This past week has been simply beautiful weatherwise. We luxuriated in cool days and a smattering of rain. There was a bit of breeze to sweep through the yard from time to time. How could anyone not want to get outside right now?
It seemed the perfect time so Jeff and I planted two roses, Peggy Martin and Lady Bank’s. We have all our bird feeders up and have been highly entertained by all the feathered friends visiting them. Our Boykin pups have perked up their attention to the explosion of wildlife in the garden as they dash out the screen to investigate the activity. Gilder is the boy of the pair and he leaps with all fours after butterflies as they soar overhead. Brooky the Cookie is our girl pup. She is quite a bundle of energy herself.
Speaking of planting those roses, I decided one afternoon that it would take me about half an hour to plant Lady Bank’s. To accomplish this task I gathered some tools; a shovel, a trowel for mixing soils as I placed them around the root ball, one bag of leaf mold compost and two bags of rose soil mix and trudged out to the garden.
We had received rain the day before so I expected the soil to be fairly workable. Now keep in mind, I don’t mean a downpour of rain, more like .15 of an inch, but something, you know. It did work out to be fairly easy to dig for the first 3 inches of topsoil then grwhackkk! The shovel twanged on solid limestone rock. By the time we were able to lower the rose into a hole 7 inches deep with about an inch of the rootball above the surrounding ground (which is appropriate here for drainage) it was a good two hours of hard labor using a rock bar(that thing weighs 17 lbs.), a sledgehammer, a rock chisel wedge thingy, and a pickaxe. I absolutely could not have finished the hole without Jeff’s help. Thankfully Lady Bank’s is resting happily in her new home and is intertwined on her new rose arch.
Now, due to time restrictions, we could’t work on Peggy Martin’s planting hole for two days and during that time all we could do was shake our heads each time we looked at her waiting. We gathered all the hardware used in the last hole, our soil mix, and our courage and went to digging. This rose is planted about 5 feet south of the Lady Banks on the other side of the rose arch. Jeff started to dig. I am not going to tell you it was easy going by any means but this time he managed to reach depth with only the shovel and sweat equity. The soil here is rocky but more crumbly so he was able to finish in about 20 minutes to have a deep enough hole for the plant. A distance of only 5 feet is able to make such a difference in gardening. Thankfully Peggy Martin is also happy in her new home and I am using the rocks we unearthed to build a border around the new plantings. I am also very glad to report Jeff is unscathed from his exertion.
Our new rose arch looks decorative at the entrance to the small kitchen garden. This little kitchen garden is still a work in progress which will take some time to get it just right. I am enjoying every minute of the building process. Peggy Martin is pictured as covering structures in pink blossoms each spring after she gets settled in. Lady Bank’s is a spring climber that will grow for 20 feet so they say. She has soft yellow blooms in the spring as well however I believe they will both re-flower in the fall as they become more mature. When these roses have become established, about three years, the show will be stunning!!
Now that the roses are planted I am envisioning planning some pathways to aid in traveling around the garden. Somewhere to wheel the carts and create a pleasant order to the garden seems likely to be the next endeavor. Oh my, just wait till Jeff hears of my plans.
Jeff and I found the Lady Bank’s rose at Backbone Valley Nursery in Marble Falls, Tx and our Peggy Martin rose was found at Calloway’s Nursery in Cedar Park, Tx. We are fortunate to have wonderful nurseries around this area so you must know I always look forward to browsing through their gorgeous displays while shopping.
