Roses

One of the roses in our garden is blooming now. It won't win any prizes, but it provides a nice splash of color. All of the roses chez nous were here when we arrived sixteen years ago. Two of them are plants that we split off from their parent. I've torn out several rose plants altogether over the years, mostly because they weren't in good spots and didn't do much.

This bud's for you.

Those remaining I feed from time to time, and prune now and again. This past year I did no pruning at all, so the plants have a "wild" look, which is fine with me. Because I put most of my gardening energy into the vegetable garden (not to mention cutting the grass), I tend to treat the flowering plants with a strict regimen of benign neglect. If they can't survive that, out they go.

Pretty in pink.

We're expecting a day of spotty rain today. That got me out to finish cutting the grass (again) on Tuesday. I must say that it's satisfying to get it cut so that I don't have to watch it grow to a height that requires a team of gardeners with machetes to control. When we moved in all those years ago, the grass (and all the little plants that make up the "lawn") had been left to grow to waist height. I spent days doing battle with a weed-eater before I could make a first pass with the lawnmower. I don't care to repeat that.