The roses at the Love Shake are in full bloom and growing wild! Time for some pruning.

The 3-day weekend is shaping up to be beautiful. Time for my annual gardening workout. I’m not planning on hitting the gym this weekend so a little outdoor work is just what the doctor ordered!

Gardening provides great exercise – endurance, flexibility and strength. Granted, I don’t have the yard that requires digging holes or tilling the soil (yet!), but pulling weeds, pruning rose bushes and potting does work up a sweat.

I plan to kick off the weekend visiting our local farm – Cox Farms – for some plants and dirt. While I’m picking out plants, I’m sure the husband will be busy playing with the goats, rabbits, sheep, chickens, alpacas and Chewie, the resident Guard Llama.  I’m sure I’ll get another workout making sure he doesn’t bring any critters home.

My plan is to transfer the plants into my 8 containers on my deck. I’m planning on herbs (basil, cilantro, chives and parsley) as well as tomatoes,  cucumbers and flowers. Now I love flowers, but I’m most excited about the tomatoes. They are pretty pricy at the grocery store and if I can grow my own, I’ll save a few bucks a week.

I’m also going to tackle the front yard (again). A few of weeks ago my rose bushes were still bare (thank you long winter!) and I spent a Saturday trimming them back for the new growth. Well after LOTS of rain, the bushes not only bloomed, but also grew so fast you wouldn’t think I did any work on them, much less filled 4 trash bags with branches of dead growth.

Just amazing!

Well the roses are in need of serious trimming again, a lot harder this time around since it’s hard to see the thorns with all the green leaves.

Also the weeds around the roses are back with abandon. So it’s time to dig them up again and add a bit more mulch for that final weed deathblow.

Something tells me I’ll get a full body workout this weekend.