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.