TX, just about everything was dead by now so I was used to cutting it back. I didn't mind cause I knew all the perennials would come back in the fall.

That's interesting that they left the roses. I've known of three ladies who spent more time digging up and packing their roses than they did the house. There is a house near me and I've missed her beautiful rose garden ever since she moved 15 years ago. The guy renovating it now must of heard about her because when he was redoing the front landscaping he did it all in roses!

[Geila]

Biking Lady - your boat is so cute! I can tell you have a very charming garden. Hope you post more photos.

One of the further dilemmas with the roses is that even if I can find a spot for them (there's one potential site), they are a hazard to my two dogs, my boxer in particular. She's gotten scratched pretty deeply by them (as have I!) and her short fur and non-fur tummy don't offer any protection.

Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed a thinning of skin with age? I get scratched so easily now, deeply enough that it bleeds and hurts, from the simplest things. Roses, of course, but even my own short fingernails while doing basic daily stuff. And the cuts and scratches take a long time to heal.

[iris lilies]

I am not a fan of roses alrhough the right climber in the right spot at the right time is a stunning sight indeed.

Witche's Broom got most of the roses around here. We finally stopped plantjg them in my neighborhood's public plantings.

[rosarugosa]

I love your succulent planting, BL! I'm with you on the roses, IL. I love the fragrance, but don't really take to them as garden plants. I really enjoy my nom de plume at the beach, and will always stop to sniff them, but there isn't a single Rosa in Rosa's garden!
I cannot remember if I shared previously, but this is a broken concrete birdbath that I planted this spring. I have both before & after shots. 17941795

[nswef]

What a great use of broken bird baths. It looks wonderful. I have one climbing rose from my mother in law that is healthy and strong - it must be 40 years at this house and probably 40 at her house (was her mother in laws's) I love it. I have a climber I bought 30 years ago...it has good years and bad years. I bought 3 at Ollies last summer...all reverted to root stock immediately so I've let one grow but am digging out the others. I'm not good at spraying- I use the rose society's spray- 1 tsp. Epsom salts, 1 tsp baking soda and a bit of detergent in a 1/2 gallon sprayer. It works well when I use it every 5 or 6 days. I love seeing pictures of the gardens.

[Geila]

Rosa - that looks great! And I'm kinda shocked to learn that there are no Rosas in your garden. :)

[BikingLady]

I love your succulent planting, BL! I'm with you on the roses, IL. I love the fragrance, but don't really take to them as garden plants. I really enjoy my nom de plume at the beach, and will always stop to sniff them, but there isn't a single Rosa in Rosa's garden!
I cannot remember if I shared previously, but this is a broken concrete birdbath that I planted this spring. I have both before & after shots. http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1794&stc=1http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1795&stc=1
Looks really nice, I love stuff like that. I will go take pics of my prickly pears. I have yellow which has already bloomed. Last week I got two new colors lavender and chartreuse. I learned to use needle nose pliers to weed, ouch.

[catherine]

Oh catherine, that is too bad! I cant imagine being that bothered by tree removal. DH used to work for a tree mirdering company. But they also treat trees for better health, so there's that.

We are trying to murder a tree on our parkng. It has become old and unhealthy. The city came by and put a big orange X on it, but so far they have not cut it.

I know.. I think I was maybe being a little hyperbolic calling it tree murder, but not much. I realize there's a time for trees to go, and that's perfectly fine, but we happen to have neighbors that are allergic to trees, apparently, because they move in and all these lovely and healthy 40-year old ash trees disappear and their house suddenly looks like a monopoly house on a bare plot of land. Those are the times I get upset.

But I'm probably the bane of their existence, too, because I don't use any herbicides and I coexist nicely with the dandelions and clover.

[iris lilies]

I know.. I think I was maybe being a little hyperbolic calling it tree murder, but not much. I realize there's a time for trees to go, and that's perfectly fine, but we happen to have neighbors that are allergic to trees, apparently, because they move in and all these lovely and healthy 40-year old ash trees disappear and their house suddenly looks like a monopoly house on a bare plot of land. Those are the times I get upset.

But I'm probably the bane of their existence, too, because I don't use any herbicides and I coexist nicely with the dandelions and clover.

Your neighbors may know more than you do. The Emerald Ash Borer is rampant, it hit St. Louis here two years ago from the East Coast, out your way. There is no saving these trees. We cut one of our Ash trees down before it got sick because it is cheaper to cut a healthy tree than one that is dead inside, those are dangerous.

[catherine]

Your neighbors may know more than you do. The Emerald Ash Borer is rampant, it hit St. Louis here two years ago from the East Coast, out your way. There is no saving these trees. We cut one of our Ash trees down before it got sick because it is cheaper to cut a healthy tree than one that is dead inside, those are dangerous.

Funny you should say that, because we are being infested, and maybe that's another reason I'm sad. I have a call out to SaveATree to see what they say. Our neighbors are getting a petition going to see if the township would take some responsibility because they planted them back in the 70s--one ash in every front yard.

But I still have neighbors that hate trees. And their houses are ugly without them.

[iris lilies]

I am truly ambivilent about this Ash Borer thing.

The Ash tree was my dad's tree, he always recommended them, he grew them himself, he planted them wherever he lived and when he died we planted an Ash in our local park in his memory. He would be sad to see all of these trees gone.

But on the other hand, there is no mass planting that is safe from pestilence. Humans think they know it all, but they don't. Mother nature will beat them every time.

Blaming the gumnt is a good one. Good luck with that!