Saturday fun!

With the beautiful day we had, the yard was calling. I headed out after the girls went down for their naps. My first job was the overgrown "rose garden." It is the back wall on our house with rose bushes and lavender mixed. During late spring through summer it has a lovely smell and look, but I haven't taken as good care as I should have so this is how it looked.



before my "winterizing"



after

This year, I'm experimenting on these back roses. I usually trim the leaves off 18" from the ground to prevent diseases etc. and leaving them mostly intact until spring. However, I have seen many professional gardens (Butchart Gardens, Lakewold Gardens, Mary Bridge Hospital) that pruned their bushes to appx. 18" canes. I had a hard time finding a website that recommended this or even how to do it properly. It may be another great mistake and I'll rue the day, but I'll find out this spring. I am pruning all the rest of my roses the normal way so I'll have some roses even if the ones in back perish.

I will call it ready for winter and insulate the roses with dirt and some leaves when the leaves fall. This did create a lot of weeds that needed disposed of though, so one trick I like to do is to spread them over the dog's part of the yard and then mow over them on mulch. It takes a few passes, but when everything is broken down and spread. Then I'll bag what is left and put that in my compost bin. I like it because there is less for me to carry, but my wife thinks that its just because I'm lazy, not to keep the grass healthy. (She may be right)