Our newest rose bed.

This front corner of our yard is very sunny and was full of weeds of types that grow nowhere else in the yard (which makes me think the soil is especially BAD in this particular spot).

But, it has now been transformed into a rose and herb garden (mainly a rose garden, but we needed a place for the basil), after much digging and cutting out tree roots (sorry, maple tree).

The concrete chunk flower bed border is my own design. I have similar beds elsewhere in our yard, mainly because for some inexplicable reason, our grass-covered driveway percolates up (belches? vomits?) chunks of concrete, from where I have no idea. But, they just keep coming. It's sort of a reverse sinkhole. I admit it was kind of unnerving at first, having blobs of concrete push up from beneath the grass, but now I wait until a few appear, then pry them out and stack them in a pile until they are needed.

The chunks are, oddly, nearly all triangular or trapezoidal in shape. Maybe someone who knows more about the physical properties of concrete can explain this. Maybe you can also explain the apparent anti-gravity property of concrete, too, while you're at it.

Nevertheless, most of the pieces are small enough to pick up and move easily. They work wonderfully as edging stones, seem to last forever, and, best of all: they are FREE!

Although I love to garden, I never tried to grow roses (standard hybrid roses, that is) until about 2 years ago, because the heat, humidity, fungus, and insects here in Florida make rose cultivation a high-maintenance, costly, and potentially toxic endeavor. Growing roses just never sounded, in my opinion, fun or relaxing. And, besides, my philosophy about plants has always been: plant it; if it lives, keep it. If it dies, don't buy one of those again. So, I always avoided roses, until....

I saw a tremendous wall of deep crimson roses in my next-door neighbor's yard, the neighbor whose yard is left "natural." The neighbor who doesn't own a lawnmower, doesn't water or use pesticides or store-bought fertilizer, yet somehow has amazing roses, and seemingly does NOTHING to them. Her secret? Old garden roses, which are not grafted and therefore grow from their own roots, unlike most nursery and mail-order roses. Own-root, antique roses are known to be hardy, even here in Florida. In fact, I have since become a collector of own-root Southern roses, and have several varieties that thrive here, including

Louis Philippe (my neighbor's crimson beauties), known locally as "Cracker roses." And, yes, that is where the Cottage got its name!

The photo above is of one of our just-planted Blush Noisettes, one of 3 in our various flower beds. Isn't she lovely? And blooming like mad after only being in the ground for one week!