Garden photos

Here's what my garden looked like yesterday afternoon: a bit messy, but colorful:

At this time of year, the roses in the bed on the left should be twice that size and have twice as many blooms. But these darlings had a difficult winter (we had to replace several bushes), so I'm not expecting much from them right now. Especially as a small herd of deer has found its way into our urban neighborhood and has been nibbling on the tender buds!

A couple of weeks ago, I planted an entire herb garden in this whiskey barrel: parsley, spearmint, chives, thyme, basil, and rosemary, plus some nasturtiums. Then I added a scented geranium just because I've never grown one (I don't think they like full sun, but we'll see). We love cooking with fresh herbs and dropping mint sprigs into our iced tea and lemonade. The nasturtium blossoms will add a nice peppery taste to salads.

In the pots under the birdbath are some pink zinnias, a yellow primrose, and some red petunias that haven't taken off yet.

Last weekend, my hunk o' burnin' love surprised me with this big pot of pink verbena, "Terra Cotta" million bells, and screaming purple and pink petunias. I set the colorful bouquet on a stand above this lush bed of periwinkle, which gives us masses of sweet little blue flowers in the spring.