Much Mulch

We ordered 3 yards of mulch delivered from Bert's Dirts to mulch in the new shade garden. One of the tricky things about ordering mulch is figuring out what 1 yard (the base unit of bulk mulch) looks like. In the end, we let our checking account decide how much to order, which turned out to be their minimum delivery of 3 yards. Sadly, 3 yards of mulch isn't quite as much as you might think it would be from the price tag ($185 or thereabouts, with delivery).


However, we did lay it on pretty thick since the shade garden was a wee bit weedy. An hour of shoveling later, and here's what 3 yards of mulch gets you:

The east side of the shade garden...

...the west side of the shade garden...

...and the south bit where the shade ends, plus one rose bush.

Since we have <--pause for counting on mental fingers --> something like 9 more flower beds that could use some mulch, I guess we should have ordered about 20 yards instead of 3.

Huh.

Next time, we'll have to see if we can pick the mulch up ourselves and load it into Matt's trailer (which is enclosed--not sure how that's going to work) to save some rhino.

The roses are doing absolutely beautifully. The shrubs are filling out nicely and laden with buds and blossoms. The excellent 'Duchesse de Brabant' and 'Cramoisi Superieur' are being especially generous with the blooms. However, I'm most transfixed by one of our mystery roses. Last year, it gave us a single, large, crushed raspberry-pink bloom. This year, it's giving us this:

Fabulous mystery rose - 'Alfred Colomb'?

Whoa.

For once, my camera captured a red more or less accurately. The flower is a sumptuous deep red with washes of purple and brown--it's incredible--very decadent. Matt has no idea what it is. I said, "Maybe 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain'?" He said, "Sure."

Though now that I've thumbed (virtually) through ARE's catalog, I wonder if it's not either 'Alfred Colomb' or 'Duke of Edinburgh.' Either way, I'm thinking it's a Hybrid Perp, though Matt leans toward the Bourbons.

Spring! So nice (aside from the brain-clogging allergies, that is. Live oaks, I love you--why don't you love me back?). Everything is green and perky and so full of sap and shiny newness that all the young leaves glisten in the sun. Matt took The Pony out and then weed-eated (weed-ate?), and we both weeded (some of) the beds, so things are unusually bright and tidy and colorful and altogether lovely. We've even been getting rain! The US Seasonal Drought Monitor for April through June actually predicts "Some improvement (drought ongoing)"!