You Never Call, You Never Write

Life is busy, y'all.

Summer finally arrived and, with it came yard work. Just this past weekend, I spent two hours tearing the bindweed from a large flower bed, an additional two hours uprooting weeds from my (pitiful) garden, and, a couple of hours supervising the planting of nine rosebushes around the porch.

Then, yesterday, I paid the Man-Cub, Darren, and Mikey to haul a ton of wood mulch from Pixler and to spread it neatly on the flowerbeds. The yard has never looked better, but it was labor-intensive and a little bit pricey even though I purchased the roses on clearance at a local nursery, where I got a hell of a good deal (I just totally had to re-write this whole paragraph; it was like one long, run-on sentence. Run on, sentence, run on!)

I'll post photos at some point in time, but, the selection included the following varieties: Tropicana (deep coral), Marilyn Monroe (creamy peach), Fragrant Plum (lavender), Chicago Peace (bi-color, pink and yellow), Chrysler Imperial (red), Miss All American Beauty (hot pink), Bella Roma (bi-color, red and yellow), John F. Kennedy (pure white), and, Ink Spot (there was no picture on the tag and no open blooms on the bush; I am assuming that it will be dark red, but time will tell).

I chose roses because I am a lazy-ass gardener who can't be bothered with anything that can't be plopped in the ground and then basically ignored. And, yeah, roses are pretty.

Speaking of being a lazy-ass gardener, my vegetable garden is, as mentioned above, pitiful this year. I know that it has a lot to do with the massive monsoon-level rains that we had just after planting, but, that doesn't make me feel any better. While the tomato, cucumber, zuchinni, and pepper plants appear to be doing ok, I did not manage much of anything from seed-a few random green bean sprouts, a handful of beets, and a smattering of carrots. There does appear to be enough lettuce to cut for a salad or two, but, with the sudden spike in temperature the past week, I am concerned about bitterness.

And, I mean bitterness from the lettuce-my bitterness toward Mother Nature is already pretty well documented on this blog.

Anyway, much busy, much yard work, little blogging. I am going to make an effort to do a better job in the coming days and weeks. Or, I will go completely radio silent whilst I enjoy the company of The Girls (headed for the cabin this weekend!) and our trip to Lake Powell.

It really could go either way.