What a wonderful update, Melissa. You are really making headway.

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.

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.

I love these Melissa! They really display natural beauty and the reality of fighting to make a garden. The Oaks look wonderful too.

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.