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This guest post from Josue Nichols
When we moved our realized how house poor we were actually going to be. I knew we were stretching it a bit with the mortgage but this was our dream house and we couldn’t just pass it up but once we started having to buy things like new furniture and make upgrades to the house like granite countertops things really started adding up and I got concerned that we weren’t going to be able to pay our mortgage consistently. I talked to my husband about it and we decided to cut back on a few things like eating out so often and having the newspaper delivered right to the house. It sort of became a game where we tried to save money in both of us were doing things like looking for Direct tv deals online and clipping coupons out of the local circulars. I feel much more in control of our finances now but that was pretty scary for a while. I don’t ever want us to get into that position again in our lives.
Roses are glorious on a sunny day, of course. But they are also uplifting and delightful on dreary days or in the cloudy, rainbowed aftermath of a summer shower, when garden paths may be wet and muddy or even an inch or two under water.
Roses are just as lovely when the grass is wet and there are puddles everywhere. Sometimes the sun shining on dewdrops or raindrops on roses is simply splendid. But we and our guests often miss out on that lovely site, because we don’t want to risk uncertain footing or we don’t want to ruin our shoes.
And evening guests often miss out on the glory of white roses by night because it is just too dark to find their way around in the garden. Some even feel unsafe in their own yards or gardens because they are simply not well lighted.
There is fix for all that. paving stone makes beautiful walks that enhance the look of your garden while keeping your feet dry and providing solid footing for guests of all ages, even those in walkers or wheelchairs. Patio pavers can be used to create a matching patio for outdoor entertaining among your favorite roses.
A well-designed landscape lighting installation can allow the roses to be viewed at night—even from indoors—and can make dinners in the garden or evening walks accessible to everyone.
Beautiful roses deserve a beautiful setting. Give them attractive paths and well design lighting so that they can be enjoyed at all times of the day and even after bad weather. If you do that, you will find yourself and your guests spending much more time in your rose garden.
Nothing shows off a rose garden like being reflected (doubled) in a pool of clear, sparkling water. If that pool is a swimming pool, so much the better! Especially with a nice patio with tables and chairs alongside so you can eat outside or drink coffee beside the pool and enjoy your lovely roses while dining. Pool parties in the rose garden are extra delightful.
Swimming on a warm day amid the sight and scents of blooming roses is an intoxicating pleasure. Even simply watching the kids or grandkids while they swim is more pleasant when surrounded by a healthy rose garden.
The key phrase, though, is clean and sparkling. Your pool must be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition for the health of the swimmers as well as the looks of the pool.
Keeping your pool clean and fresh is easy to achieve, of course, with quality pool filters and pool chemicals. You can order them on line from Doheny and have them delivered right to your door.
And here’s another tip, floating candles in a pool surrounded by blooming roses creates a beautifully romantic atmosphere for dinner or cocktails by the pool, for relaxing with friends or that special someone, or just for enjoying alone in beauty of a quiet evening.
I’m sure you can think of even more delightful ideas for enjoying a pool in your rose garden. When you do, please come back and leave a comment to share them with us.
Rich in Omega-6 essential fatty acids, Rose Hip Seed Oil continues to serve as one of the personal care industry’s most sought-after natural oils. NOW® Rose Hip Seed Oil is 100% Pure and Natural, and extracted from the seeds of Rose mosqueta.
Sale Price:$3.68
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Rose Hips (Rosa Rugosa) Rose Hips (Rosa canina), the fruit of the rose after the flower has bloomed and the petals have fallen, are native to Europe and North America. Rose Hips were once reffered to as the “Food of the Gods″ by the ancient Greeks and used for their varied health benefits. During World War II, when faced with a serious shortage of fresh fruits and the subsequent shortage of vitamin C, the governments of Englan, Sweden and Norway began looking to botanicals as a source for Vita
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There are many ways to enjoy your rose garden. One way is while swimming in a cool swimming pool surrounded by fragrant roses on a warm summer day.
