Enjoying the Garden
I think he was eating sand...
The Garden - late April
This is the year of major improvements to the garden. For those of you farmers and children of farmers out there, when I say garden I do NOT mean a vegetable garden (this seems to be a common misconception). This garden is purely aesthetic. If anyone into gardening reads this blog, I highly recommend the book The Bold and Brilliant Garden by Sarah Raven. She has inspired this year's design. Last year we had our big tree taken out, a Norway Maple which has been classified as an invasive species by the FDNR. It was definitely invading my garden with its roots. This was done in large part to make more sun for my roses, but we discovered a nasty pest on them, called the rose midge, which is making a comeback in North America since DDT was banned. No new weapons against it have been found, at least no safe ones, so we made the difficult decision to get rid of all of my roses for a year. Hopefully the new midges will die this year with no food available, and next year I will try roses again. I will continue to update pictures as the summer progresses. I think you will be amazed at the change. You can get an idea of how different a perennial garden looks by September by looking at the old posts from last summer.
I think he was eating sand...
The Garden - late April
This is the year of major improvements to the garden. For those of you farmers and children of farmers out there, when I say garden I do NOT mean a vegetable garden (this seems to be a common misconception). This garden is purely aesthetic. If anyone into gardening reads this blog, I highly recommend the book The Bold and Brilliant Garden by Sarah Raven. She has inspired this year's design. Last year we had our big tree taken out, a Norway Maple which has been classified as an invasive species by the FDNR. It was definitely invading my garden with its roots. This was done in large part to make more sun for my roses, but we discovered a nasty pest on them, called the rose midge, which is making a comeback in North America since DDT was banned. No new weapons against it have been found, at least no safe ones, so we made the difficult decision to get rid of all of my roses for a year. Hopefully the new midges will die this year with no food available, and next year I will try roses again. I will continue to update pictures as the summer progresses. I think you will be amazed at the change. You can get an idea of how different a perennial garden looks by September by looking at the old posts from last summer.
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Jenny