I first became interested in gardening with just about my first memory I do believe. My folks and Grandparents on both sides were farmers. I was raised on the family farm here in Northern Colorado. My folks always had a nice veggie garden. My Dad raised the best sweet corn around. He had one big garden area where that is all he planted. We used to get so much that he would take bushel baskets of it to the local nursing home for all the residents to enjoy.
One day I decided I wanted my own little garden and chose a small area next to an old coal shed on the farm. It was full of weeds and needed a lot of work. My Mom and Dad told me that I could choose some other place but I liked that spot. In that first garden I raised some veggies like tomatoes, peas and green beans. Also at one end I planted some marigolds and pansies. I got a ribbon at the local fair that year with an arrangement of my flowers and grew a radish that thought it was a turnip! It got that big.
I grew up watching my mother and grandmothers tend to their roses. I also helped my dad with tending to the crops and milking the cows. It is the tending of the roses that really seemed to stick with me. While my mother and grandmothers had some different ways of tending to them, they all grew some beautiful roses. I remember the roses filling the air with a wonderful fragrance. I would say that the person that really first interested me in gardening was my mother. I still enjoy helping her tend to her roses and other flowers as well as tending to my own.
We moved from the farm to our current home in town about three years ago. The various garden areas have been a work in progress since then. My wonderful wife and I plan things out over the winter and then work on making the changes in the very early Spring. I think we are pretty much done with the front yard areas as of this year. We have some roses out there as well as delphiniums, daisies, tulips, daffodils, two nice hills of Japanese Silver Grass and even a nice Linden tree. We love the fragrance that the Linden tree fills the air with when it blooms. Along the side of the garage and the front walkway I have roses planted. One of the pictures is of that front rose bed.
The rear yard is still a work in progress but is taking shape nicely. We have a gravel area with some concrete deer in it back there along with some old things from the farm. And of course some more roses! I have a little circle garden with mini roses in it and a triangular box garden with mini roses in it back there. In the circle garden we have a butterfly bush and some pansies. There are bright red tulips in the center that bloom for some wonderful early color. They are not in the picture of the circle garden at this time as they are all done blooming for this year.
The triangular garden has some hollyhocks in the back corner as well as a wonderful Snowlady Daisy plant up front, some chives and a geranium for a little added color. This garden also has some miniature daffodils planted along the front edge for some wonderful early color there too. They are all done now also. I also like collecting Bear figurines, art, etc.. So you see some bears in the garden areas as well. Bears and roses are two of my favorite things, thus my handle on the forums of Bearrose.
My mother and I work together to tend her roses. The gardens areas at home are tended by my wife and I also our youngest daughter. Our youngest daughter shares my love for the roses as does my son-in-law. My youngest daughter loves to smell the fragrances of all the various roses and has her favorites already. My wife picks out a rose or two that she likes the color of and also loves to cut some for in the house. But when folks come by and compliment us on the beauty of the roses, she always tells them that the roses are my babies. Some of my wife’s favorites are Rio Samba, Angel Face, Hot Cocoa, Just Joey, Sexy Rexy, Bronze Star and Veteran’s Honor. They are all pretty much my favorites as I love roses. They all catch my eye in varying ways and are a pleasure to see in the evenings after a long day at work.
I always tell folks that my favorite mulch is “gravel mulch”. Which gets me some strange looks. I have tried many different kinds of mulch over the years. One day I was telling my mother that I had a lot of trouble with the mulch blowing out into the lawn and other areas and then looking bad. She asked me why I bothered with that mulch then. I gave her a few reasons and she said well I have used my gravel for years. It stays put and when you move it back the ground is moist underneath. I could not argue her point.
She still grows some of the biggest Mr. Lincoln and other roses I have ever seen. I know it is not for everyone and would not work in many other climates. However, it does work just fine here and has for way too many years to dispute it. Some beds I have some gravel called Colorado Rose Stone gravel in and it makes the roses and other flowers look very good. In other areas I have the regular mix of river type gravel. In the winter I just mound it up around the union areas a little and everything does fine. Just like Mom has done for a good many years. In a few beds where I do not have the gravel, I do use some cedar stranded mulch to mound them for the winter.
While the roses are my favorites, I also love the delphiniums, tulips, daisies of all kinds and the little pansies. Then there are also the dahlias, dianthus and alyssum. I used to have several different Irises at the farm. One of my favorites was a deep dark purple one that was nearly black when it bloomed. The ones I dug up to bring with us did not survive as it was not really a good time of year to do that. Probably the most underrated and sometimes unappreciated plants I see are the dianthus and alyssum. They add such wonderful splashes of color to the areas where they are, yet seem to be overshadowed by the taller bloomers around them.
Dahlias are another beautiful flowering plant that are beautiful yet overlooked. I was at our favorite local greenhouse here this past weekend. My wife and I were just looking at some of the beautiful flowering plants they had there. When we walked down the aisle with some dahlias in bloom, we both stopped in our tracks to admire their bright colored blooms and the interesting form of their petals. Needless to say some of those dahlias came home with us that day.
Gardening is a soul re-charger for me. I find a lot of peace tending to the garden areas and especially to my roses. There is much in our old world to make a soul very weary and tending to God’s gift of a garden helps to restore the focus on things that really matter. Enjoy your gardens too!
