grayrose

In front of my house I have this flower bed that seemed to be completely clogged and overgrown with weeds. This was once a very nice flower bed, I thought, but nobody took care of it for the last two years, maybe longer. I guess Kathleen was too sick to tend her garden, and then she passed away.

I seem to have this strange relationship with Kathleen. It's a shaman thing.

Nevertheless I have the garden now and need to take care of it. But then again I am a gardening dummy. I asked my gardening acquaintances to help me with advice but they all bowed out for some reason (all of them are also academics with no time on their hands). I need to call the extension agent, but alas - there's this one tic I have - HATE talking on the phone. I'd rather do anything but talk on the phone. Especially with people I do not know. I'm ok with calling my mother and my friend Kathryn, but that's it.

So I cleared the flower bed of 5 bags of dead oak leaves. There are still many dead leaves left.

However, this seemed to help as I have bulbs coming out now!

So, one question concerns a weed (?) and another concerns a rose.

This mysterious tall plant looks very dry and also very... established. However. I suspect it is a weed. Is it?