Oh boy, gorgeous! That pic of your dog is pretty funny, mine used to stretch like that in the heat cooling off too:) Your rose beds are looking awesome and I want to know where your aphids are??!! You sent them all to Ca or what? LOL* I love the opening pic, that's beautiful, too bad I'm full up or I'd have to get one, you're right on that. Your new rose bed is looking pretty great at the start of this season. You should have included the before pic of you having to recreate it.

Thanks for the walk through your gardens, they're beautiful.
Leslie

Dave, your garden and roses look awesome, thanks for the tour!

I especially love the photo of Falstaff, how I do miss that rose, the color is so special and the shape of the flowers is so pretty! Your Globe Artichokes look yummy, you will eat them, will you? Pete is a pretty cool dog, seems to know how to relax!

Thanks for posting!

Leslie, Thanks for the nice comments. I am trying to figure out were I can put some more artichokes myself. They are to expensive in the store. I will figure out some place for Two more!
I'm glad you mentioned the aphids. I have none this year. I'll tell you why. I gave up on the poison a long time ago but decided to make up a small little spray bottle of Ortho Isotox. That was a month ago when the Aphids were arriving by the bus load! I only used a small amount of the spray bottle spraying only the bud tops when they were small and can't believe the results and how they are not coming back. And it has rained twice but still no Aphids. Also I still see lots of good bugs everywhere. It is usually a major battle with the aphids here in Central Ca. this time of year!
Was your dog a Boston Terrier or do other Breeds cool off this way too?
Sounds like you know my pain on the rose bed rearranging! What a pain in the neck. I moved everything from four feet apart to three feet apart. Than moved all the drip system fountains. But now I have decided to go with drip tubes circling each rose!
Take care Dave

I'm going to have to remember that Ortho then and try it early next spring in towards the end of March then before the ladybugs show up. The aphids pretty much ruined the middle of the first flush. By the time I get this huge wave of ladybugs it's too late, they've got the roses just about half clean now but I'd rather not have this problem. I also was gone all of Mar too, so it was out of control. Now, I've got a few roses defoliating from washing them off too much. I have to brush up on my geography, I never thought of Concord as the valley, but I don't think I've ever been there either. I still think you sent them down south past Fresno to me! I should have this huge wave of toads arriving next month along with the preying mantis, that'll help me out considerably. As a 3 year old garden I'm doing everything I can to coax the good bugs to come along since this was all nothing for too long before they built here and orchards before that.

I had a huge overgrown white lab that would sprawl out to cool off when we moved here and he discovered cool grass or the cool tile and linoleum in the house:) In the mtns we never had this kind of heat to battle, he had a thick 3" coat that we'd have to shave down here, it was just too hot, my total outside dog became an inside dog when we moved to the valley when he was 6. On his hind legs he could put his paws on my shoulders if I let him, which I didn't, but that's how big he was. He got some of the bad food and died from kidney failure just before he was 10.

Oh, I've done a lot of rose moving, the first spring here I had to transplant the first 27 minis I'd planted on the north side of the house and then all the other roses I'd ordered over the winter too:) I've dug all the holes for the roses and we've tried drips and they work at first and then clog with clay particles. Replaced them and try again. Each time I trust them a rose almost dies, so we've gone with the mini sprayers and bubblers and with sprinklers. Originally where my large garden is was all going to be grass, when I saw my husband couldn't maintain that much yard, it was already piped for sprinklers. So, I took 1/3 of the yard for my rose garden. After my dog died I decided to make a memorial for him and hey an excuse to extend the garden to where he used to lay outside the small fence I had and put in more roses and I took another 1/4, this doesn't add up but I now have half the length & width of the back yard as a rose garden. He'd like a vegetable garden but guess who ends up watering it when he doesn't get out there once it hits the 90's and 100's?? I won't give over my rose real estate, I gave him my old mini/shade garden for a vegetable garden at the back of the house:)

This process for the 'large rose garden' has taken 3 years, I have a permanent cement border and a wrought iron fence up now, I can't expand any further that I put in last summer, LOL* I did take out two roses and two ornamental grasses this spring and gave to a friend but I still found a way to put another dozen roses in and I'm pretty much finished. I think I can squeeze another couple very small minis in, but other than that, I'm tapped. I think I'm up to just under 90 roses now. I said I'd stop at 50:) I'm hoping I moved and planted the last roses this spring, but I have a feeling you don't ever finish. I also have two small rose beds at the front of the house. You asked and I don't know how to do answer, especially about gardening & my roses:)

I do think that newest rose bed is looking really wonderful, by season's end it should be everything you were hoping for when you had to replant it. I wish I had your strength & energy, everything shows the TLC you lavish on it. I do enjoy your pics of your roses and beds and your dog is laughing in that one pic:) I think those vegetables add interest and make a great companion to your roses and an added plus is you like to eat them is perfect.

Thanks for sharing everything and I hope this is one of your best seasons yet.
Les

Wow Dave, your roses are looking sharp! Love the artichokes too, looks like they are almost ready to harvest-- yum! Almost time to plant pumpkins already, maybe I will take your cue and plant some seeds this year since I really admired your rosey pumpkin patch last year. Monkey Boy Pete is a cutey-pie, taking a time-out from the heat--I love his drumstick legs! The unidentified rose looks like it could be Jardins de Bagatelle...key word was it smells like french perfume. Cheers : ) Becky

Lookin' good!

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Everything is so healthy looking! So many of my light colored buds are ruined by thrips (did you send your thrips to Texas as well as your aphids to California?!)

Lynn