 |
| Easy To Please introduced a new purple rose, but it is not blooming yet. |
Bright sun mixed with long sod-soaker rains - what a perfect way to grow weeds that rival Jack's beanstalk.
I was finding my rose count disappearing under blankets of green, the growth so lush that Borage had to be cut back. I sow those seeds in empty spaces for the bees, who have nicknamed it Bee Bread.
"What are you doing with egg carton cardboard?" Mrs. Ichabod asked, as if I were assembling something dangerous.
"I have to rescue some roses," I explained.
"How many eggs to you have to eat to have enough?"
"I wait until the layer is done." I buy 5 dozen at a time, because we all like them scrambled. They are composed of newsprint pressed into shapes for holding the eggs.
The idea is to block the sun's energy around the rose and keep the egg crate material down with mulch or peat humus. Encroaching grass is easily isolated and cut with more mulch sprinkled to block sun and feed the soil.
 |
| People buy these minus the eggs- "makes a great roach colony." Oh boy! |
Removing nine egg slots creates a square donut that fits over new roses.
Did I tell you about carrying a very large, full egg crate down the stairs at the donut shop, only to have my older brother jump out suddenly near the bottom and shout?
The punchline is this - the egg lady had the eggs while I remained upstairs working.
She screamed and dropped the entire double carton, 12 dozen or more eggs.
My brother got to clean up the slippery mess all by himself. The rest of us had a good topic to bring up for continued comedy for ages, including various egg puns:
- You are our eggs-pert.
- The yolk was on you, literally.
- Scaring people is not all it is cracked up to be.
- The Wizard of Ooze.
- How many eggs survived the drop?
 |
| They turned up the hue levels on Rio Samba, but it is a striking rose. |
The rose rescue turned out to be surprisingly fast and easy. Two had disappeared beneath the grassy growth, but each one sent up a purple rose (Heirloom - heavy with old rose fragrance) as if drowning in green. It only took a few moments to cut away grass, lay down the cardboard donut, and drop mulch on top.
 |
| Nurse Ida could barely talk, for reasons unknown, and Bethany could not speak because of neurological problems. They found each other and radiated love, shared jokes and pranks. Ignored by many, shunned by others, they enjoyed their own Paradise. |
The abundance of Creation reminds of how many blessings come from the Gospel. The Military Gardening Group, meeting on the front porch, concluded - "There is no garden like this in our area."
It is not one people put on magazine covers, like the careful poses of political families, but a dynamic tangle of unusual plants aimed at attracting the hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects. Sometimes we have to draw back the weeds to find the roses; in the same way we push back the afflictions to enjoy the blessings.
