After reading this thread I am relieved that I am not alone in my constant struggle (which I am losing) to choose from a seemingly endless pile of beautiful roses. I am only one year in and I already have a wishlist a mile long, as well as a growing list of roses I have already planted that will be getting moved to the back yard this fall to make room for more of my recently realized favorites. It seems like I have a new favorite every week! I may have also gotten a little overzealous & ordered a few things that may not have a planned home yet, so it looks like some large pots are in my immediate future. I still have not accepted the reality that I will eventually have to remove a healthy rose from my garden just because I don't like the way it looks, my inner hoarder says "surely there is somewhere it can go"... And my outer reasonable person says "uummmmm... I don't know about that" ... They'll sort it out eventually! Jessica

You are correct about adding sand, Sand + clay= something close to concrete. I would lighten up on the water unless the plants are showing signs of stress (but don't wait until they are fully wilted). Twice a week for an established plant sounds like an awful lot. But it depends on the quantity of water rather than the frequency. One deep soaking is better than two shallow soakings. I don't think I even water my thyme in pots that often in the summer (well maybe the smaller pots). Like I said before, I haven't watered my thyme in my raised bed gardens for many years regardless of the time of year. We have very clay soil in my area. My thyme planted in unamended areas of my garden don't do nearly as well and have to be replaced every two or three years. If I were to start a thyme garden (and I have several-I am a hopeless thyme collector): I would raise the beds at least 8 inches with compost and peatmoss (adding a little lime to counter the acidity). If that weren't feasable, I'd raise the bed as high as possible and then create 2 foot wide mounds for each plant. I'd water the plants in and keep an eye on them for the first month or so, watering as needed. I might put down some pea gravel as a mulch around the plant, covering the mound. I'd mulch between plants/mounds using cocoa shell mulch or other mulch to suppress weeds. Onset of top growth indicates the roots have adequate growth to find their own water without much added from the hose, although I would keep a watchful eye during extremely hot and dry periods. Once the heat of summer is nearly over, I would cease adding any fertilizer (if I had been adding any at all) and not worry too much about watering. The plants should be a foot tall or so by then and well established. Pruning the plants early will do two things, create bushier, healthier plants and stimulate root growth. Heavy pruning too late in the season can cause the plant to put on a spurt of growth that may be severly damaged by an early frost/freeze. Light harvesting should not have any ill-effects. BTW tarragon hates wet feet even more. If still alive there should be evidence of dormant shoots poking out of the ground waiting for the days to get longer (like many other herbaceous perennials). If they aren't there the plant probably drowned and died.

Animals Can make there own proteins, and they make the vast majority of them, Pepsin in the stomach breaks apart almost all of the protein that any animal eats. However some Amino acids we cannot make, there are 8 Amino Acids that Humans cannot make, out of like 20, these 8 are called the essential amino acids, they all contain nitrogen in the form of an aminegroup (amine/amonnia/imine all different forms of fixed nitrogen), What peas, alfalfa and clover have in common is that they are all Legumes and as a result form nodules in the roots where a symbiotic relationship is formed with beneficial soil dwelling bacteria of the Family Rhizobia, which through its metabolic processes fixes atmospheric N2, which the legumes then use to make more proteins than they would normally be able to. Cheers

Wow. You guys are great! Thank you all so much for the kind words and encouragement. It helps a lot. And I see I'm not the only one in this boat! I do know that things will get better, and I can always plant new roses, etc. But it's just the loss of the rare roses that pisses me off. Why couldn't it be the more common ones that are easily replaced? Of course that's not the way it goes, altho there were a few of those too! And it's my fault for planting the tiny own-root bands in this crappy soil of ours before they've grown to a decent size. And it's my fault for not keeping on top of the sprinklers to be sure they are covering the entire beds, and my fault for not getting the most invasive weeds and underplantings pulled out when they were smaller. But... that's because I've been so busy, and overly obsessed and buying waaaay too many roses. I'm not growing and cultivating them, I'm collecting them. That's what I do. I collect things. It's sad. It's a sickness I guess. I know that in the coming seasons I will get all the beds done. And Bluegirl, yes I am doing what you said. I plant a rose, or weed part of a bed. In this heat, that's all I can do. It's slow going, but it's nice when I do get something done. Right now tho, I also am now dealing with the death of my 98yr old mom. We've been expecting it for sometime, but it's kind of surreal now that it has finally happened. My brother just flew out from Upstate NY and my sister is coming up from SoCal, so we will be dealing with all the estate and stuff over the next two weeks. I'm not going to get much done in the yard for awhile, except watering. Which is ok, since it's been too darn hot to work out there. By then it will be cooler and easier to do stuff outside. The only drawback now is the days are getting shorter, so I won't have as much daylight to get things done. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done. LOL My life will be so different now. I'll have more time and less stress. Not that Mom was stressful. It was my niece who is my partner in the shop, and who lived with her. She's got mental issues and was a nightmare to deal with regarding Mom. Our lives revolved around her needs and wants, and my younger son and I had to go stay with Mom whenever she wanted to have time off. Now I have freedom, and so does Mom! She was trapped in her bed in a body that didn't work and a mind that was basically gone. I will miss her, but I will not miss the ordeals we went thru with my niece. And I will think of Mom when I'm out there working in the garden. Being out there will help me get over her passing. Judith, your chickens sound wonderful. We only have room for a few. (In fact we're not supposed to have more than 2... which is totally ludicrous... why bother?) Anyway.... we built a decent little shack for the girls and have a run that's 8'x24', but we're going to add another 10-12' in length and use our old satellite dish to put over part of it. It's going to be a fun and funky set-up for them. And next yr... I want some of those Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and Brahmas. Can't wait! Oh and I also am using weed barrier under some of my potted roses. Saves on weeds that's for sure. Altho they still get in the pots. But now I am sort of cultivating some weeds. Those are the goodies for the chickens! They love it when I bring them their "greens!"