After a busy weekend that didn’t allow for any time in the garden, I spent an hour or so in the back garden today after a morning in my office paying bills and processing deposits. This office time is the traditional Monday morning task to insure that all the bills for the week get into the mail.

I have a page long list of things that need to be accomplished in the garden before our big summer party later this month. This will also be a party to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so I want to have the garden looking as nice as I can — both for myself and my wife.

Today’s task was the Spring/Summer cleanup of rose bed #2 in the back garden, much like I did with the larger bed a few weeks ago. There are 2 large pine trees overarching this bed, so there was a thick mat of needles over the bed. In some ways, this made the cleanup easier, as they matted together and came up almost as one unit. All this went into the leaf pile for a future trip through the chipper shredder and then into the compost bins.

Rose bed #2 Before

Rose Bed 2 cleanup by Douglas Welch (douglaswelch) on 500px.com
Rose Bed 2 cleanup by Douglas Welch

Rose bed #2 After

Rose Bed 2 cleanup by Douglas Welch (douglaswelch) on 500px.com
Rose Bed 2 cleanup by Douglas Welch

Just as with Rose bed #1, my wife will re-edge this bed in some fashion. I am thinking of trying a wine bottle edging here, as it is the smaller bed, but we haven’t yet collected enough bottles to complete the circle. Maybe after the party?! (LAUGH)

Hope your garden is doing well! Add a comment and let us know what is happening. You can also Tweet us at @gardenersnotebk on Twitter or drop us a line on the AGN Facebook page.