I’d describe today as gray and drizzly and cold. This isn’t the weather I had hoped for but I’ll have to make do, because nothing I do is going to change it. Tomorrow, I hope for just cold so I can finish planting the containers. At this point, I’ll hold off on the vegetable garden until the ground dries out a little and the weather stabilizes.
When I do plant my vegetable garden, I am going to try to grow a ‘three sisters’ garden in at least one, maybe two, plots. The native Americans planted such gardens which included corn, beans and squash (the three sisters). The corn provided support for the beans, the beans ‘fixed’ nitrogen in the soil for the corn, and the squash helped prevent weeds and keep animals away.
My dad never planted corn because he said he didn’t have a big enough garden for it and you need enough corn for good pollination. My sister plants some corn in that same garden patch and they manage to get some corn each year. I just don’t think my dad wanted to give up that much space for corn. He was more of a tomato man, whereas my sister doesn’t grow many tomatoes at all. So, I’m going to give the three sisters garden a try and see how it goes.
One plant that my dad did have that I wish I had is a climbing rose that grew on the fence and bloomed once a year. It was spectacular when it bloomed with its big multi-petaled flowers, in various shades of pink, all blooming at once, with a heavy rose scent. All the petals fell to the ground together, it seemed, covering the grass almost completely. I don’t know where he got his rose, but I’ve checked on the Internet and I think it is a “Seven Sisters” rose, and they are available. I just have to decide where I would put a vigorous climbing rose that only blooms once in late spring! The rest of the time, I would have long, thorny branches to contend with.
(No particular reason for the picture of daisies above. These just happen to be blooming right now, and I thought the post needed a nice picture!)
Your grandmother had a climbing rose with red blooms. I am not sure how she managed but she always was able to cut enough rose blooms from this bush and some others and peonys so as to have enough flowers for Memorial Day. She usually decorated about 50 graves.
The Sweet Williams I mentioned before, were always put on Carl Jr’s grave.
Now days it seems all the roses and peonys are gone by the end of May. This will be this month as they are in full bloom now.