What a treat on a cold winter day! I have never seen any of these roses "for real". What an intriguingly lovely HP. Do you recall any scent? And that Hugh Dickson! Yummy! The beautiful Eglantyne~~ And PA looks SO good with that color clematis (which I just happen to have:). Ayrshire Queen~~ like something out of a fairy tale. Thanks. Donna

The gardens are fully handicap accessible, so if your hubby is not able to walk he can still enjoy the sights. June in the PNW is a very unstable month.......sometimes we can have wonderful weather characteristic of early summer but more often, June is just an extension of a seemingly endless cold and wet spring. Provided the weather cooperates at least marginally, you will see a great late spring show in June - rhodies and azaleas, early perennials like iris and peonies and Butchart's always wonderful display of bedded out annuals. One can usually plan on great weather in September......that month is often the best weather of the entire year around here and the gardens look stunning then too. If you visit the garden's website, you can investigate what the garden offers in all 5 seasons (Christmas is considered a season all on its own!). Here is a link that might be useful: Butchart's - 5 season virtual tour

Azura, last year was my first real veggie garden, and I learned a lot. There were successes and failures, but I enjoyed it so much. Skybird is right about you wanting to make it bigger next year. I created a separate bed for the herbs this year, just so I could plant more veggies in veggie garden. So far, I planted onion sets and peas (twice). I also have five kinds of lettuce, and broccoli sprouts that were wintersown, that I might plant out as soon as the crazy winds die down. Plus there are tomatoes and peppers in my kitchen windowsill, and tomatoes that were wintersown but haven't germinated yet. I'm also direct sowing carrots maybe this week, but the cucumbers, canteloupes, and beans won't get planted for another month or so. My goal is for as much variety as possible, even if it means just one or two plants of each - 5 kinds of beans, 4 kinds of canteloupe, 5 kinds of carrots, 4 kinds of cukes, 7 kinds of peppers, and as many different tomatoes as I can cram into the space that's left, and the Earthbox I just bought. I'd rather have too many plants and have to give some away, than to realize I have empty space in the garden, and not enough time to start something else before the end of the season. The bed and soil look great, and I wish you a bountiful harvest. Bonnie

Sorry again Doug, bumping down, others please look, these series of photos are fantastic, we just need to have some newer posts