With spring approaching, I’ve been busy preparing my garden for optimal growth. My shed is packed with numerous bags of pine nugget mulch among a variety of garden tools, and I had a small retaining wall recently built in the corner bed to prevent further erosion from the rain. Additionally, tonight, after getting home from work, I quickly pruned and fertilized what I affectionately refer to as ‘The Pink Patch’. The pink patch is a narrow border bed between my home and my neighbor’s property. It hosts several pink rose bushes including ‘Sweet Drift’ and the narrow bed concludes with the hybrid tea, ‘Chicago Peace’ near the garden’s gate. Essentially, I have created a pink hedge – although, at the moment, there is no pink in the pink patch due to the natural effects of winter dormancy. Unfortunately, a stray cat thinks the pink patch is her litter box, which motivated me to prune and fertilize a tad earlier than I normally would because I am hoping the drift roses will unfurl and expand making it difficult for the neighborhood cat to use the rose bed as a restroom. Then again, the stray cat will likely move onto one of my many other flower beds.

During this past Sunday’s beautiful sunshine, I created a new garden bed to house a rose bush that I planted last year but I underestimated her size. After seeing ‘Earth Angel’, a fragrant and romantic floribunda, produce long canes during her first year, I recently researched her size in gardening forums (sometimes the size stated on vendor’s websites is not the reality in all gardening zones). Turns out, this rose can get 5′ by 4′ not 3′ by 3′. Similarly, it’s been my observation from past gardens of mine that Sweet Drift’s height and width grow approximately double what the label claims. So, I dug a new hole elsewhere for Earth Angel, pruned her back, dug her up, and transplanted her, gambling that the weather forecast would continue to remain above freezing. Then I made a new bed around her using cardboard to cover the grass, put dirt on top of the cardboard, and spread a layer of mulch to top it all off. Through it all, I noticed the recently erected small retaining wall for the corner bed partially covered the base of two daisies. I subsequently had to transplant them for optimal growth as well, which reminded me that sometimes that is the case for us humans too. Selah.

What’s happening in your garden and the proverbial, spiritual garden of your heart? Is construction, pruning, fertilizing, transplanting, or all of the above needed for optimal growth this spring? Like, subscribe, and comment below.

Be ever-blooming, rose buds!