may 13 '12
Spent the morning cleaning up the garden area and then sat on a mat I keep for the purpose of "spring cleaning" weeding. A lot of work but necessary due to the terrible bermuda grass problem we have. You really see your rose bushes this way! Lost three roses this spring due to gophers; winter of 2011 I bought some on sale at home depot on deep sale. They were beautiful all summer but I made a big mistake in not planting them inside the wire gopher baskets. Now, eveything is planted this way. A fourth rose, the hybrid tea Arizona is not doing very well. I am giving it TLC and if it survives I will move it next December and train it up a trellis against a post as I find out it grows six feet high. The planting goes on. Next will be Mojave (from Vintage Gardens) a 1950's hybrid tea and then Moonsprite, a florabunda which has already bloomed in its container. Just beautiful and very charming; its looks sculpted and its heart is an icy lemon yellow. We had the first bloom from Sutter's Gold and were thrilled with it. Can't wait til it is six feet tall and covered with blooms. The other first was eating our own artichokes. A good many changes of soaking water were needed because we did not spray them for bugs, but the soaking paid off and they cooked up quite clean and tasted wonderful.
The Oklahoma rose is blooming beautifully. I love this rose.

april 20, 2012
Rains stopped so have now planted hybrid tea Remember Me, shrub Distrant Drums and mini Rainbow's End. Yesterday planted Climbing Pres. Herbert Hoover and put a purple clematis in the planting hole with it, both inside the gopher protection basket. Still have to plant hybrid musk Bishop Darlington and Devoniensis. Have 2 more clematis to plant. The other purple one will go in with Lavendar Lassie, a hybrid musk. The vivid pink one from Edmunds might go well with Devoniensis, which is a climber. I have never grown clematis before. A year or so ago was at a CA Master Gardener's program about cottage gardens and the facilitator, who is from Australia said that a British custom is to plant clematis in the same planting hole as a climbing rose. Hope the results will be good. So much to do right now. Went crazy at Home Depot and bought 166 gladiolus bulbs, on sale. Planting 20 per week in big plastic pots, because of gophers. The glads put in 2 weeks ago are just poking their leaves thru the soil. Lizards are out in full force so that means the snakes are also. Yesterday we saw a quite large racer snake, I believe. Black with a red stripe on each side of him. Hope he goes down a gopher hole. The black Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies are everywhere; especially in the Craig's Crimson Cherry tree which is covered with blossoms as is the Comice Pear. Both of these had been planned to be kept at 10 - 12 feet but life got in the way and they both grew to their rootstock height of 20 feet. We got beautiful pears last year but never get the cherries due to the birds. But who can feel anger at an oriole? We have planted 2 more cherry trees but they are genetic dwarfs guaranteed not to exceed 12 feet. So, the beat goes on.

march 22 '12
Finished up pruning on two hybrid teas, Gemini and another I cannot remember name (a country western lady singer) that is a sport. A very pretty dark pink that grows very tall. Used Elmer's glue at ends of the canes. Got a full wheelbarrow of composed horse manure from the oldest pile to use as top dressing before I put on new weed cloth. We have a terrible bermuda grass problem at this property so everything helps, weeding, mulch, weed cloth, roundup (have to be very careful due to birds in residence and insects).