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I simply couldn’t let the rocky earth I was digging in defeat me. I went back out there, with a vengance, taking the pick axe to every little area… raking out the bigger stones, and then deciding that I’d “simply” move the herb garden into that spot — making room for at least three of the five roses in the previous space the herb garden was using. Thankfully herbs actually like crappy soil, for the most part, so… yay for that.

That’s the photo of the area prior to my actually planting the three roses, but they’re in that block enclosed area to the right of the photo. I also moved all those blocks (still need to seat and align them a bit better) now seen toward the left of the photo, enclosing the overzealous strawberries and the other veggies. It’s all a bit of a mess at this point, but I’ll get it cleaned up fairly soon… hopefully soon, heh. The herbs seem to have survived their transplanting fairly well… my golden sage was a bit wilted today, but otherwise they seem happy enough.

My arms, and particularly my hands and feet are so very sore today, still.

I still have to find a place for two more roses… and yes, I know there looks like plenty of room… but there really isn’t when you take into consideration the little shade problem that my love of trees provides, lol. I think I have two places in mind… my less than beautiful pink carnation will get the boot — to be replanted somewhere else (no clue where yet) and…I think I have a spot actually in the “rose garden” provided I don’t run into tree roots. It seems that’s the problem… I either have no topsoil before the rock beneath, or I have tree roots, lol. The front yard, while expansive, is fairly shaded… although I don’t know if the soil really is any better or not. I think if I run up against my rose limit next year (I’m setting the limit at four, because I know I can fit that many into where the dahlias are now) I’ll probably have to start with raised beds… ugh.

The side yard has a decent bit of potential, except for the whole crappy soil problem. It isn’t so bad when you’re talking about regular plants… but roses & trees have this thing about big anchoring roots, heh…. and it’s pretty damned near impossible to get a deep enough hole dug… agh!

I guess the brightside is that the ‘rose budget’ will give way to the ‘perennial plant budget’ for next year, lol. I do have a rose I’ll probably be shovel pruning… the ugly orange/red/yellow thing that I got, it was mislabeled… the only thing saving it at this point is the fact that Justin has expressed fondness for it. It’s just that I’ve come to this discovery that my actual plantable space is considerably less than I thought, and now I need to become more selective about what I’m growing. That one-cane-wonder of ‘Sheer Bliss’ ….I love it, probably my favorite hybrid tea, but… if it doesn’t get another cane or two… it’ll have to be replaced with something more robust and productive.