First week of summer

After the initial flush of spring weeding and planting now suddenly it's summer when I sit back and enjoy the results. If weeds are popping up I'm ignoring them. Besides, I'm tired when I come home from work. I can manage to pop the top off a cold beer but that's about it.

I'm fond of Black and Blue salvia and managed to find several plants at Lowe's this year that weren't dead yet. I can achieve that myself as the summer wears on.

My tiny terrace is packed with lots of pots, bird baths and all sorts of junk. I enjoy it all. I don't have a theme with the colors or the plants, but I like a pop of bright orange here and there.

Oh, and peach and pink. That rose is Zepherine Drouhin. Hibiscus courtesy of the grocery store.

Back in the day I wouldn't have dreamed of putting orange flowers in my garden but I have no such qualms now. I guess if there's a color theme scattered M&M's would be it.


The lower yard is mostly green. I love the lawn, but I no longer love mowing it. A guy does it nowadays.

Another one of my adorable grandchildren sailing a boat in Grammy's miniscule pond while I sit back and enjoy the first week of summer.

ONE OF THE BOURBONS

I'd rather have a beer but when it comes to roses, I can do a Bourbon, in this case Zephirine Drouhin. The photo at the left is the one growing on an arbor outside my back door. This is how they look grown in semi-shade. The photo below (from the Web) is presumably how they look when grown in full sun as any rose prefers. Hey, I'm happy with what I have. I really get a kick out of the fact that there are no thorns on Zephirine, which is the only reason to grow it on an arbor I pass through 20 times a day.



I also like that Agatha Christie had Hercule Poirot solve one of his mysteries because of the clue of the thornless rose (the suspect couldn't have gotten a scratch from the rose as he claimed.)
I can't remember the title of that one. But I do remember "How does your garden grow?" on TV which opens with Poirot at the Chelsea Flower Show where a new rose is being named after him. An old woman slips a packet of seeds containing a cryptic note into Poirot's pocket, which eventually leads him to grubbing around in her garden for clues to her subsequent death. I do like to see gardens prominently featured in films. It's kind of a bonus in case the film isn't any good. What the heck, some movies I see just for the lush settings and background, who cares about the storyline? Obviously, I didn't pay $9 to see them either. Check your local library for the latest DVDs, free.