Lay Me Down in a Bed of Roses

My hands are covered in scratches this morning.

Yesterday it was absolutely gorgeous outside, so I got into the garden and did a little work. Well, we did a lot of work. Hedgewitch came over and she and the girls and I got started on my flowerbeds.

It amazes me how much weeding we had to do. My biggest bed of roses was almost completely grown over. We weeded nearly three trashbags full of them out of the garden and there's still some left to do. I got into most of my other beds and around my hedgerow of roses as well. The good news is most of my flowers are still very healthy. I have two out of my 20 rose bushes that have evidence of blackspot...that bane of all rose gardeners. I pinched off the leaves, they were all off of old growth, so I've got hopes that if I put together some organic tratment they'll be okay. It didn't look as though it had spread to any of the other bushes around them. I am thankful for that.

I also got all the dead leaves and bracken away from the bases of the bushes and saw that I have new growth already on all of the plants, so I'm excited. This summer I should have some very healthy, very happy roses in my yard. I also went to our local Lowes and had a good look at the roses they have out. I think I've picked out the two or three breeds I am going to add this year. Most of them are pink and red roses, although I've found a rose tree that comes in yellow too. I might get the yellow one just to add some color variety. All of the breeds I've selected are heavily fragrant. I do like the ones that smell sweet. I'll probably go pick those up later this week so I can get them in the ground. We're supposed to get rain this weekend, so it would be nice to have them in so they're getting natural water rather than filtered city water.

I will say this, as much as I love the feeling of earth in my hands, I'm going to need some nice heavy gardening gloves if I want my hands to look even remotely normal at the end of the gardening season. I'm pretty torn up. Thats the beauty of roses, tending them leaves a mark on you- literally.

I'm off to rest my hands and mind for a few brief hours before I go to work. Tonight I'll be putting out the rocks to line my flower beds and help me fight the war with the weeds. Once the sun goes down I'll be tacking more spring cleaning. I can't wait. At least I've got the windows open, and the smell of the earth coming in. Wednesday I'm going to mow, and see if I can't get a new weed eater, so I can keep the yard looking pretty. We always start the mower wars in our neighborhood, so I better get a jump on it. Everyone's yards are starting to look mangy.

I wish you a plesant day, my friends.
AGxx