Agriculture Report

Agriculture Report: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

What is an “Agriculture Report”? Well I was inspired by  @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report” (and this title always cracks me up) that are actually updates of what is going on in her garden. I just had to adopt this same title for updates on what is going on in my garden/my “garden report“…

Yes if you were in around in 1970 you might remember this song sung by Lynn Anderson – Rose Garden with it’s catchy line: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”:

This song popped into my head as I was snapping some photos for this post on my early summer garden.

We are starting our own “Rose Garden” in the front yard’s raised bed and hope to someday have a large rose garden in the backyard. I love roses and roses are VERY special to my husband John.

John was very close with this paternal grandparents growing up and being at their house was his favorite place to be as a kid. At 14 he even blew off a big school dance to go hang out with his grandparents.

According to John his grandfather had a magnificent rose garden and John would hang out with his grandfather as he tended his roses. It was always his secret dream to have his own rose garden someday. We are working on making that happen.

Slowly, over the past couple years, we’ve been adding roses to the front bed:

Here are some of the other flowers currently in bloom, primarily perennials, that we’ve added in to to keep the roses company:

We’ve run out of space to put roses in the front of the house. So we are planning to change the landscaping of the backyard someday, removing the rocks that border the fence and replace them with garden beds with soil so we can plant a large rose garden in the backyard.

We also have plans (perhaps too ambitious..) to build a greenhouse where the raised bed currently sits and relocate the raised bed. My Pinterest inspiration board is getting full of images of greenhouses!

For now we have plants in pots and a raised bed that John built last year:

I am growing lots of sunflowers from seed in the raised bed (they are doing well so far); and growing a couple other flowers from seed and trying to grow basil from seed, which seems to be working so far.

We bought one rose for the backyard that was on sale and a beautiful red color and for now we have it in a pot until we redo our landscaping (big undertaking) in the future:

I also have my annual tomatoes and herbs growing on my upstairs back deck:

So this concludes my “Agriculture Report” and I just realized I did basically Promise John a Rose Garden – ha!

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

24 thoughts on “Agriculture Report: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden””

  1. Hi – I like John’s raised beds and did you know this is the look that I love – the rocks and containers…. and I prefer this look for the cleaner feel and not having to go into the ground – but I can understand why you want something a bit more formal – or a larger area for roses.
    One of my favorite flowers are geraniums and it looks like you have so many full pots of those classic reds.
    I also smile at the agricultural report title – and hearing the “never promised you a rose garden” song was a flash from the past. For some reason, I always thought it was a Dolly Parton song – and had to smile at the end to think you did promise John a rose garden (and all this while the white house is getting rid of their rose garden… but I digress)

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  2. You have some real beauties there. I don’t live in the right climate (too hot, too humid), but my favourite rose of all time is Rosa ‘Tradescant’, a very historic type, with dark red velvet petals and a strong scent resembling raspberry jam. They’re fabulous. Below is a link to a short YouTube video showing what they look like.

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  3. “You gotta stop… and smell the roses. You gotta count your many blessing every day!” Remember that Mac Davis classic? Your garden is gorgeous. And I’m sure building a greenhouse will be easier for you and John. John has the background for it. We did it, and we struggled. And it took us months, but we still did it!

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  4. lovely post and I’m now singing along with Lynn Anderson. I remember this song, was 7 when this episode of TTOP aired lol.

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  6. You promised him a rose garden and you delivered…with more to come. Everything looks healthy and hearty in you lovely spot of earth. I enjoyed reading about John’s childhood memories with his grandfather, and how that inspiration is guiding your evolving garden. Bonus: You’ll attract lots of pollinators. Everything looks inviting.

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  8. Excellent Agriculture Report! Your outdoor spaces are amazing – everything looks just perfect. Your roses are just beautiful, as are the other flowers and plants you have to keep them company 🙂 It gets lovelier every year!

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