More cheerfulness! how my garden develops

last year

last modified: last year

I was out in the garden early this morning, working from 6 a.m. to 8:30 or so, skipping breakfast so as to beat the heat (but before starting I did wisely drink a quart of water). This was the same area where I was working yesterday, the top of the Serbian Bed. Well, what did I find? I was cutting grass and weeds from under the roses, pulling the Bermuda grass, but without trying to eliminate all the roots, and clearing around the subshrubs that form the boundary on the road side (tractor road; garden road) of the beds. So: everything looks pretty good. Rosa hemisphaerica died a year or two back; now its rootstock is sprouting, which I cut down without making a lot of fuss about the possibility of it resprouting, which it will. All is grist to my garden mill: the rootstock is a factory making more needed organic matter.

The subshrubs bordering the garden road look good. I spent some time trimming the phlomis, and clearing the weeds and grass that grow among them and at their feet, though sparing some attractive weeds: there's a perennial one with bright green foliage and small golden daisy flowers that I find quite desirable, for example; and there may be some anthemis, which I love. The Mexican sage and shrub germander that follow the phlomis also look good, growing and holding their own. I need to continue planting this border; this fall, likely.

I mentioned in another post that most of the rose varieties that were going to fail by now have done so, and what is left are the kinds well adapted to our conditions. They're most of them wandering around, and, while I can identify shoots of Moss 'James Mitchell', for example, because it's the only Moss in the area, others are too similar to one another--Gallicas--for simple identification. My rose maps would help, but I can't find the notebook where they're located, which is as surprising as it is frustrating. The labels are long gone.

A minor surprise was my not being infuriated by the Bermuda grass. I've spend hours on end, year after year, not eliminating it, but keeping it under control. This time I pulled it and cut it, but without worry. I think it's because I can see that the Bermuda grass has lost the battle against the roses. They've gotten much thicker than a few years ago; I remember how the roses were then, and this year, there are no spaces between rose clumps: it's all roses.

Back perhaps a decade ago now, I decided I wanted to dedicate most of my attention to finishing the structural elements of the garden, mainly hedges and trees. I still haven't finished, and likely will never finish, but a good deal of work has been done, and it shows. The hedge backing up the Serbian Bed, for example, is largely planted and mainly needs to grow (and I need to start some trees in the hedge, though in time they're likely to appear spontaneously). The number of varieties of roses has diminished, and more than I'd like, but, on the other hand, those that have survived are for the most part in excellent health, quite able to go forward on their own. And there's enough variety that I won't get bored. The garden's character is more definite, both in terms of the kinds of ornamental plants that live in it, and in its architecture. It has character, and with it, beauty. And I have a helper to clean out the various dragons that have taken up residence, so that the garden doesn't lose order as fast as it's created.

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last year

Again, I totally agree with Sheila. "Pretty" photographs are all well and good, but to me these are more ...Informative? sincere, in some way? definitely more interesting!!! Thank you, Melissa!!!

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Comments (6)

Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last year
What a wonderful update, Melissa. You are really making headway.
Ingrid_vc zone 9b, San Diego Co. inland
last year
It's been a pleasure and a privilege to follow the development of your garden property for so many years, Melissa. Not often having photos helps the imagination to run riot, and I especially enjoy visualizing your roses that have the room to climb and spread out in a natural manner. I'm glad you can see the results that you've dreamt of in your mind's eye, although of course there are always surprises. I'm sure it's also been a haven for all kinds of birds and small creatures, and there again not all are welcome (boy, do I know about that). I just want to say, bravo (or is it brava?) for all you and your husband have accomplished; it is something to be very proud of.
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 thanked Ingrid_vc zone 9b, San Diego Co. inland
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Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author
last year
A visit out to the garden after I wrote this was a reality check: most of the garden is still a mess. Even the parts that have been cleaned up are still untidy: there's only so much one can do with meadow plants and a motor scythe.

I went out this morning to see about taking a few snapshots of the Serbian bed that has been the most recent object of my attention. I've weeded part of it, but there's still a good deal to do. And after that, there's the Second Serbian bed, younger and even messier. Here's a shot, from the road, of the entrance to the main walk of the garden:

Leyland cypresses, untrimmed, on both sides of the entrance, which give some welcome shade. We've been in a heat wave for several days now, and it's quite dry, with the ground cracking.

Here is one of the suckering Gallicas I've been cleaning among: strong young growth, in my eyes beautiful. I find some roses in this respect much prettier than others.

Further down in the bed, where I've done some clearing, but the roses are growing so thickly I can hardly get in among them:

I don't know exactly which roses this picture shows, but in this area are 'Belle des Jardins', Hyppolite', 'Mme. Moreau', and who knows what else. Most are looking quite happy--they benefit from their low position in dry periods, not so much when there's a lot of rain--but I'm not sure that 'Belle des Jardins' has gotten off its rootstock, though it grows vigorously. Once the scion starts suckering out, I consider that the rose is proof against nearly everything. There are at least three roses listed under the name 'Belle des Jardins' on HMF; mine is the Guillot rose. It gets bigger than stated on HMF (of course).

Chicory, teasel, grass, and other weeds in the hedge which back up the roses, with a path perhaps a yard wide between. I've been fighting the weeds in the rose beds, including Queen Anne's lace which is having a wonderful year, but I think I need to let them grow in the hedge. They're ecologically beneficial, and they have their own kind of beauty.

And another bit of the hedge, denser this time:

The roses in this stretch are so large I may need to set up a short length of pergola to keep them off the heads of those who come along the path (roses to the left; hedge to the right).

Some of the young oaks at the top of the garden, planted by DH along the road that goes up to our locality:

And a view through the Small Triangle, bordered by our neighbors' fields above, the paved road behind, and the main garden path below to the right:

It forms a narrow triangle, a double line of trees and shrubs with space to walk between. Like all the rest of the garden, it currently needs mowing, and is in a messy stage of its annual growth cycle. It was planned originally as a scrap of woodland, to provide shade and height, and also to soak up some of the water running off the fields above and anchor the ground against landslides and slumps, a real risk here. It has swerved somewhat off the woodland concept, but not too badly, and its numerous woody plants are growing well.

These photographs are not pretty, but documentary, but I hope some folks will be interested n them. I take a lot of pleasure in my garden, even in its less beautiful moments, and am always fascinated by what goes on in it.
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last year
I love these Melissa! They really display natural beauty and the reality of fighting to make a garden. The Oaks look wonderful too.
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 thanked Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author
last year
Sheila and Bart, I'm glad you found these worth looking at. I know we're all three in the process of transforming large and obstinate pieces of ground into gardens.

Hey, it rained here!!!! Bart, did you get rain too? I'm optimistic that it softened the ground enough that my helper can dig planting holes--I'm going to look for the pick, too, in case it's needed--and picked up several bags of compost at the local Coop for amendment, as well as having the sand sitting in a pile by the road. Temperatures have dropped from life-threatening to merely summer-hot, so we'll start work an hour later, at 7 a.m. rather than 6 a.m., which is a painful hour at which to get going. I'm rather revved about collecting some rose suckers for propagation, too.