As you can see by the dramatic reconstruction of this event I was working very hard, digging 3 large holes for petite perfection roses from Jackson and Perkins. Lord Gnome was kind enough to buy me them and I wanted to do a great job.

After digging all three holes fairly deep I filled them with water to check the drainage situation. As I've learned, roses hate wet feet so you must dig halfway to China in order to ensure that you have good drainage for them, especially important since my soil is heavy clay after the first 6 inches of topsoil.

While the water was draining I worked a bit more scooping mud out of the second hole. Notice my look of concentration. I was so fixated on the second hole I forgot all about hole number 1 and fell back into it with a big splash, then tried to break the fall and wound up on my face in the soil.

In frame 4 you can see the addition of insult to injury. My shoe came off and was floating upside down in hole number 1.

All's well though, I looked today (June 3, 2001) and there are buds all over the petite perfection rosebushes. I can't wait to see them bloom!