I never MEANT......

I never meant for the MINT to completely take over the front flower bed! Now I love mint probably more than most people but I have WAY too much even for ME! I enjoy it in tea and garnishes for fruit...I may even try my hand at mint jelly soon! However the explosion of mint in my flower bed HAS to be stopped! It was strangling the rose bushes and crawled into every nook and corner of the area. Last night I realized the huge job this would entail if we tried to hand pull every plant! So we decided it was best to take OUT the good plants (rose bushes and liriope) and dig AROUND the honeysuckle and lantanas. Which is exactly what we did! The dirt DID fly! The rose bushes were made comfortable in a temporary 'plant hospital' (Wheel barrow!) and the liriope made safe in the water fountain tub. Then we turned up ALL the soil with a garden rake and pulled long lengths of the mint roots out. As the sun set and we surveyed our accomplishments, it looked more of a MESS than when we started! I have faith, however, that we WILL have a beautiful flower bed in the near future! The beauty of living in Texas is that we have the luxury of beautiful weather in the middle of January! The below freezing temps we have had lately are so NOT the norm for this area! We worked a few hours yesterday afternoon in our shirt sleeves and then again today! We called it quits just in time to appreciate the beautiful sunset! There is something so rejuvenating when you are working in a garden! I could not help myself today when I was shopping at Home Depot. I HAD to buy some Sweet William bedding plants as well as 15 Freesia bulbs and 15 Anemone! So as I leave the bed to rest for the night, I feel like we accomplished quite a bit today. One step closer to having an attractive flower garden...and that's how all things are done...step by step...here a little....there a little.