Once upon a time this acreage where I live was a pristine farm with workers maintaining lawns and the land owner obsessively tending to her ornamental flower beds. They grew crops in rows and spent hours and hours a week eradicating the natural flora of this land. Of course, this wasn't to last forever. Those people, who are still the owners, eventually gave up, broke up, and moved back to the home cities.
The farm became wild again. Deer, horses, and cows came and went and made their own paths over what was once a trim lawn now covered with a new batch of pioneer plants. By the time my partner came along this land was nearly a forest. The only reminders of its once park-like existence in a photo album the owner showed us on her annual visits.
From time to time someone pays us a visit who remembers the farm from the past. "What a shame" they often say "that this place has become so wild, it was once very beautiful".
To us it* is* beautiful as a wild place. Every year the forest becomes thick with wood and the branches make a shady canopy for wildlife of all sorts. Instead of a lawn mower we have our mare, Tila, who arrived here scrawny and ill has transformed into a plump and beautiful creature with her unlimited diet of grass, herbs, and mulberry leaves.
The once manicured rose bushes have gone wild. And although I disagree with the owner's introduction of many invasive species here, I must admit I appreciate the roses. Now that we are embarking on a project of our very own, or forever home about half a mile (1 Kilometer) up mountain, roses are one of the species I do wish to bring along.
As mentioned in my last homesteading post, I have pretty much given up on growing a traditional garden and instead am doing what I know I can do; growing herbs. I have learned from my past failures not to force things to grow, and instead am learning from the forest what grows well here and how.
With the moon waning a few rainy days, the soil and roots are in perfect condition to be transplanted. During spring I noticed which roses were most fragrant, which had the nicest color and am now digging up their trailing roots to become part of my garden nursery.
I started by cutting off the stems that connected these baby plants with the rest of the bush. And then got to digging. When possible I dug up the entirety of the root. Entire or not all of the plants went directly into a bucket full of water.
With about half a dozen rose plants and the sunshine becoming too intense to continue, I headed off to my very shady work table in the garden and planted the roots in a mixture of compost and sand from the creek. The potted up plants I left in a bucket with water at the bottom and under a shade cloth to protect them from drying out in the intensity of this summer's day. Just like in the forest, the young plants must live under the protection of older plant's shade.
Happy Homesteading everyone!