Episode 15: Pretty Hobbies "The Rose Garden" OR "Bear: 1, Aphids: 0"

"Ship's Log, Stardate 93989.35: 
My garden has been a bloody (well, more like green bug paste) battle zone, but I think I have finally won the war.

I brought the casualties inside for decoration.

Wafting that freshly picked rose smell around...

I've been working so hard to maintain these, (smashing worms and casually murdering hoards of aphids every three days with the mist bottle of death), that Mr. J cut a few of the young ones hiding behind the others, brought them inside, and trimmed them up for display.

Don't be fooled, they look dark red at first, but are fuchsia!

The fuchsia rose bush to the right of the front door hits you with a thick rose candy scent as soon as you walk outside.  There is another like it on the other side, but the rest unfortunately are practically scentless (though hardy).

The others are on the smaller side, and maintain their uniformity to the end, but the fuschia roses start from deceptively small buds, stay tight and perfect for several days, then get huuuuge and sloppy!  I love them at every stage

Next, I'll pull out all of that grass and lay down some bark.

These big ones help keep the front windows from feeling so exposed.

See, I told ya - not truly red roses!  Definitely fuchsia!

I will prune these before they make seeds and prevent further booms,
but I wanted to leave a few to get huge and fall apart naturally - so wild and chaotic!

There are a few other types, as well, small hardy pink ones, white ones with (faint) red streaks, yellow, and little pink ones out back.   They were easier for me to keep pest-free since they probably smell less attractive to bugs and are more difficult to feed on since they are tough with bristly thorns.

The big fuchsia ones have thorns large enough to keep me away, but are hardly a deterrent to the tiny bugs that eat them.  It's like they were genetically modified for two purposes - smelling divine and stabbing people.

There is only one white bloom right now, the rest are almost there...

This bush only had one small cluster near the bottom - I may prop it up.

This one hardly needs any help from me - the good child.

The next day...

I edited this post over the course of two days, and sure enough, the other two have started to open up!

A little rainy today, but I like it - every color on the ground looks brighter today by contrast.

I also pruned some today to encourage more blooms, but since they weren't entirely spent yet, I brought them inside to either place in water, or to scatter the (delicious smelling) petals around for a day or two.

I tossed my old dry petals in favor of the new ones - into the compost they go!  Cedar and rose are my favorite scents to fill up a room, and old dry petals can be nice to add to potpourri.

Two tiny roses from two different bushes went into a bottle on the desk.

Looks a little old and shabby chic - smells great!

It's raining today, so I get at least a partial break from watering and bug smashing.  I'm going to spend it giving my skin a break (which is currently all cut up from traipsing about the woods of my childhood home after dark last week...) with bath bombs and face masks, instead of dolling up like I usually do.  Sometimes, I need to treat myself like a queen more than I need to look like one.

Bath, bubbles, chocolate, wine, music: check.  

I'll see you next time, and as always, will leave this frequency open for response.

- Bear out!"