the last one

It's always like that: the last stone you dig out is the biggest and heaviest and most impossible to dislodge. The last bucket of soil and rocks you carry to the vacant lot is the heaviest. And you want the last rose that you plant to be the most beautiful, but that one at least is wishful thinking, because you cannot tell which one will wow you most once the blooms emerge.

Yes, it's another stunning day! Sunshine and pleasantly warmish temperatures. Millie seems happy. 

 

 

 

Breakfast is lovely.

I had decided yesterday that I would let her go to daycare this morning. (She typically does not go on Mondays.) Yes, I could crate her while I work outside, but that's no fun on a beautiful day. She should be running outside with Juno (her Shiba dog bestie from daycare), warming her joints and spiking her serotonin levels in glorious sunshine. 

While she is there, I tend to my garden. 

The thing about roses is that they require steady oversight. Day lilies needed my snipping fingers during July and into August. Roses, on the other hand, need a vigilant eye throughout the growing season. You're checking for pests. And for disease. At this time of the year, black spot is a common fungus and it's unavoidable. If you care about the health of your flowers, you'll pay attention to it and snip off, sweep up,  and throw away all affected leaves. (In doing this, you prick yourself so often that it's not even worth mentioning -- it's a constant.) And of course, you cut off the spent flowers. With day lilies it was a question of aesthetics. With roses it's a matter of encouraging repeat blooms. These are modern roses that sprout blooms throughout the growing season if you take care of them.

So far, I've loved all the work I've had to do in Steffi's Garden. Unlike at the farmette, there isn't a plague of mosquitoes buzzing around me. And right now at least, everything in manageable. And it's not repetitive and mechanical. Snipping hundreds of spent lilies each morning can get... boring. I'm not doing boring work here. Frankly, it sort of feels like spring (my favorite season): rose stems are sprouting new growth, the beds are newly planted. Are we really heading toward winter? It's all turned around in my head! 

My "greenhouse" arrived today. I take a break in gardening to set it up (it's just a growing light really). I'm trying to imagine a bright and flowery winter. We'll see how that goes!

Three of my remaining ten roses also arrived today and I wish I could have put them in, but they came just as I decided Millie had had enough of doggie play. Tomorrow then. Tonight I'll take a look at my rose garden plan one last time to make sure everything is going to be planted in the correct spot. 

[I did a last minute change when I realized that the  rose, which I thought would look nice by the curb, was extra thorny. That's not good! You dont want dogs scratching their noses and kids ripping up their pants while walking by. So Ausmajesty Elizabeth will go to my side rose garden. and Gentle Hermione, with her delicate pink flowers and less thorny stems, will be placed by the curb.]

(the side rose garden, almost fully planted!)

 

There's one more aspect to my garden work here that is truly sweet: people stop by and talk to me. Just today: a solo walker strolling the back alley when I was transplanting this morning ("we have to do something in the back of our house, it feels really nice to pass by here with all these flowers"), a woman walking her dog when I was digging the hole for Gentle Hermione ("what are you planting now?"), another, younger woman who was doing some promo marketing for ATT ("what's in those boxes? Roses? Seriously? Like, real roses, not plastic? How long will they last? You mean they wont die in our cold winters? None of your flowers will die here??")  Making something out of this lot that makes people smile. How deeply satisfying is that!

 with so much love...