What's Happening Back in the English Garden?

Last time I showed you the English Garden back by our barn, it was April and I had just finished ridding it of weeds, pruning winter damaged canes from the roses, and putting down landscape fabric and a thick layer of mulch.  As time has passed since then, I have kept up with the few weeds that sprouted (mostly evil Nutsedge, which can use its little needle-like tip to sprout right through landscape fabric) and I am keeping to my twice-monthly schedule of spraying fungicide.  With few weeds and little blackspot, the roses, and the garden in general, look really, really good.

This post is full of links.  Highlighted text will take you to either a Help Me Find page with info and photos of a rose or to one of my former posts.

A few of my smaller roses in this garden were killed by the winter wind and cold temperatures.  These are roses that were already struggling as we went into winter, without the root mass like the larger, stronger roses had to store energy and from which to sprout back in the spring ... I'm not surprised that these didn't survive.  Earlier this week, I sifted through my Pot Ghetto, to find likely candidates to fill the spaces.

This garden was designed to contain my collection of David Austin roses, most of which are fairly rare and not easily available.  I have no Austins left in pots (which is a good thing), so I decided to mix in some Noisettes.  There were seven Noisettes in the Pot Ghetto, and only four dead roses in this garden ... with a little bit of rearranging, I made them all fit.

The roses in the photo above are:
1.  "Frazer's Pink Musk"
2.  "Joyce's Unknown Noisette"
3.  unknown Noisette, faded tag
4.  Yellow Seedling, cut back and transplanted from the Rose Field last week 
5.  'Lilian Austin', existing.
6.  Damson tree, replacing the pomegranate that died over the winter.

I moved 'Abraham Darby' from his former location in front of #2 and #3, above, to a spot across the aisle that was vacated last year when 'Sweet Juliet' failed to survive her transplant from a friend's garden.

Here is a view from the other direction:
1.  "Mine Road Noisette"
2.  'The Squire', existing, which is very prone to blackspot and has never before had leaves like this in July.
3.  another mystery Noisette who lost its tag.
4.  "Hollywood Pink Cluster"
5.  'Wildeve', existing.
6.  unknown Noisette, also shown in the first photo.
7.  "Joyce's Unknown Noisette"
8.  "Frazer's Pink Musk"
9.  "Moulton Noisette"
10.  'Morning Mist' which was the subject of THIS post about the severe damage that occurred in this garden last winter.

I moved 'Pretty Jessica', which was a small rose in a large spot, and planted "Moulton Noisette" there instead.

It was a LONG morning's worth of work, but what a great accomplishment!  Moved two roses, planted seven new ones, and this garden is coming along beautifully.  It looks a bit threadbare right now, since the new roses are so small and most of the existing ones are awkward and weird as they recover from last winter.

Speaking of planting:  Most folks are under the impression that we should only plant roses in the spring ... not so, my friends.  I plant potted roses any time during the year that the soil is workable (meaning not frozen or waterlogged).  As long as you have the time to keep an eye on the new ones and make sure that they are kept watered, go ahead and buy those roses and plant them!  (summer and fall are great for sales, too)

In case you didn't see them, or need a reminder, these posts from April will show you what I did to whip this garden back into shape:
Part One
Part Two
The Finale

Catching Up on the Week That Was

It's been a really good, very productive week in Hartwood.  Settle in and I will tell you about it.

Monday.  This was our first day of sunshine since the middle of the week before ... five straight days of rainy gloomy weather.  Monday morning, I was sitting on the sofa, working on my laptop with Dorothy snuggled beside me as usual.  All of the sudden, a sunbeam came through the window behind us, and it startled us both ... the unfamiliar object that it was.  I am so glad that I had my iPad on hand to capture Dorothy's reaction.

Tuesday.  With an end to the rain, it was a good day to set the trap to see if I could nab the groundhog that had taken up residence underneath our pavilion.  This was a wary one ... not so wary as to resist the lure of my best bait, APPLE.  Within two hours after I set the trap, I was victorious!!  (yes, Folks, this is a war ... with winners and losers.)  I can't get to the hole under the pavilion to fill it in with dirt, so I've been lobbing rocks and chunks of concrete into it to make it unsuitable for another groundhog to come in and take up residence.

If you're keeping score, this is Groundhog #9.

