you will be delighted with the results of adding, liquid fish or any water soluble suppliments,,i suggest a balanced liquid fertilizer, there is lots of organic mixtures out there. as raismybeds mentioned there looks to be a lot of wood material in your bed, cow manure is great, yours has a lot of bedding mixed in with it, just looks to me like it could have been composted a while longer...have you tried a ph test on your growing medium? you may need some lime stone and/or (my fave) oyster shell. i have had raccoons dig around plants that i used liquid fish on, that has only happened on rare occaisions, the coons seem to enjoy chickens and ducklings much more recently.

Ingrid, yes, the site and the house say cottage garden all the way. I love your suggestion of perennials to go with roses. I will tuck some herbs in there where it is the sunniest. Rosefolly, it is very helpful to know about the growth habit of OTN and I will go ahead and plant it in front of GH. And, that is a good point about the leaf stripping and lack of sun. It makes sense. Why do you strip GH leaves? To make pruning easier? Jeri, I will "go for it!" As much as I hate to move plants, sometimes you just have to do it. Also, Mountain View, CA is quite warm and dry in the summer. And the bed is totally sunny after 10am when the sun rises above a big Siberian elm. Thank you all very much. I have been indecisive about what to plant in this bed and it is wonderful to get feedback. Photos to follow after planting :-) Anne

I KNOW I had updated pictures of our Cowboy Chic den but can't for the life of me find them. The 24x26 room isn't a brown brown, more of a orangy brown. Walls and sectional pretty much the same color. The carpet is an antelope print (that's what it's called but it's really an axis deer print, same as the skin on the coffee table)with brown in it. My punches of color are the pillows on the sectional. They're all the same style pillow in brick red, sage green, brownish green, orange, dark brown and gold. Even the tile is close in color and dark brown wood coffee table and end tables. This is the only picture I can find...oh, AND the ceiling in this large room is wood too. I think it's a personal preference whether or not you think it's too much of the same color. We've got a 10 foot long white Austin Chopped stone fireplace (goes all the way to the ceiling) that breaks up the color and plenty of other accessories on the walls (plus 10 windows). Monotone-ish den Vaulted ceiling Couch. We've had THREE couches in this den in 9 years :o The first leather sectional broke (handle) and was replaced under an extended warranty. The second leather set, I never liked. It was uncomfortable and too formal looking for our room. The third time was the charm and it's NOT leather. It's our favorite by far! We have two grandchildren that are here as often as they can talk their momma into letting them come over LOL At least 3 days a week. Even tho food and drink isn't allowed in there and shoes are supposed to come off at the door, stuff happens. Hands don't get wiped or they'll sneak a leaky sippy cup in there while I'm not looking. This is some kind of microfiber that at first glance and especially at a distance, looks like leather. A wipe with a damp microfiber cloth is all it takes to clean it. It's definitely a miracle fabric :) And the baby on the couch...he's the best accessory :)

I brought this thread up to thank Jim for posting an excellent article on the danger of high phosphorus: "Phosphorus carries a chemical charge that competes with other micronutrients for plant uptake. Excess amounts result in leaf chlorosis because iron, manganese, and zinc are not available to the plant. Leaf tissue turns yellow while veins stay green." http://www.rose.org/phosphorus-fallacies-too-much-of-a-good-thing/ From StrawChicago: Agree with the above, except for the quote "Commercial growers of roses for cut-flower production typically use fertilizers with a 3-1-2 NPK ratio." That applies to pots or sandy soil, but NOT for alkaline clay. Alkaline clay has more beneficial bacteria to fix nitrogen from air. I used that ratio 3-1-2 before and got a 5 feet tall own-root Scepter'd Isle, plus a giant Charles Darwin (own-root). I gave both away since they got too big & less blooms. From Wikipedia: "By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen." Agree 100% with the quote "Phosphorus fixates, or becomes immobile, in the soil quickly after application. This fixation is minimized at a pH level of 6.0-7.0. So all the extra phosphorus in fertilizer will become unavailable at pH levels above or below that range." With my foolish experiments of bone meal (top-dress or in the hole) ... I notice that high phosphorus induce foliage diseases, due to the suppression of zinc, a very strong anti-fungal agent. Bone meal has 24% calcium and 11% phosphorus, that's NOT as bad as higher % of phosphorus in MG-Soluble. I tested MG-Soluble before: more blooms, but more fungal diseases, plus more pests. High phosphorus induce foliage problems in my Thai basil. That hole was previously occupied by Sharifa Asma, it's right under a rain-spout, so nitrogen get leached out (10 mobility), potassium also leached out (3 mobility), but phosphorus stay put (1 mobility). I put too much Encap cow manure (high phosphorus) in that hole. Sharifa was blooming great ...6 blooms for a tiny plant (6 inch x 6 inch). But after blooming, it broke down in black spots. So I moved Sharifa out, and put a Thai Basil. Here's how Thai basil looks like, tons of blooms, but very thin foliage, with black spots, plus potassium deficiency in lower leaves. The leaves are much paler, smaller, and thinner due to zinc and iron less available.