Blood for Roses

Spent a whole morning this week cleaning out the rose garden at church. It was good, hard work, just pruning off all the dead wood, getting things into reasonable size and shape, opening up the mulch around the plants, and doing a little light fertilizing. John and I did all eighty roses and had enough clippings that John jumped into the compost bin to stomp them down.

It's funny working on this novel and having my head in it so much that I got distracted doing the work, and roses hate it when they're not the center of attention. I gave quite a lot of blood this time around, even with my heavy-duty leather gloves on. Some of the thorns just went right through, and my arms are all covered in small scabs and scratches. *laughs* So the roses should do well this year. I probably need rose gauntlets for the fall. Next time.

The weather's changed, suddenly, getting into even the 80's and throwing evening thundershowers that water everything. It seems impossible that we had snow just a week ago, but I've now put all the tomato plants out into the garden. All the Sungolds made the transition and hardened very quickly, and are already throwing new branches out. All but one of the Black Krimms died down to nothing but a central stem. I ended up buying four plants from the Farmers' Market, and they're doing just fine. Two Brandywines and two Shady Ladies (which are supposed to have been bred for this altitude and area).

We planted six of the Sun Golds in the topsy turvy hangers, and then put two out into the garden and they're doing quite well. All the spring greens are up and going like nuts, and the suger snap peas are a good foot tall and flowering. So all's good in the garden.

Blood for Roses

Spent a whole morning this week cleaning out the rose garden at church. It was good, hard work, just pruning off all the dead wood, getting things into reasonable size and shape, opening up the mulch around the plants, and doing a little light fertilizing. John and I did all eighty roses and had enough clippings that John jumped into the compost bin to stomp them down.

It's funny working on this novel and having my head in it so much that I got distracted doing the work, and roses hate it when they're not the center of attention. I gave quite a lot of blood this time around, even with my heavy-duty leather gloves on. Some of the thorns just went right through, and my arms are all covered in small scabs and scratches. *laughs* So the roses should do well this year. I probably need rose gauntlets for the fall. Next time.

The weather's changed, suddenly, getting into even the 80's and throwing evening thundershowers that water everything. It seems impossible that we had snow just a week ago, but I've now put all the tomato plants out into the garden. All the Sungolds made the transition and hardened very quickly, and are already throwing new branches out. All but one of the Black Krimms died down to nothing but a central stem. I ended up buying four plants from the Farmers' Market, and they're doing just fine. Two Brandywines and two Shady Ladies (which are supposed to have been bred for this altitude and area).

We planted six of the Sun Golds in the topsy turvy hangers, and then put two out into the garden and they're doing quite well. All the spring greens are up and going like nuts, and the suger snap peas are a good foot tall and flowering. So all's good in the garden.