Rose Field Plan and Progress

My husband and I were out again over the weekend, working on more of the Rose Field.  I searched out, dug up, and potted more roses ... he bushhogged the places I told him to.  The garden still looks awful, but I can see that this latest plan to fix it may actually be getting us somewhere.

What looked like this last time I posted about it ...

Looks like this now.  We cleared a new area equivalent to two more rows behind the first cleared area, and bushhogged some of the paths to gain easier access for moving or clearing the roses beside them.

Here is what I'm hoping to do.  New planting beds will be twelve feet wide with four foot paths between them.  This garden used to have twice as many five foot beds with three foot paths.  These beds should be better for growing and maintaining the roses ... and there will be half the number of paths to maintain ... win win.  (Does this make sense?)

Photoshop image that shows the new layout.

Next step is to lay landscape ground cloth for the underlayment of the new paths.  (Don't know yet what material we will use on top of the underlayment for the paths themselves ... needs to be something that will compact and be comfortable under foot.)

We are making progress!  It's going to be a lot of work, and a slow go, but I can see that this plan may actually work.  Just gotta keep at it.