They've arrived!

It's too late tonight to give the whole background. I am NOT a gardener. The most I've ever done is a little weeding around perhaps 8 impatiens that I planted. So I'll just quote my expert gardener mom from a phone call a couple weeks ago... "15!!!!!!!! You ordered 15 rose bushes? Oh J, you should call and cancel some of them! You have a LOT of work ahead. You have NO idea what you just did."

Well, they're here. Resting in the dark, cool garage. 5 are covered with water in a cooler and the other 10 are in a big garbage can, their green, prickly canes barely peeking above the muddy water. I barely know what I'm doing. Um, actually, I'm fairly certain that I don't know what I'm doing. But I am hoping and dreaming of festoons of roses, bouquets of roses, glorious cascades of roses around my deck. The scent will fill the house. The scent will fill the yard and maybe even the neighbor's yard. Um, and probably attract deer, which I already hate with a passion and I haven't even seen one this spring yet.

Today we finished digging 7 big holes, each 2 feet across and 18 inches deep. Tomorrow we dig 4 more holes, buy manure, mulch and soil and gravel. This weekend we build the raised beds and install the trellis around the deck and build a pergola. Yep, I can tell I'm in for a wild ride this year. First I have to find out what a pergola is.