Moving from Nevada to California has taken some adjusting where my plants are concerned. I’ve always had a green thumb and have always loved gardening. I remember my grandparents loving their rose garden and treating it with great care. They had dozens of roses of every color and people would walk by their home just to look at their garden. Following in that tradition, the first thing I planted when I bought my first home was roses – Climbing pink floribunda roses on my front fence that were spectacular in the spring. I miss those roses. I miss them so much that after two years of doubting my green thumb in the Nevada climate, I finally went out and bought two climbing roses for our backyard. But not just any climbing roses…a new rose, as of 2016, called Lavender Crush. I chose this type of rose because it’s the ‘Old Fashioned’ shape that I love. It’s pink/lavendar, has a strong fragrance, and it’s a climber. Win, Win, Win!!! I love climbers, vines, anything that meanders, softens edges, and gives you that romantic cascading look. These will not only soften the look of our new industrial style posts, but also wrap around and through our pergola enough that it’s not going anywhere. I’m determined that these flourish and show some beautiful blooms in a few short months.

So driving home with my two climbers, a plan started to formulate. I knew just where I wanted them and I knew how I wanted the entire side garden to look when I was done. We have a lovely wrought iron pergola perched between two trees that we just grounded with two 24″ Light Duty GroundTech Ground Spike 4X4 Posts along with 4×4 inch pressure treated timber that I had cut into two 4 footers. This will keep our pergola standing through our frequent heavy winds. Success! Hasn’t budged an inch -But not so attractive. We did add little solar cap lights to the top of each post but now I needed to bring in those meandering soft edges…enter my Lavender Crush climbing roses. So excited!!

So Here’s a pic with my newly planted climbers – looking back into the unused part of the yard. You can see the climbers are just babies but they should fill out quite a bit and grow at least 8 inches in the next several months. It’ll really brighten up the area, and add great fragrance near the dining set and pool. It will act as an entrance to this boring space on the side of the house that you can see from the living room. It could be so much more! We’d debated what to do with it for the last year but the climbers helped me figure it all out. Here’s my plan with a little photoshop magic…

I’ll be posting the progress of our garden transformation over the next several months. Excited to get started!