Yours were not the only weather bones making complaints. I told several people that this was not going to be pleasant. We had a forecast of over 1/4 inch rain today, getting icky tonight. Well, it was about 35F, raining, soaking everything thoroughly after lightning and thunder and a good bit last night. Next thing I know that rain was WHITE! Over half an inch of white rain later, it decided to get "clear" again, and now it's coloring up again. IT IS APRIL darn it! All my daffodils are lying face down in their beds! Now that I think of it, I might go bry my head in my bed too!

I can help with that. I used pure sand to cover my washed out limestone soil when we moved in in 1992. After many years of being on an organic program my sand has enough dark matter in it to trick you into thinking it is dark soil. I know the sand is still pure white because I tested it during a remodeling job a couple years ago. The contractor dug up an old walk way through the back yard and I was surprised to see the very dark brown color of the soil under the St Augustine. I scooped some up and dropped it into a glass of water. The white sand dropped to the bottom of the glass immediately. Most of the brown stuff floated and there was some brown discoloration of the water. I used compost once on this yard in the late 90s. The sand came to me originally as a 50:50 mix with "compost" which was extremely hot at the time. It was basically sand and horse manure. Since 2002 I've used corn meal, alfalfa pellets, and corn gluten meal. That's all. The soil looks pretty rich but it really is only sand and the composted remains of roots, leaves, grass clippings, and whatever I've applied. Does that help?

Loved your post ! I am looking forward to hummingbirds.First discovered these last spring and bought a feeder and had edless hours of enjoyment over the season. The butterflies, gold finches and hummers really loved our zinnias.I plan on planting more things this year to attract/feed them.Not exactly sure when to first put the feeder out though since we spotted the hummers in the last part of the season. Heidi

Thank you, Brandon! I love the roses, and the way you film them so that I can see the entiere bush, and then close ups. I also love the way you grow them - you let them do what they want to do - it looks so natural and luxurious. Jackie