Manual Labor
May 5th, 2008
I did some gardening yesterday. I moved a few rosebushes that were in very bad spots, and I have several others to move as well. The soil in my yard ranges from sandy at the bottom of the slope (far away from the hose and house) to very badly compacted clay pan in certain areas of the yard in front of the house.
Most of the garden is in the front of the house and around it’s edges. The problem is that some of the roses are up into the eaves adn it’s basically your typical fire ramp. If there were a grassfire, it would come up the lawn, up the roses, and onto the roof. I want to move the large shrubs away from the house itself. That would also enable us to see the roses better from inside the house. Some windows are blocked by rosebushes.
Yes, they are that big! Think Sleeping Beauty… that reminds me of a funny story. I was a member of the old Rec.gardens.roses usenet group and one day a new person to the group actually asked the question, “Which rose was it that grew up Sleeping Beauty’s castle.” We answered, “Um. Well. We don’t know. It’s a fairy tale…!?”
I also cleaned up the herb garden a bit more. I found some wild gladiolus bulbs which I’d naturalized years ago. I transplanted them to a better area. They bloom magenta on a tall spike but look more like a wildflower than the showy glad bulbs everyone is familiar with.
Our Box Elder tree in the front yard has grown into a beautiful, large shade tree. I need to move more plants out of it’s shade and into the sunlight.
I feel like I got a lot done yesterday. My legs are killing me…















