Gardening

Zombie Rose Bushes get booted, Giant Pumpkin Replaces! Will Pumpkin turn Zombie, too?

So, the pumpkin was taking over the entire veggie patch. And, the lawn. The zucchini next to it was crowding its’ neighbors as well, so I decided the pumpkin had to move to new quarters. A vegetable transplant. Scary! But let’s see how it goes.

We decided to remove two of the zombie rose bushes, and put the pumpkin and zucchini in those places, and leave the least deathly looking rose bush.

However, once we moved the pumpkin there, and trimmed a few appendages that got broken, it just lay there like limp broccoli and I wonder if it will ever revive. Will we have jack-o-lanterns this Halloween??? I just don’t know. Aerial view:

I was so worried about the dangers of transplanting large, healthy plants, that I decided the zucchini would only be moved over one foot, to the place the pumpkin used to be, and we’ll plant something else in the empty bush area by the pumpkin that may or may not be dead.

Now the veggies have room to breathe, soak up sunshine and rain. Let’s see if the zucchini survives even a small uprooting. Fingers crossed that they both handle the transplant well!!

A Current Endeavor – Accepting the Unexpected (chantellyb.wordpress.com)

Zombie Rose Bushes

Ok, I can call it now. Epic Fail. I’ve tried snipping off the dead, yellow leaves. My rose bushes in the shady back side garden have just not impressed me. Would they impress anyone? Maybe those who think that red roses ought to look deathly ill.

Funny thing is, I do not care what I’m doing wrong. I have no interest in feeding these bushes, using pesticides, or any such fuss. If they don’t wanna thrive there, we’ll pull them out and plant something that loves to be there (we get tons of rain and daylight hours around here all summer so sheesh, that should be plenty).

Here’s the ‘healthy’ one of the three bushes, that still looks pretty sad.

See how on closer inspection the blooms are all bedraggled and there are some yellow infected leaves? Blah.

Good news, though: awesome red tomatoes coming on the hanging plants!

I had hoped they would be much bigger, though……I’m not a huge cherry tomato person. Or, will they grow in size?? Maybe? One can hope.

And, horrible pumpkin and zucchini plants taking over every single spot in my veggie bed (well, there are two rose bushes there in the middle so not purely veggies)… what do I do, uproot all the neighbors and move them elsewhere?

MAN! It is slow and mind-numbing work to grow flowers from seeds.

Slow. And boring. Do I even remember what sorts of flowers these were supposed to be? Do I care?? It’s been more than a month and these seeds have sprouted so very, very little. Highly unsatisfying.

Discovering the mysteries of a flower bed!

Off in the side of our front yard, there is this flower bed that keeps surprising me! And summer isn’t even halfway over!

First, in early June, the Peonies were colorful and budding beauties!

Then, by the end of June, they really fleshed out into pink monsters! But it was clear their days were numbered….

Now, in mid July, i decapitated the rotting peony blossom heads, and see that red lillies are starting up a show, just in front of where the peony patch has finished! Groovy! What will be next? It’s really interesting getting to know your garden, when it’s the first summer living in a new house!

Bitchy zucchini….

Taking over my tiny vegetable patch. I had no idea how much they would spread out! Poor spinach to the left is getting blanketed. I really planted my seedlings too close together……. man, I really am hapless at gardening.

And I forgot to water the tomato plant again

And again she is showing me what she thinks of my skipping one day of her gallon a day needs. Sheesh.

Hapless Gardener learns lessons about growing things in dirt

I learned that if you plant zucchini and pumpkin seedlings too close to other plants, they will take over and smother everything.

Lesson 2 is that tomatoes are freaking thirsty. A gallon a day. Seriously? I’m a lot more creature and I don’t need a gallon a day. I get it that they are growing tomatoes but I’m growing a girl!
Before getting daily chug of h2O: