In the fall, when it's time to put the veg garden to bed, I find it really depressing. I try to let as many things die on their own, but comes a time. It's more of a realization that the season is over and winter is upon us than anything else. Especially after all the work and worry. But the look of my garden, clean, mulched, fertilized, and ready for next year is a consolation. This fall I tore out one whole perennial border. It had something that came with the house. I gave it two years, but it just didn't do it for me soooo, rip. There are some volunteer native Monarda in one section and next spring I'll move my Jacob Kline over and get some white and pink and hopefully some dotted horsemint and it will be a beautiful splay of Monardas in their jester caps, in all the colors and beset by humming birds. I have two night blooming cerrius that are about 160 years old, a vine thats 37, and two geraniums that are 35, so I try not to inadvertently kill too many things of value.

CI, TZ, SdlM all growing nicely now. I think this will be a good fragrance bed. I put Lion's rose in the back to add beauty and a good leafy background even though it isn't much on scent. I think if the base gets shaded by the others, it won't get disease. There's room to the right of Abe Darby for one more big rose. I think it's going to be Evelyn. Hopefully, it will work some magic for me. This is a good morning sun spot and gets shade in the hottest times of the day. My summer is a little hotter than Hoovb's but maybe it's close enough. I'm going to hope for the best. The only downside to this location is that it will take the full force of the Santa Ana wind from across the street. We are along the Santa Ana river channel and the wind blows strongly through the gap. It seems to be shifting later than Halloween now. I used to call it the Halloween Wind.

I'm 54 and I feel old. It's my attitude and I know it's not a good one. I used to look a lot younger than my age. Ever since I went Hypothyroid I have noticed I'm aging a lot faster. I have an appointment with an eye doctor on Monday. Just in the last few months my upper lids have drooped. My eyes seem swollen and watery and they are always red. I'm hoping it's allergies but this just came about recently. It could be Thyroid. I saw Christie Brinkly on T.V. the other day. She is 55 and looks like she's 30. I try to keep a mental picture of her in my mind. Whenever I'm feeling old I think of her and tell myself, "If Christie can look young so can I". Yesterday I was shopping for a face primer in Sephora. A young salesgirl tells me, "here try this, my mom uses it and loves that it covers fine lines and wrinkles". That didn't help at all. Donna

Thank you all for your advice and pictures. I just LOVE them! After a weekend of being laid up again (fell off a machine at the gym and totally wrecked my back but am finally feeling a bit better now), I am hopingto get out there and prune this coming three day (can you say YEA!) weekend! Still on the fence about my climber as she is throwing out all sorts of laterals right now so this could be a good bloom year unlike prior years. She may have just had to have more time to come into her own. However, I am seeing that there are all sorts of little oak trees and other plants coming up through my rose bushes due to the mulch and birds. UGH! I may have lost my Sharifa Asma because of it if I can't pull them out. I have a feeling my garden is going to be very sparse this year due to a bunch of new roses going in to replace my old ones. Evelyn and Ambridge are reverting back to rootstock, so out they go. I have oak trees growing up in my Sharifa Asma as well as Evelyn, Mary Webb and now one of my Brother Cadfaels! I also have another unidentified bush growing up in my Peach Blossom. So it looks like I pretty much get to start from scratch all over again. Looks like an expensive year!