Wednesday.  All the rain made for perfect weed-pulling conditions.  I spent a good part of the day on Wednesday (and Tuesday) sitting on the seat of my pants pulling bushels of weeds in my garden of English roses.  It was tough, physical work, but the results are keeping me optimistic ... perhaps I really CAN conquer the weeds at this place.  (there we go again, with the winners and losers analogy.)  This photo is what the garden looked like before I removed any of the weeds.  I will show you some comprehensive After photos soon, I hope.

Thursday.  It was another nice day, and I worked outside ... big surprise, huh?  My hands and shoulders were sore from pulling weeds, so I worked to continue to tidy the place up a bit in preparation for my Garden Social tomorrow.  The Rose Field is still on the brink of ruin, but everything else is coming along very, very nicely.  In the midst of all the work, I always take some time to appreciate the beauty that is around me ... like this flower on 'Kathleen'.  This rose blooms mostly in the spring, so fall flowers are not to be expected, but she puts out a killer crop of beautiful orange hips that practically glow in the sunlight.

Today.  I have a few final preparations for tomorrow's party.  Most of these things need to be done anyway ... moving potted roses to a single location, clearing the driveway beside the house of the accumulated crap, wiping down yard furniture, a trip to the grocery store, etc.  I like having the motivation of invited guests to keep the process moving. 

I haven't decided what I will wear for the party, but I do know that I will certainly wear my new boots.  They were a to-me-from-me present for my birthday two weeks ago, found at Class and Trash (one of my very favorite stores!).  As far as I can tell, they were probably custom made for someone, because there is no label or size info on them anywhere, and they are superbly well made.  (The only marking on them at all is a molded name of the company that made the heel.)  These babies are so comfortable, and I love them!!!

Photo taken earlier this week, as I sat on the back porch with Ruby and a cold, long-necked beverage.

Now it's your turn ... how has your week been? 

A Random Sort of Weekend

Like most weekends around here, this one was full of random things that aren't very interesting by themselves.  When gathered together like this, I think you can see that it makes for a really fun few days.

On Friday, I had lunch and went shopping with a friend.  I'm on the hunt for a cardigan sweater -- one I can wear with practically everything and use instead of a jacket.  Sweaters are super hot right now, so you would think that finding one I like would be easy ... WRONG!  Everything is too trendy and we didn't find a single one that I wanted to take home.  I did find these babies, though ...

Leopard/Rose print rubber cowboy boots ... the only pair in the store ... on the clearance shelf ... $20!  I'm not sure there's any way to make me much happier for $20.  I wore them to dinner on Friday, and all day yesterday.  Aren't they great with jeans?

One day, I'll get the nerve to wear my jeans tucked into the boots.  For now, having them peeking out at the bottom is perfect!

Let's go from beautiful boots to something that is perfectly hideous.  This was what I saw while I was sitting in the drive-through at McDonalds ( medium Caramel Mocha, please).  As if red or black dyed mulch isn't bad enough ... now they have ORANGE.  The contrast between the sickeningly orange mulch and the yellow-toned shrubs was more than I could stand.  Who thinks this is stuff up?

The herbicide that I sprayed on the area that will become my Labyrinth Garden is doing its thing.  The grass and weeds in that area are looking pretty sickly.  I should be able to lay paths and edging later this week.  I may spray another coat on the areas that will become the rose beds ... just to be sure everything is dead.

The same day I sprayed the Labyrinth, I also sprayed the edge of my English Rose Garden ... being especially careful to keep the chemical well away from the roses themselves.

Weeds are still a bit of a problem, though some of them are lovely, and we really ARE making progress in eliminating them.  How can I get too upset by these white asters (though they are huge and everywhere) when the flowers are so irresistable to butterflies?  At one point while I was standing there watching them, there were FOUR Monarch butterflies on this one weed at the same time!

We had a Greyhounds Rock meeting this weekend.  Our "Take a Bite Out of Canine Cancer" event is four weeks away, and there are a thousand details still to be dealt with.  (and there's still time to register to attend.)

Taylor and Quinn are standing at the door, watching the neighborhood children play in the cul-de-sac.

