I want to be a GARDENER

As I have mentioned before I want to have a beautiful garden.  Every year I think of all the flowers I can plant.  I love perennials and I love annuals and I picture a garden overflowing with flowers.  I also want a herb garden and a veggie garden.  So I can eat fresh picked tomatoes that are vine ripened.  And use real herbs instead of that dried crap.

But that is just a dream.  I am, in fact, a terrible gardener.  I've tried.  And sometimes I've had success.  But often, my plants just end up looking like this....

This is the first rose bush I ever bought.  Yep, its pretty sad looking.  It only lasted 3 years before it kicked the bucket, and it's second year was pretty miserable.  This year (year 3) it didn't even put in a effort, it just started rotting.

I'm way to attached to this rose bush.  It had beautiful pink roses that had way to many petals and were too heavy for the delicate branches that they grew on, so the bush always looked a little droopy. And even now that its dead, I can't seem to get up the nerve to pull its remains up out of the ground a get a new plant to replace it.

Last year, when that rose bush above was so depressing looking, I bought it some friends.  Some new rose bushes to keep it company.  And they are thriving and growing and blooming like crazy.

Hopefully these roses don't kick the bucket in their third year.  I've been watering them and fertilizing them (Thank You Miracle Gro.  You are like plant crack.  It's fantastic) and I give them lots of love.  I think Ginger BF is sick and tired of me pointing out my roses every time he comes over to my house.

Me: "Look Boyfriend!! My roses are blooming!! And look how pretty they are!!  And there are tons more buds so its going to be pretty and blooming all summer!  Aren't I a fantastic gardener?"
Ginger BF: "Yep you've showed me already."

I think the thing that gets me most depressed about my gardening ability is something that happened just a few weeks ago.  Ginger BF is renting this house and hasn't even been there for a full year, so has never really experienced 'summer yard' at the house.  And it turns out, there are a bunch of rose bushes in the front bed!  And they are looking fantastic and blooming and are super pretty. They haven't received any love, Miracle Gro or watering (other than rain) and they are just FINE.  Which makes me wonder 2 things.

1. Would my roses be just fine if I ignored them too?
2. Am I that bad of a gardener that I killed off a plant that doesn't actually require any maintenance?

I think the moral of the story is that I am going to need to hire a gardener if I want to actually grow plants.  And until then I will blame the Shitty Calgary Weather for all of my gardening mishaps.

And to get over the loss of my poor first rose bush I promise that I will replant something in its memory this weekend.  Hopefully something that will survive no matter what I do to it.