Gardening

We have been trying to help beautify our home a little bit. It's about time, too, since we've lived here almost a year and will probably be staying another year! :)

Even though the patch of dirt front that has probably not seen any love for years, these two "volunteers" showed up earlier this spring. They died rather quickly...

But this rosebush is hardy! Luckily (for both the bush and for us), it requires very little work. It was long and gangly when we moved in, but Mark pruned it last fall, and we got some wonderful blooms.

The rest of the flowerbed is not so... well-established. The weeds were taking over, but Mark stepped in and took control. I wish I had a before picture because the weeds were getting close to two feet tall and they were foresty thick. 

Even the thick weeds (and few small trees) can't keep his spirits down!

My mom mentioned that if you prune back the rosebush, you'll get more flowers that are larger. Basically, the energy can either go to producing blooms or leaves. Since most of the blooms were on their last breath anyway, I decided it couldn't hurt to prune the bush some. While I pruned, I noticed these red spots on some of the petals. Not sure what they are...

Paul is a very good pruning and gardening helper.

Ta da! The result of pruning. This really made me want to take a flower arranging class... How do you become a flower arranger? Is there a flower arranging college or something?

After Mark had the ground weed-free and broken up with the claw (yes, the one from the infomercials. It really does work!), we planted some flowers.

They look pretty good! Or at least they did... we're only doing a so-so job of keeping them alive. We might have to make another trip to the greenhouse for more flowers soon. :)