Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Front Hybrid Tea Garden

This garden of classic Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses is in our front yard.  I designed it in the fashion of rose gardens in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with roses planted close together in beds that are cut into the turf.  Until last week, it looked absolutely horrible ... overgrown, neglected roses, choked with weeds.  Since I'm riding this wave of motivation, this garden was the next one in my sights.

It looked like this while I was creating it in 2008. 

 
 
Spring 2009 was glorious.
 
 
 
My energy has been elsewhere for the most part in the years since then, and the weeds moved in.  You don't notice them so much while the roses are blooming ...
 
 
 
... or when a lovely fog moves in.
 
 
 
I don't have graphic, ugly "Before" photos of the weeds as they were before my friend Robert and I got to work on them last Thursday morning.  Trust me, it was a horrible situation.  It took the two of us most of the day, but we succeeded in getting three of the four beds in this garden cleared out.
 
 
 
It is now up to me to finish the job.  I raked the beds and applied Preen, to prevent the latent weed seeds in the soil from germinating.  (I can barely imagine how many seeds must be in this soil.  Crabgrass, Wild Violets, Poke Weed, etc., sprout almost immediately in any bare patches of ground.)  Landscape fabric was the next step.
 
 
 
By the end of the day yesterday, I had one whole bed mulched and completely finished and another bed was covered in landscape fabric and ready for mulch.
 
 
 
My goal for today is to try to get the rest of this load of mulch out of the back of my truck.  There is not enough in there for me to finish the second bed ... that's okay, I will get more mulch this weekend.  (For now, I need an empty truck so I can make a run to Lowes to get some materials to have on hand to can work on the Shack when I get the opportunity.)
 
Fighting the war, one weed at a time.  It feels good to be making progress ... keeps my energy up to continue with the battle.
 

20 comments:

  1. I can imagine with all the rain you've had this year, the weeds must be in their glory. Good job!

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  2. Oh gosh... I hear you on the weeds. I have given up on our rock driveway with all the weeds that have popped through. Can't wait to just pave over the whole darn thing!

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  3. It's looking good. Congrats on your accomplishment! If you haven't had your fill of weeds I have a lot you can play with in my beds!

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  4. You amaze me with all your beautiful projects and energy!!!... the weeds are really awful, aren't they? I won't show pics of our veg garden this year, we gave up. Still producing though.

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  5. Everything looks great! Well done! Now, I'm trying to imagine how you got that landscape fabric in there so perfectly cut around each bush?

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  6. This has to be one of my favorite posts ever...I have been working on a huge rose garden all year...close to 100 roses...and I had lost my mind..I was so glad to see what others had done...thanks so much...

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  7. Janie, I would love to send you a personal reply, but you come up as a no-comment blogger because your Google+ account is connected to your blog. You should disconnect that.

    Anyway, there are 80 roses in this garden ... all planted at the same time. They are all classic HTs and Floribundas, most dating before 1945 and all on their own roots. The post where I detailed how this garden came to be is here:
    http://www.hartwoodroses.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-i-make-my-rose-beds.html

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  8. wow.. it looks great! I have 30 new roses going in this year and can't wait for them to flower. I might have to establish some garden beds like yours to accomodate more! take care, Maryann

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  9. You have too much energy Connie. I need your secret.

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  10. I'm at war with weeds here, too. Living in the country with open fields lets the wind carry every weed seed (it seems) to my yard. Your beds are looking so neat and tidy. Wish I had a pickup for hauling things around!♥♫

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  11. Whew - I am just sweating thinking about all that work you did/are doing. Your cleaned up beds look marvelous. You brought them back to beautiful! xo Diana

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  12. I'm sure it feels so good to see it all coming together. It is really looking good!

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  13. I love your garden posts, you're inspiring me to do some weeding of my own this weekend!!

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  14. Ugh! I hate weeding, but I hate looking at weeds even more! I try to weed a few minutes everyday so I don't have to weed for long periods of time. My new home in KY had bed full of weeds, including poison oak and ivy wound through the boxwoods and azaleas... Not fun! Your borders look great again and I'm sure all of this attention will pay of in the spring!

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  15. Looking good! I often wonder why people on the blogs I visit spend so much time weeding. Glad to see you putting down the fabric and mulch. I do that in all my beds and spend NO time weeding! I have better things to do! Also a believer in water systems on a timer so I spend very little time at that too. Love the roses and all your other projects!

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  16. Wow, that was a big undertaking! The freshened up beds look great! I hope the landscape fabric and mulch does the trick and you'll be able to enjoy the blooms not the weeds! I have landscape fabric under my mulch and it really helps. Only the edges where the landscape fabric ends are where weeds show up the most, but even then it's not much.

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  17. Connie, You inspire me with how much you get done. Got to go get something done now!

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  18. I just love the design of this bed. I wanted to thank you for motiving me! Just looking at the photo of your newly mulched bed makes me want to go out and keep working on mine! :)

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