New plantings for Spring ( and Ethel!)

I have been planting seedlings, starts from my white Alyssum, stocks  and ice plant around my little flowering cherry tree I planted last year...  I am not finished yet, but now wondering should I? Do you see the  dirt circle on the left,  in front of the roses?  I removed  the gravel  so I could move my bird bath out there..  So what do I see when I opened the curtains?    Look  who is sitting in it.  It's Ethel! 

  ( a rose is in front of her head)  you have to look close...   Little stinker. I love the bunnies, but I did not plant these for her, or her husband Fred!

       I see she has found my ice plant... About that time
 I put the camera down and went out to have a talk with her...

 She took off like a bullet.  She had  nothing to say.

 Poor little Flowering Cherry... I planted last March, and this is all it has grown...

I don't know if you noticed, but my roses are two bushes deep.

Climbers in the back growing up the posts.. Down in front are my English roses, that are  now starting to bloom. My Mother of Pearl that I shared in the last post is now on it's second bloom.

So,  I pulled out my pruners and sniped off the spent roses, so as you can see most are gone, and have been replaced with a mass of buds.  The pink  is my Ingenious Mr. Fairchild.. To the right of it is Winchester Cathedral. The scent is wonderful!I thought by now the climbers would have been taller.. The only one that has reached the top is the one on the far right.. 

 The two photos below  were before I put the seedlings in..

 I had just marked the spots in a circle further out from the tree.

                                       

 Today I moved the bird bath.. It is concrete and very heavy.. So how will I move it?  I tipped it over in the rock, and rolled it will my foot until it was where it needed to be,  then stood it up.. Now for the  the top.. The birds must have a bath.. It was sitting on my patio chair, because when I picked it up I knew I could not carry it.. So what to do...  Drag the chair off the porch and across the gravel.

 If I have learned nothing else through the years,  I do know.... Where there is a will,  there is a way..

I am going to plant white Alyssum  around the base of the bird bath.  Can you see the tiny stocks to the left of it?  Ethel snipped of two stock on the other side .. I must get all my planting and moving done in the next month or so because of our blazing summer heat.. 

I an sure it is quite obvious  that the purple  and yellow flowers that are around  the tree are not real.. I could not stand to have no color while waiting for the young plants and seedlings to come up.. I will take them out as soon as the flowers  are  larger and fill up some space

I hope you enjoyed viewing my humble little cottage.

Wishing you all a beautiful weekend.