Garden

Here are beginning pics of the garden. It wraps around the house in a "U" and gives plenty of space for all of our needs! We even have a place for a storage shed [for the huge Christmas boxes that just don't fit in our closets!]

"behind" the Patio:
Looking at the front gate:

The backside:

Looking through the front gate:

In front of the house :)

The main backyard:

Our plans for it is to have a outside living space with many "mini" gardens. A cacti and succulent garden. A rose garden. A fruit and veggie garden. An herb garden. Lots and lots of flowers... Just a place to go and relax and enjoy our slice of Eden. :) I love plants and can't wait to get more and make this yard a retreat for us! {and bird feeders and bird baths!}

I LOVE roses and buy them whenever I possibly can. So to save on some money [but definitely not time] I inquired about doing clippings. It is more cost-effective, but you have to take special care to make sure the plants are taken care of, not left in too much water to get root rot, and the bugs need to be washed off too. 1 Bareroot rose bush is anywhere from $10-$30. If I were to buy 20 of them, it would cost $200-$600. That, my friends, is more money than I have to throw around at plants all in one shot!

Before we moved my mom gave me almost 40 clippings from her rose bushes and I decided that I'd try to start them myself :) I heard that it is pretty hard and most of the plants do not make it. So we striped the clippings of all of their leaves [except the top ones] and made a nice clean cut 1/4 inch below a node. I then soaked them in water for a week and a half. I then dipped their ends into a rooting compound and planted them in a mixture of perlite and compost. I preceded to forget about them because we were packing up to move.... This past week I checked on them to see how they fared with the rain and such.. and to my [pleasant] surprise, only 1 died!!! The rest are growing like gangbusters!! They all have new bud growth and a few of them have new leaves already!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! I think I might have a green thumb like my grandmother :) Sooooo.... IF all of them survive, I think we'll have 50ish rosebushes!! most of them are different, so that is nice. I also planted my "Vaavoom" yesterday [my California Poppy colored rose bush] and "Fire and Ice" needs to be planted, but needs a pot! I also just picked up a mini rose -"Patriot" - at Lowe's [for cheap] and it has almost the same colorings as "Julio Iglesies". I just LOVE IT!! I love being surrounded my beautiful plants and vegetation. Feels like home to me.

Some of the plants we currently own will go in the ground to stay, and some will stay in the pots and be beautiful! I can't wait to see the transfermation!!!!