Spring 2012 news!

We have been working on rebuilding our website and it is slowly coming along, please take a visit:
http://www.alkonyatrosegarden.com/

We have a long way to go with it, but it is showing definite signs of progress.  Today I plan to update the pages on the blog a bit.  Tomorrow we hope for some rain, it is still something we have had little of for almost a year, so if it does rain, I will continue with the many updating tasks.

We noticed almost no bees on the fruit trees so far this spring, it used to be you could hardly hear yourself think there were so many.  Perhaps the cold and drought have diminished their numbers?  We will have to look into getting our own bee box if we continue to see a lack of pollinators.  With more than 100 fruit trees, 1000 roses and all the other plants here and at our neighbors, they will need to be work-a-holic bees!

We plan to go pond fish shopping soon, we sadly lost all of our pond fish over the winter and we rely on them to eat the mosquito larvae in our 4 ponds.  We had one of the worst cold spells ever this winter and the inside tank we kept them in froze over, this never happened before.  We are pretty sad about it, some of those Koi we have had for years and they were quite friendly.

The past few nights have seen temps just below freezing, we hope the many fruit blossoms and Japanese Maples will not be badly affected.

On a happy note, we had a breeding pair of toads in the upper pond over the weekend, we hope for tadpoles soon!  We used to have many more toads than we have seen in the past few years.  And the little bit of rain is making the peas sprout, we planted more than we should have as usual.  We have some of the most beautiful tomato and pepper seedlings we have ever had.  We came across some lovely plants over the holiday weekend, a few great sales too and soon the annual flower show will be here!

Life is never more bad than good when you have a garden of love to tend!

Weekend Researchers

On this last weekend of July, we took a trip both days to the rose "museum" near to our home, the rain also accompanied us.  Once it was a beautiful place, teeming with roses and visitors, now it is more like a morgue.  How can a country that loves flowers so much abandon this heritage rose garden?  It is already half the property size it once was and what is left is in a miserable state.

What every country needs are more "theme" parks for people to enjoy that give more than they take, places that provide numerous pleasures for all of God's creatures and this is what a rose garden can fulfill.  People of all ages and walks of life can find something to marvel at in such a place and even dogs are welcome.  The uses and benefits of a well planned and managed "rose park" are overflowing with potential opportunities.  Why does no one see this but us?

Unfortunately the state of this "wonderland" has fallen to such a level of carelessness, it will take a small miracle to get it back to where it once was and what it could be.  How sad that a nation that obviously loves flowers would neglect with such enthusiasm this plot of history.  Hopefully things will get better before this place becomes the next housing development or mall, things no creature needs more of.

In the meantime we went once again to see what roses we might want to add to our garden, take pictures to document the more obscure ones and enjoy the wonders that still exist there, even on a rainy weekend.  We brought one of our dogs along too, she also enjoyed the visit immensely, but this is easy for a dog, they can find pleasure in most anything, too bad people cannot do the same.

We still need one more day to finish our current research list, but I think we will wait for a nicer day later this coming week, why add misery to misery if you don't have too.

Take time to stop and smell the roses, before they are gone!  Just be sure to check for bugs first ; )

Welcome to the garden

What cannot be found in a garden?  I have not found anything yet, although the rain certainly alluded us for weeks!  But finally it has returned and just maybe the tomato and veggie crop will not be a total loss after all.
We hope to have some very exciting news to share in just a few more weeks at most, hopefully we will not be disappointed, I am quite anxious about it.
Péter's rose seedlings are growing and blooming nicely, my lavender making project is soon to reveal its' success or failure and the garden building projects are still moving along.  And now so is the blog!  Hopefully I can update the website soon too.
We hope you will join us from time to time in our garden adventures!