I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Pink Hollyhock

Our strange winter resulted in the death of the poppy bed. And BoBear and Boca cooperated in totally overturning the Hollyhock bed. In their defense I think voles had taken up residence.

So this season has been about restarting established beds. The poppy bed I fell back to Icelandic poppies which bloom the first year. I know better than to try for roses which seem to do better in green houses.

And I bit the bullet and bought several two year old hollyhocks to plant in that bed. One double ruffle black hollyhock survived the scourge and a friend bought me four blacks she found in Taos. Two of them were planted in the devastated poppy bed. I also had seeds left from my previous bed, and while I probably won't see the results of those for a couple years, it felt like I was on my way to re-establishing the bed under my studio windows. Sunflower seeds also planted but like much of everything in this year without a summer they seem slow.

The old red oriental poppy in the front bed put on quite a show this summer but I am still missing my beloved salmon oriental poppies. In July I decided to order some on line to be delivered this fall. Oriental poppies do not like their roots to be messed with in the spring. And it would give me the summer to make a suitable bed for them where they would not get run over by a drunk driver.

I had forgotten about that order until coming upon the note I made to self in my desk calendar/planner. The replanted bed with the Icelandic poppies and the Shirley Poppy planted from seeds is lush and full as we head into fall. And I have occupied my garden time with the new iris bed and my grassy knoll. Time to prepare for my new poppies.

I have been very satisfied with the raised metal bed I ordered for my onion bed this year and so I ordered another of different dimensions to go just inside the garden gate where it will get ample sun. When it arrives I will line the open bottom with Prime boxes. Cardboard stops weeds, and when it degrades becomes a welcome home for earthworms. 

Five oriental poppies are coming from Breck's. With the Queen Alexander are two Poppy Plums and two Prince of Orange ones. I have leftover Shirley Poppy seeds to also sow in the same bed. And this year I will return to using cardboard as mulch. Last year I used straw. I blame that on the loss of my Italian garlic in the iris bed. It just kept things to moist and did not breathe.

I still have hopes for the sunflowers if winter does not come too soon.

This blog has been about resilience. If you garden at almost 9000 feet above sea level you must be resilient. There have been lots of successes in gardening this year even without a summer. Next blog will be about the successes.