Worth the backache

My back has been killing me this week. I stayed home from work on Monday and spent the day in a stupor from muscle relaxers. I realized when I pulled the bottle from the medicine cabinet that my doctor had prescribed them to me exactly one year ago this week. It's pretty obvious that my garden and all the work that goes into it in April is the culprit!

Backache aside, the garden is doing well. The vegetable raised beds are planted and starting to grow. And my roses? Heavenly. The Eustacia Vye I planted last year has been absolutely covered in dozens of rosebuds, and the two newbies (Benjamin Britten and Desdemona) both have several flowers and they were bare root plants less than three months ago. I'm in love!

Just look at these beauties. 

My garden in April

These are a few buds from my second year Eustacia Vye rose. The bush is absolutely loaded with them (over 4 dozen at last count) and ready to burst forth into a glorious display. 

This Desdemona rosebush was nothing but a bare-root back in February, and today the first bloom opened. It already has a sweet, lemony fragrance. I'm in love!

The beans are really taking off.

And if someone could give me good advice on how to thin carrots, I'd appreciate it. I'm certain these are too closely planted, but maybe I'll get a few small ones.

Also, I have a huge kiddie pool "bowl" of salad! Look at this beautiful lettuce! I've already had a couple of handfuls of tender baby leaves.

Last but not least: my method of quickly hardening off young tomato plants: cover them lightly with pine straw mulch for shade. So far, I've planted 14 seedlings without hardening them off, and they're doing just fine. This weekend I'll plant the last 5 still to go as well as the pepper plants, and this year's garden will be ready to rock and roll.

 

More roses!

On Friday my two new bare root David Austin roses arrived! I didn't waste time; yesterday morning I did the recommended root ball immersion in buckets of water, and in the late afternoon I planted them on either side of the Eustacia Vye. That particular bed is finished now (aside from some possible future companion plants for the roses). It's on the south side of the screened porch, and the three rose varieties are Benjamin Britten, Eustacia Vye, and Desdemona. Considering that last year my Eustacia bloomed less than two months from planting out, and then bloomed again in the summer, I have high hopes of seeing all three flowers this year.

Roses (already)

Yesterday I preordered two more English roses to add to my garden this year. From my experience last spring, as well as lurking on David Austin rose forums and Facebook pages, a lot of varieties sell out fast. As soon as ordering opens up in January, it's best to go ahead and order if you want to be assured of getting the roses you want. My order is supposed to ship sometime in February, which is just as well, since we're in a prolonged, bitterly cold weather pattern at the moment.

My two new roses for 2026:

Benjamin Britten

Desdemona