Looks pretty. JoanMN

Kay - thank you, thank you! I hate weeding more than anything. Oxalis and crabgrass everywhere. It's been a challenge with the rose garden as the bed was overrun by both and I can't get myself to dig everything up and start with fresh soil as I don't think the old roses would survive. Sometimes I stop and talk to neighbors while I'm walking my dogs too. They're not very friendly, but they're ok to talk to about their plants. The neighbors across the street are friendlier, but all they have are lawns and potted palms. I seek out the gardens that stand out among the agapanthus+jasmine+nandina that most Southern California gardens have and kind of linger in front in hopes that there is someone tending it at that moment hahaha garden stalking. It's been like The Secret Garden lately, new plants growing amongst dead ones, then later on discovering they're not dead at all. It's all very exciting and I send my mom and sisters photos and we try to remember where grandma placed it in the garden, and what else she grew with it. We are bonding through this collective memory of what it looked like in its heyday. I will post more pictures once things get greener and fuller 1gteacher - I've been too nervous about direct sowing poppy seeds because I think the weeds would swallow them up. Actually, I haven't direct-sown any seeds other than nasturtium in fear that I'd pull it out by accident like I did with the dill and artichoke(that did not look like a weeds, but I was in factory-assembly-line zoned-out weed-pulling frenzy and they were so small and surrounded by Oxalis). I do have a thousand poppy seeds so... Here goes nothing, wish me luck :) mrclint - yes, my grandmother did this too! She never mulched, she just stuck nasturtiums, peas, spinach, thai chili peppers and cilantro everywhere. She would give me and my brother a list of what ingredients she needed for Sunday lunch and we would hunt everywhere, front and backyard, coz it WAS everywhere. She always had food growing year round. I just miss her a lot. At first I didn't even want the house because I looked at it and kept thinking she was there pruning her roses or then I realize she's never ever going to come back to her garden. I guess I just needed time to mourn her garden too, and now I've set to work and I see it in a different light, see every new opportunity and theres a backyard large enough to make mistakes in :) I have started reading about succession planting and I think it makes a lot of sense. I just have a hard time making decisions on what to actually plant haha. I have so much to learn :) your photo of the Washington Navel is very inspiring! And it's reminded me that I need to prune the Meyer lemon tree in the backyard that is so heavy with fruit. It's also gotten really tall. That one my grandma underplanted with cilantro. This weekend, I'll be weeding and mulching around trees as well. - Isabel

Hmmm... mine doesn't get PM. It's one of the most disease free roses I have. It's one of my best roses hands-down. Blooms all the time. And it's so photogenic, as you can see in these beautiful photos!! Kathy, I wonder if the difference in rootstocks has anything to do with it? I imagine yours is on DR HUEY? Mine was purchased many yrs ago from Hortico on Muliflora, and under its original name of MARVELLE, long before J&P snagged it up and changed the name. Our climates are very similar, and even with the recent colder temps and drizzles I see no signs of PM.

Roselee, Such nice colors, feel like taking a stroll in your garden. I have a suprise cantaloupe vine growing. I thought a squash vine came up from the vegetable scrap I threw in my garden. I put a trellis and let the vine grow vertically. I cut one off the plant to get a closer look and thats when I realized it was a cantaloupe. It was not ready yet,I let it ripen for a few days. It was quite good, I am sure it will taste great had I left it on the plant till it was ready. I have some more on the vine and I am figuring out a way to give support to those Cantaloupes. I read old panty hose may work good. Any ideas ?