Worth the backache

My back has been killing me this week. I stayed home from work on Monday and spent the day in a stupor from muscle relaxers. I realized when I pulled the bottle from the medicine cabinet that my doctor had prescribed them to me exactly one year ago this week. It's pretty obvious that my garden and all the work that goes into it in April is the culprit!

Backache aside, the garden is doing well. The vegetable raised beds are planted and starting to grow. And my roses? Heavenly. The Eustacia Vye I planted last year has been absolutely covered in dozens of rosebuds, and the two newbies (Benjamin Britten and Desdemona) both have several flowers and they were bare root plants less than three months ago. I'm in love!

Just look at these beauties. 

My garden in April

These are a few buds from my second year Eustacia Vye rose. The bush is absolutely loaded with them (over 4 dozen at last count) and ready to burst forth into a glorious display. 

This Desdemona rosebush was nothing but a bare-root back in February, and today the first bloom opened. It already has a sweet, lemony fragrance. I'm in love!

The beans are really taking off.

And if someone could give me good advice on how to thin carrots, I'd appreciate it. I'm certain these are too closely planted, but maybe I'll get a few small ones.

Also, I have a huge kiddie pool "bowl" of salad! Look at this beautiful lettuce! I've already had a couple of handfuls of tender baby leaves.

Last but not least: my method of quickly hardening off young tomato plants: cover them lightly with pine straw mulch for shade. So far, I've planted 14 seedlings without hardening them off, and they're doing just fine. This weekend I'll plant the last 5 still to go as well as the pepper plants, and this year's garden will be ready to rock and roll.

 

More roses!

On Friday my two new bare root David Austin roses arrived! I didn't waste time; yesterday morning I did the recommended root ball immersion in buckets of water, and in the late afternoon I planted them on either side of the Eustacia Vye. That particular bed is finished now (aside from some possible future companion plants for the roses). It's on the south side of the screened porch, and the three rose varieties are Benjamin Britten, Eustacia Vye, and Desdemona. Considering that last year my Eustacia bloomed less than two months from planting out, and then bloomed again in the summer, I have high hopes of seeing all three flowers this year.

Garden progress in pictures

 I've very little time for blogging today, but I wanted to post an update on how my garden's coming along. Here are some photos I took over the last several days. xx

Fleeting

My first "Eustacia Vye" bloom lasted a mere 24 hours, and then a heavy rainstorm shattered it. It was glorious for that one day, though. 

There are several more buds on the verge of opening, so there's more beauty to come. 

Early May in my garden

We're still in the sweet spot, garden-wise, at this point in the year. Everything is growing and thriving, and the heat, bugs, diseases, and general malaise of high summer still seem far away. 

Here are a few pictures from my garden as of this afternoon. I'll start with my current obsession: my baby Eustacia Vye rose! Her first bloom is beginning to open, and I'm in love.

There are nine more flower buds now, too.  It's hard to believe this rose was planted as a bare root at the end of March. 

In other good (but somewhat less exciting) garden updates, here are a few more photos of things I'm growing, all taken this afternoon:

The five blueberry bushes are still fairly small but loaded with berries. The plant growth on all five has been very slow, but this year I've finally started fertilizing on a regular basis. I'm hoping they'll start to take off as a result. As it is, we'll probably get three or four cups of blueberries at the most....and that's if we feel like fighting with the birds and squirrels for them. (Probably not). At least the plants seem healthy, though!

Poppy is a great garden companion. She walks with me while I inspect everything, the tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn...

See the nest box in this next picture? There's currently a bluebird family taking up residence! Mom and Dad work tirelessly all day long bringing food to the babies, and it's a real joy to watch. The current brood are just about ready to fledge. 

After a very late start, my lettuce is finally starting to look like....lettuce! Haha. The carrots planted beside it are finally sprouting but they're not worth taking a picture of yet. Next year I need to get on the ball much, much, much sooner with the lettuce and carrots.

We built a tripod for the cucumbers to climb. They're looking good right now, too.

And finally, the corn. 

Eustacia

Several weeks ago, my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. He said it ought to be something special, because 50 is a milestone. We talked it over, and he suggested it might be time to start planting the roses I've been dreaming of growing for a long, long time. Years ago, before we were even close to being able to buy a house, I signed up to receive David Austin English rose catalogs. Every time I got one, I'd spend hours poring over it and hoping one day I'd be able to place an order. 

Well, now we have a home of our own, and a garden, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate turning 50! 

The initial plan was to order three roses, because that's how many we have room for in the spot I picked, but after giving it some thought, I decided it would be better to start with one and then later (maybe next year) add two more. That will give me the opportunity to focus all my attention on my "birthday" rose, since this is new gardening territory for me.

It took two weeks, but I finally picked the variety I wanted and placed my order. That was on Tuesday of last week, and on Friday my rose arrived! When I got home from work Gregg had already prepared the bed by digging up and moving the banana plants that were in the spot--hard work, and I was so happy he got it done for me! The next day, Saturday, we were able to plant.

Behold my newest "pet"...a bare root shrub rose called "Eustacia Vye":

It doesn't look like much now, but I have high hopes!