Another way is by gazing on the beautiful sight of gorgeous flowering roses bushes and climbers reflected in a sparkling clean pool. Either way the presence of the pool increases enjoyment of the roses. And in arid climates, the pool provides a bit of welcome humidity for the rose plants and flowers.
Of course, pools do require a certain amount of maintenance, and most rose gardeners want to take as little time as possible away from their great love, rose gardening. But there are shortcuts to keeping your pool sparkling and clean.
A net pool cover can be used to keep autumn leaves from falling into the pool and fouling the water. So you do not lose gardening time by having to constantly scoop leaves out of the pool. Yet the cover still leaves the beautiful, sparkling water and reflected roses visible.
For winter, you can use a solid pool cover to keep dirt and debris out of the pool during cold weather, so the pool is clean and ready to go when the weather warms up and the roses start blooming again.
Keeping pools beautiful often requires installing new swimming pool liners, which come in a variety of colors and styles to enhance your pool viewing experience.
What color best shows off the roses in your garden? Turquoise, lapis, sky blue?
You can change the whole look of your pool by adding a new liner. Because after all, the roses are what it’s all about.
Often called the “king of roses,†Peter Beales is the world’s most acclaimed professional rose grower, and this book is the distillation of his 50 years of experience and knowledge into one essential volume. Within these handsomely illustrated pages is Beales’s unequalled advice on landscaping with roses as well as care and cultivation―all based upon his decades of experience breeding and selling the world’s finest roses. There is a rose for every budget and every garden style, and
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Whether you’re eyeing a hybrid tea you remember from your mother’s garden, or one of the new easy-care landscaping varieties, this book makes it easy to add the unmatched beauty of roses to your garden. Inside you′ll find: • Expert advice on choosing the right rose for your space and nurturing it for years of beauty.• Detailed descriptions of more than 200 varieties of perennials in the illustrated plant encyclopedia.
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In temperate climates, most of the rose plants go dormant during the winter months. And in way, we do, too.
Though we may be ever so busy indoors with winter holiday activities, we still tend to want to stay warm, perhaps sleep a bit more. We cannot hibernate like some animals, but we still really enjoy our winter sleep, especially on the coldest days.
As rose gardeners there is not much for us to do in the winter unless we keep a few rose plants indoors. We can peruse the catalogs, plan next year’s garden, perhaps order a few new tools and supplies, but in a way, we are resting while our rose plants rest.
Basically in the winter what we are doing is keeping warm while dreaming of roses. Dreaming of roses is easy and pleasurable. Keeping warm can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, especially while commuting to work or traveling to visit distant relatives.
At home we can add sheepskin rugs by our bedsides to keep our toes warm while searching for slippers. On the road there are custom-fitted sheepskin seat covers to keep us warm.
It may not be as much fun as rose gardening, but giving holiday presents can keep us busy and provide the satisfaction of making others happy. We can even provide sheepskin beds for our pets and other sheepskin products to pamper ourselves and our guests.
And we can still spend the long winter nights dreaming of roses—and the coming spring warmth. And there is no need to give up our soft, cushy sheepskin rugs just because the weather warms up. They are still luxurious, lovely and gentle on the toes all year round—especially soothing to toes that are tired from spring gardening.
I appreciate the guest post, Jewel Rodgers
My mom loves Paula Deen. My parents were recently looking at some direct tv packages and the only input my mom had was that she wanted to make sure that they got a package that included the Food Network so she could watch Paula Deen. I actually really enjoy watching Paula Deen’s show also. I have made her recipes a few times, but I always put about half of the butter she suggests to add to the recipe. For my mom’s birthday last year, my sisters and I decided to take my mom to Savannah for a girl’s weekend. We ate at Paula Deen’s restaurant and while we were waiting for a table we looked around the gift shop. We got to meet one of Paula’s sons, Jamie because he was signing books in the gift shop. My mom was thrilled. I really wish we could have at least caught a glimpse of Paula too, but I think my mom was just as happy to meet one of her sons. He was really nice and signed a cookbook that we bought for our mom as part of her birthday present. We had a really great time in Savannah and I would love to go back again someday.
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