Aaarrrggghhh!

Aphids, black spot, beetles! Ah, the joys of gardening. The moths are subsiding, finally. To top it all off my beloved camera  bit the dust. I guess I worked it to the repair shop. All told it has been faithful, over 6 thousand photos that passed my lens to the computer. What will I do while it is, hopefully, being repaired?

But, the joy is being able to go out to the garden and pick a bunch of near perfect radishes, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard and varied lettuces now! Peas are on their way and I actually have two tiny tomatoes on the 'Momma Mia' tomato plant. Adorable.

I spend  almost every day working on one area of the garden or the other. Yesterday, my pal, Carlos, delivered some wonderful rocks for the cactus garden and for the secret garden. Until the monsoons arrive there is no way I can plant the secret garden so I am heading toward doing a contemplation garden instead.
There is much to contemplate! See below:

      A section of the left side of the herb garden....rose with four different sage varieties.
North side of the front xeric garden. It loved the rain we had two weeks ago. The dark violet roses are the most fragrant rose grown. They make wonderful rose beads and potpourri. Just a side line when I'm bored!

This is one of the rewards of being patient and curious. When we had the severe cold two years ago
the graft died on this rose bush. It was supposed to be a climbing rose.....never really wanted to climb and
just sort of sent up a long shoot that wouldn't produce anything terrific. There were suckers with leaves that looked interesting so I left it to grow last summer and fertilized it in the fall and again this spring.

My patience was rewarded with this gorgeous red rose. I totally love it and it looks like it will take over the space!   Stay tuned.

It had to happen...

We are being held captive inside the compound by the following fellow/gal...

We came home from town the other afternoon (5:00 p.m rabbit feeding time) and I went outside to water the lettuces and what to my horrified eyes should appear but Pedro Conejo's grandchild!  He/she was in pluperfect heaven with many tempting morsels in view. If only someone had been here to video our attempt to remove said bunny rabbit from the garden, we'd have made an all time high score on YouTube. JB with a bamboo pole, me with a hose with a shower head on it and bunny with excellent avoidance skills. After about 4 or 5 minutes of negotiations and persuasion we convinced it to leave the premises. This photo was taken the next morning, it was letting me know that no matter what, it was still here. So, besides the rabbit proof fences, we now have had to barricade the gate to the garden with large pieces of wood topped with rock! Each night it still digs....

Any attempt on our part to remove the barriers will result in an invasion of baby bunnies....and the garden is flourishing! So, what to do?

Being a kind soul, I'm planting a garden just for them on the other side of the wall. However, a higher power is in charge of watering it. Stay tuned...today they were given a basket full of parsley that had outgrown its space.Wonder if they like it.