One of our native irises bloomed just in time for Easter. 

We spent a good chunk of Saturday in the yard. 

I cleared out dead poppies and pulled rusty leaves off the roses.  We've got a few blooms -- all red.  I'm curious to see what color the other bushes are since the Phoenix roses are a mystery.  One of them had a light purple tint before we transplanted it, so that would work well with the sage, rosemary and lavender.

I'll be glad when the rest of our landscaping looks as good as our parkway.

Milk! It Does a Rose Bush Good!

We have powdery mildew. It's the worst on the Phoenix rose Rob transplanted in front of the fence.

I found this milk cure online. It worked great, but I didn't do a second application soon enough, so the mildew's back in full force on Phoenix.

The other roses are pretty much cured from the first treatment, but I'm going to use milk as a preventative...

Looking Good!

(As long as you don't actually look at the house!)

Another Gardening Project

A couple of weeks ago while I was away (see a pattern here?), Rob weeded around the rose bushes and planted California poppy seeds.

He also cleaned up some bricks from the pile in the driveway and made a border. Not sure where he got the patience to scrape off all that mortar.

Once the rest of the parkway is done, it's going to look awesome!

Phoenix Lives!

That's a new leaf on one of the roses we transplanted. All of them are showing some sign of life. Amazing what a foot of rain can do!

Rob got so optimistic, he dug up the rest of the plants and moved them. I wonder if new plants will spring up in the old locations.

Charlie Brown's Engelmann Oak

After nearly two months, the little guy's still standing -- and strong enough to hold not one, but TWO Christmas ornaments.

That's more than can be said for the roses we transplanted...

Phoenix Rose, Part Gazillion

On Thanksgiving, Rob transplanted another rose in front of the fence. It had the same weird tap root as the one he did last week.

No idea if it's a climber, but we shall see...

Nature at Work

Rob got interested in composting and started a bin in June when we still lived in the apartment.

It's been remarkable how much stuff we've put in here and how fast it's broken down. Just when I think there's no more room, I'll realize how much space has opened up because of the decomposition. It always surprises me how heavy the bin is.



After Halloween, we learned the hard way that pumpkins are mostly water and make a mess. But other than that, it's been a pretty easy deal.

We used some of the compost for the first time when we transplanted the roses on Saturday. Hopefully it helps!