On Saturday, I had a chance to do some garden work, but not as much as I would like (OK, well I went fishing!). Too bad I got skunked at fishing!

I did finally spray my fruit trees with horticultural oil. Wade Tischner brought it over. I meant to take note of the brand, but I can’t remember. I do recall that it was 98% mineral oil, or some high number like that. I also sprayed the roses in back and the raspberries, too.

I planted the two bareroot roses (‘Nearly Wild’ variety) up among my aspen trees. I did just a little more pruning work on my rose border by the lawn. There are still five or six bushes to go. It’s slow work, but I’m cleaning out some dead branches and stuff that accumulated over a few years (I think last year, I just trimmed them for height and didn’t clean them out).

I put some bone meal, rose fertilizer and a steer manure/compost blend as a top dressing on the clematis vines in front. I hope they do well this year — they’ve been slow to take off. Also did a little weeding in that area, around the Golden Rain tree. Dana and Hannah did some weeding around the roses in back, with Hannah complaining all the way!

A guy was aerating my neighbor’s yard, and he asked if we wanted it done for $35, so we had him do it. I’m not sure he did a good enough job; in the back, it looks like he went over it pretty quick, and there aren’t as many holes as in the front. He missed one entire section behind the garage. My hunch is the guy didn’t realize how big our backyard was when he quoted the price and then he tried to hurry it up to make up for lost time when he got back there.

I started hardening off the poppy seedlings on Friday — I’m just putting them in the sun for a few hours a day. I’d like to get them planted next weekend, but I need to decide where I want them. I’m funny that way — I buy plants and seeds impulsively, not knowing where they should go.

I have some of the white coneflower seedlings starting to get pale leaves, and I think I’ve over watered them. I’m letting them dry out a bit today.