Garden Delights

I am not a gardener.  Not by any stretch of the imagination. We are lucky to get our lawn mowed regularly most of the time.  Gavan and I have discovered that when you buy a 40 year old house, you either need to be the very hands-on, DIY type or you need to have the cash to fork over to the professionals.  We are and have neither. 

And so that leaves us with trying to learn a little about renovations and yard work and trying to live with the results of years of neglect until we can afford to really do something about it.  

So in the spirit of doing what we can to improve our home, two years ago I planted some perennials in a little bed that had sat empty in our backyard for the first couple years we lived there.  It is a sunny south-facing spot, and so the choices were endless, but I stuck to what I loved, roses and peonies in pale shades of pink and white.

The hardy roses did well from the get-go, and this year, I counted over 40 blooms, with another 30 buds still to come. 

The peony however, didn’t fare as well.  The year of planting, I thought I had killed it, and by the end of summer there was not a visible trace of it above the soil.  However last year, much to my surprise, one single stem shot up, but still no buds. 

This year, I was completely overjoyed to see a single peony bud sprout, and it became my daily obsession to check its progress and wait for the moment when it would erupt into, in my opinion, an unparalleled heady ruffled bloom. 

I was not disappointed.  I only wish the blooms lasted a little longer.

 

Hate ants in the house, but love them here!  Did you know they are necessary for a peony bud to bloom?

 

My single bloom.  Isn’t it soooo pretty?  There is nothing like a peony!

 

Pretty Blush Roses