So good to have you back! Your roses are beautiful, and don't worry about the weeds--we all have them and eventually we'll get around to pulling them. The Robin Hoods have been around longer than the Knock-out Roses. Both are great roses. Does anyone else have garden chores that stay on your mind until they get done? You're kidding, right? I can name at least a dozen tasks that need doing, and I'll get to them as soon as I stop mooning over the roses in bloom, watering the beans, and communing with the hens!
thanks marlingardener.. getting ready to go work around the roses in a min. Gonna de-weed/de-grass around them, lay some fabric down, feed, and mulch. Well im gonna try to get all that done....we will see..hehe.. i'll post up some pics later..
well i spent most of the day outside with the roses yesterday with the oldies radio in the background. I really should de-weed/de-grass them earlier next time as i removed loads of stuff growing around them. I had a massive pile but i worked through it and got a lot done. With this i think next season will be a breeze. So i started with pulling stuff up around them and breaking off the dead bits of stems i ran into. Got the weed fabric laid and pinned down for easier grass cutting.....applied some bone meal (i love this stuff!) around the roses and gave them each a drink of epsom salt water as i read that was a good thing for when rose buds are about to open. I have a drip line that i havnt used that much sunk somewhat into the ground and weaved around them, i let that go for a while to give em a good drink. I heard roses really like water. After that i laid down some mulch (with preen in it) just around the base of the roses.....i hope that doesnt hurt them, i read it just stops seeds and weeds. Then i brought out the Black Kow soil amendmant and scattered about 75 lbs of that in-between the rose line and finally started to cover the weed fabric and everything with some regular scotts black mulch. Too bad i ran out as i was gonna take some finished pics of it all for you guys but im gonna stop by the store today and grab 3-4 more bags to finish. After all this i feel like they will be set for the season, maybe i will re-feed later on but this is the most care they have ever had. I plan to use the drip line more this season to help them out during the hot summer. I didnt see too many critters while i was doing all this besides a couple of small brown spiders and some ladybirds but let me tell you once i had the black mulch down i really noticed red, white, black, and brown spiders moving across it at times.....probably wondering what the heck was going on with their rose garden hideout. Saw a few red ants too.. My mum asked whether i was gonna cut the bushes across like a hedge that she had seen done to other roses up the road but i explained to her that i had read that these types of roses you just let them go wild and create a mass of branches everywhere. Looking at the plants i would lose hundreds and possibly in the thousands of lil buds that are about to open.......and i dont really care too much about having perfect looking hedges anyway ya know....just as long as they are healthy. I took some of the longer branches that were like arms sticking out of the bush and moved them across and back into the main bush where they easily hooked on and made the bush more full. I did notice on one of the weaker looking bushes some spots on the leaves but none of the others have this. It still has leaves and buds on this bush so im not sure if im gonna treat it yet, i might just treat them all just in case though. ok thats a lot of text above so i'll stop now. I hope to put up some pics later today after i finish... G_N
Sounds like a full day's work. I'm sure the roses are loving you for it. Can't wait to see the pics... hope you took a before photo too.
Yeah these guys kept me busy, i finally finished them yesterday evening after another trip to the store for some more mulch. I think one more bag will do it to plump it up a bit.. I wish i had gotten brown mulch now since black shows up so much stuff but im not that worried. I think next year i'll put brown on top. Heres some pics of when i started and finished.. ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) My youngest son stands in front of the biggest ones. ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) Early flowers.. ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) You can see the pile of grass and weeds i took out from between the roses. ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Green_Numb's Garden ) I'll post some more pics up when the flowers start to really come out. I hope the feeding i gave them helps them out this year. They really haven't had much attention given to them and i plan to try take care of them more. I saw some hops on them so i might try to save some of these. Does anyone know when i would remove the hops for storage? I hear sometimes they have to go through some cold winters or something to be viable? I will have to read more on this.. Some of the hops are darker and more shriveled than others? Im also gonna try to take some cuttings and see if i can get those growing although i have no experience in this. G_N
Awesome!! You really did a great job. That corner is going to be the envy of the neighborhood. You mentioned that the black mulch "showed too much". Too much of what? I've been thinking I'd get some to dress up some areas.
thanks cherylad, im surprised they look like they do with the neglect they have had but maybe that's down to there genetics? On the black mulch showing stuff i was talking of the contrast in colour and how black shows anything light coloured sitting on it. Leaves and dry grass etc.. This mulch is midnight black so i dont think you can get any darker or more contrasting to light coloured objects. It looks nice but i think i will go back to brown next year.
So a lil update.......5 years down the road... Hi guys, I'm happy to say that I'm back and the roses are bigger than ever. Its been a while but I will post a few pics if anyone is interested. I hate that I didn't catch these guys on cam when they first bloomed this year. I fed them and they really flowered good I did get one pic but it was after the rain has smashed a bunch and hurt the brightness leaving soggy old DULL flowers a few days later......just part of the cycle though. Luckily I see loads of new buds coming in so I should get a rebloom of sorts.....hopefully. These guys must be in the 4-5ft height range now. You can't see it because of the bloom overflow, but I did put more mulch and widened it too, to help with weeds and looking better. Tempted to get rid of the old flowers by hand but that would be kinda hard in spots and take hours. I also know birds are nesting in it so I don't care to disturb them over some new flowers. I like to respect nature and give it its space. Ill try to find better pics or take some new ones on th reflower. ------------ A few pics from 2014 i found.
