Average Jane’s Flower Garden

I looked out the window the other day to admire our newly-mowed yard and discovered that my backyard rose garden is in full bloom. Last year I moved more than a dozen mini rose bushes from a huge, empty-looking flower bed in the front of the house to a smaller, sunnier bed in the back. Almost all of them survived the move and are flourishing in their new location. If it weren’t still dark outside I’d post a picture. I’ll try to do that some other time.

The best part about this abundance of multi-colored blooms is that I have done nothing to encourage it this year. I still need to buy about 3-4 more mini roses to fill in the spots left by the bushes that did not live through the move. At some point I need to cut off the dead portions of the bushes from last season, but the roses don’t seem to care very much either way.

My perennial geranium plants are very healthy this year, too. They may be a little too healthy, in fact. I think I may divide them while the season is still early and spread them out a bit before they overwhelm the smallish trees that grow near them.

My goal for Sunday is to visit a garden store and finally buy some flowering plants for the empty bed in the front of the house. I’ve managed to reduce the size of the flower bed by planting grass over about half of it, but that leaves a big expanse of blank dirt punctuated with rather large weeds. A dozen or so annuals and some cypress mulch would go a long way toward making our house look more presentable from the street.

I’m also going to get some more hostas to plant under our oak tree in the back yard. Last year I ringed the oak with hostas and then neglected most of them to death during the summer. This year I hope that by starting early and giving the whole process a little more thought, I can achieve a better result. We’ll see…