Gardening and Pests

I just love this time of year! When winter breaks, I get outside with my pruners and garden tools and just have a good old time! I like to see the leaves return to the trees and the feel of the warm sun. I enjoy tilling up the ground and I love the smell of freshly turned soil. Perhaps, I would have made a fair farmer. I always keep my shirt on when I am outside, unlike when I used to live on the farm, because I try to be modest in public. I also want to keep the Shamu jokes down to a minimum. ;)


I have lived where I am now for about 5 years and it has been a real chore trying to garden. The plots where the houses are built were bulldozed to clear trees and the topsoil was taken as a result. Getting red clay to do what you want it to do is not the easiest thing in the world. Every time I see a tree service working on a yard nearby, I roll down my window and ask where they will be taking the mulch. Most companies have to pay to take it to the landfill, so they are glad just to come a few miles and drop it off at my house. I let it sit until the next season while it composts. My neighbors love me! :)


The only thing that I don't like about the area that I garden is the pests. Deer tend to like roses and I have to surround them with plants that deer don't like. Another problem is black widow spiders. I have gardened all of my life and I never recall seeing a place with the number of black widows around here. The other day I took one of the roses that I had rooted from a cutting out of the pot. This black widow came running across my hand but didn't stop to take a bite. I can't get away with not using gloves from here on out. Really bad what black widows can do to you. You can only take the anti-venom once in your life, or so I am told. I was also told that copperheads were really numerous in this area before all of the houses were built. I don't like snakes. So I keep a really sharp lookout for copperheads and cottonmouths. They are the only poisonous snakes that we have around here. They are on my mind when I mow for the most part.

Anyway, I plan to make use of some pretty unorthodox gardening techniques this year to keep me out of the brush as much as possible. I hopefully will have something to share if it is successful. The first flush of roses should start in about a week or so. Most of them are pretty small right now, but I hope to post some pictures when they start. Until then, sleep tight! Don't let the spiders bite!

A rose by any other name

Gonna do something a little different today. I have a secret passion. Gardening! :) I like to grow things, water them, watch them grow, and make little plants from big plants. I have mixed emotions as well as talents with this hobby. I have 2 thumbs, one green and the other brown. I'm pretty good at getting seedlings to grow, or taking cuttings and making them thrive. However, unless something is pretty hardy, I will usually see it die away. I am not not real good at taking care of plants that need pampering. I grow roses and other things, but this post is about my roses. At one time I had about 18 or so growing in my yard, but that has now turned into about 7 or 8. Most of them are not looking too well at this point. I decided about 2 years ago that I would only deal with shrub or rugosa roses from here on out. I like the blossoms on hybrid teas, but cannot give them the attention they need. Here are 4 of my roses I have pictures of.


This is a small shrub rose called Tweety. This was always a pretty rose, but small and prone to all kinds of problems for me. Just stayed sick the whole time I had it. Blackspot was horrible and it died after 2 years.










This is a hybrid tea called Ruffles. Prone to blackspot for me and cane borers were a problem. The bloom here was over 5 inches across. This one died down and came back true from rootstock. Currently in critical condition.













This is called 21st Century. Another hybrid tea rose. Pretty golden rose, but it's century ended after one season. Blackspot was a nightmare.















Now, I show you the pride of what was my rose collection. A shrub rose called Knockout. I got this before it was released to the public because my wife knew someone that worked in a commercial nursery getting them ready for debut around here. Bloomed continuously through the growing season. It took 2 frosts to kill all of the blossoms in the fall. It would be fine today if an over zealous gardener had not used too much fertilizer. That would be me folks. I burned it up and did a good job of it. I did, however, manage to clip off all the canes from it and it turned into 18 little roses. I have it's little brother growing in the same spot this day, but much smaller right now.

I have several more roses in my garden. Some do well without any work at all, like the Knockout. Some won't die even if I wanted them to, like an old antique rose down at the bottom of the garden. Just a figure of speech folks, I don't want any of them dead.

I am happy to share this with everyone. Just don't tell my buddies about this. They believe men should be macho, and I don't think growing roses will be as big with them as the fish I caught. Gardening is a great stress reliever though and I wish I could stay out there more than I do. I plan to really get to work on it this year and maybe... just maybe, I will get something to last till next year this time. :)