Blogging: Easier Than Digging Post Holes

File that one in the "No Duh, Sherlock" department.

I just hurt all over. No -- not from the project pictured to the right. I hurt because of the project that I tackled AFTER creating that little rose and flower garden. Digging post holes is no darn fun. Digging post holes in muddy clay soil is REALLY no fun.

And I still have one more to go....

But -- I digress. Although my thoughts remain with a very ill gardening friend -- life goes on. It must. Flowers will flower. Roses will bloom. Peaches will grow. Heirloom tomatoes will ripen. Life happens. Katie would have wanted it that way.

But -- to honor our friend and beautify the yard at the same time -- Venus and I completed a project over the weekend that we call "Katie's Spot." Katie will like it because soon -- this spot will be full of flowers -- which matches her flowering personality. Perhaps -- if I'm lucky -- I can get Katie to weed it later this summer (fat chance!).

I've been meaning to tackle this project for quite some time -- but there were always other "pressing duties" that needed to be taken care of first. This hybrid tea rosebush -- Blue Girl -- was transplanted from our old home (now a rental) to the new backyard three years ago. I put it in a side yard -- hooked up some irrigation -- and there it sat.

Sure -- it looked pretty. But it was all alone. Hybrid tea rosebushes need company -- they really do. No -- they don't get lonely. No -- they don't have "isolation issues." The plain fact is that hybridizers have put so much work into the top of the rose -- where it flowers -- that they've kind of ignored the bottom.

This is how it looked earlier this year when I pruned back a lot of last year's growth. Compare the photo to your left to the one above. Quite a big difference eh? Now imagine that soil filled with a mix of perennials. It should put on quite the show.

Another point to consider is that the bottoms of hybrid tea rosebushes can get kind of ugly as the summer wears on. The first leaves to emerge on a hybrid tea rosebush are at the bottom. Those are usually the first to catch some sort of disease or be eaten away by some bug. They drop -- and sometimes the bottom of a pretty hybrid tea rosebush can look bare and ugly.

So why not beautify the area with some "Rocklin Rocks," a little bit of bark, some Coreopsis, Butterfly Flowers, English Daisies and other selected perennials? The flowers serve a double purpose. Not only will they look pretty and draw attention to the showpiece at the top (the actual roses) -- they also serve to hide that bare spot that invariably develops at the bottom of the rosebush.

And the rocks? We call them Rocklin Rocks for a reason. Why? Cause we got them in Rocklin -- that's why. A few years ago -- when developers couldn't build homes fast enough -- giant bulldozers turned over acres of soil for new housing subdivisions and new commercial shopping centers.

Have you ever tried to dig a hole in a Rocklin backyard? They call the place "Rocklin" for a reason. Chances are -- you're going to hit big boulders the moment the shovel hits the soil line. Venus and I would find piles and piles of these rocks during commercial building efforts -- and just help ourselves.

They make for an attractive border, no? And the best part is -- they're FREE. That's a good selling point for frugal folks like us (you can also substitute the word "cheap" in for "frugal").

I have a feeling that Katie will like the arrangement because:

1. Flowers match her flowering personality

2. Roses smell good

3. It's not a lawn (Katie doesn't like lawns)

Next week's project? Installing my acre-sized lawn!