Excavation

I'm very excited. Eight years after moving out, I finally bought my very first big girl shovel.

Frequently, when I need tools for something, I just borrow Dad's. But slowly, over the years I've been trying to accumulate my own.

And this year is the year of the shovel (though I bought a lawn rake too - but I'm not nearly as excited about it. )

You see, I had some excavation to do. This weekend coming up is the Victoria Day weekend here in Canada. For some, it's the first weekend to go camping, for others it's a party weekend - but for a large number of us, it's the biggest gardening weekend of the year.

It's generally the earliest that we can start planting our summer plants, without fear of frost.

As you know, I've been cultivating some seeds to plant a honey-bee friendly garden - and the sunflowers are definitely ready to be transplanted - so I needed that shovel to dig new garden in the backyard.

Last night we got a really good rain, so I figured today would be the perfect day to start excavation - the ground would be nice and soft.

It didn't take long - much less time than I expected, though admittedly, I didn't need to go very deep, really just removing the top layer of grass and soil. I have some nice black top soil to fill it in with - my flowers are going to love it.

While I was at the garden centre picking up soil, I also picked up something I've wanted for a very long time - a rose bush.

Despite having lots of gardens growing up, we never had roses. When I was a teen and we were living in the city, I convinced Mom to get a rose bush for the front garden. The night after we planted it, someone stole it. Seriously.

At the old place, I had the wild roses from hell, planted by some long ago tenant. They were pretty, but I've always wanted tea roses. With the wild roses out front in the old place, there was no room. And the backyard was too shady.

But this backyard - this backyard has full sun and lots of room. And I have the perfect spot, right beside the patio, just waiting for a perfect tea rose

So I started digging. This hole had to be deeper than the bee garden, but in this area, it doens't take long until you hit clay

 

But it was deep enough for my rose bush

I chose a nice, solid white one, though now that I look at the spot, there's definitely room for one or two more... what's your favourite colour of rose?