I'm so glad that so many of you enjoyed my series about my visit to Hollywood Cemetery last week.  I had no idea that it would take four posts to show you my one afternoon's worth of sights.  If you missed any of the posts, here is a list of links:

Carved in Stone (cemetery monuments and sculptures)

Rockin' the Red Roses

In the Pink, and Yellow, and White

The Circle of Life

Playing With My New Game Camera -- Day 1

A few months ago, Kathleen at 'House Things I Like' featured a video on her blog of critters in her backyard that she took with a game camera.  I had never heard of such a thing.  (There's no link to Kathleen's blog because she's on a blog break right now ... she's promised me that she will be back, tho.)  With our deer issues, I knew I had to get one of these!  The idea of being able to 'spy' on the activity at the back of our property was irresistable.

I bought the camera on Wednesday afternoon, certain that I would set it up and have it doing its thing right away ... not.  The camera is easy to set up and use, but the SD card I had on hand was incompatible, which meant another trip to the store on Thursday.  Yesterday afternoon, with a new SD card installed, I took the camera out to the Austin Garden and mounted it on the little building there.  The camera has a motion sensor, and it takes photos whenever it senses movement.

Let's see what we got.

It's a good view of the garden ... and the crabgrass.  Don't worry about the crabgrass, I sprayed it with Ornamec the other day and it's already starting to die.  Ornamec is a selective herbicide that only kills grass, not broadleaf weeds, or roses, so I figured I should pull out the Nutsedge and Poke Weed while I was there ... since the ground is damp from the previous day's storm and the weeds are easy to pull.

That's a really nice flower on 'Belle Story'.  I wonder if I can get a decent photo of it with my point-and-shoot?

This flower from 'Sister Elizabeth' sure smells good.

After I walked away and went back to the house, not a single thing moved or was photographed last night.  In a little while, I will trudge back to the barn to put the SD card back into the camera ... and hope for some action out there tonight.  As soon as I capture something interesting, I will let you know.  (Kathleen has also used her camera to 'nanny cam' her dogs in the house while she's away.  I fully intend to do this to see which one of our dogs plays with throw pillows at night.)

In the meantime, here is the photo I took of 'Belle Story'

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Experimenting With Deer Fencing

Up until this year, I have had no problem letting the deer browse a bit in the rose garden as they roam through the property in the wee hours of the morning or evening.  I have plenty of roses, and a little nip here or there didn't hurt them a bit.  This year, however, the deer seem to be spending more time munching and less time traveling.  Many of my smaller roses have had a tough time keeping any of their new growth.

A photo from earlier this year.  Imagine what this rose COULD have been, if the deer hadn't gnawed off all the buds like they did.

The Austin Garden is in a particularly difficult spot ... in a direct line, midway between the grape vines at the winery (deer love grapes as much as people do) and my other neighbor's pond.  The deer have been nipping the taller new growth all season long.  I have to do something.

Folks have suggested that I use a deer repellant chemical.  I bought Liquid Fence last year (or was it the year before?) because this one seems to be rated the best.  The stuff REEKS, which is why it repels the deer ... and it also is quite effective at repelling people.  I thought it was stupid to try to protect my sweet-smelling roses by making them stink.   (Plus, the stuff is expensive, the deer can become accustomed to it, and it gummed up my sprayer.)

There are other chemical/scent/barrier ideas that I have heard about.  I decided against using bars of deodorant soap, or human hair, or rotten eggs, or tiger dung (where do they come up with this stuff).  I could try to fence them out, but a traditional deer fence is at least 8 feet high, and must enclose the area to be protected.  This would be expensive and completely impractical on our open property.

A visitor and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago  (Hi, Donna!)  She had a suggestion that I AM going to try, which was given to her by the owner of the fabulous garden at Mount Sharon, who swears by its effectiveness.  This is enough of an endorsement for me.

I bought an armload of 4-foot fiberglass plant stakes at Big Lots.  They are a lovely,color-of-grass, unobtrusive green, and they only cost 70 cents each.  (Tractor Supply has similar stakes in pale grey for $1.09.)  I hammered the stakes into the ground at four-foot intervals around the perimeter of the Austin Garden.

Remember, you're supposed to be concentrating on the fence ... not the weeds.

Donna told me to loosely attach two strands of fishing line between the stakes -- one at the top of the stake and one near the middle.  She said that this is enough of a barrier to aggravate the deer, and they'll move on.  I used small zip ties to keep the fishing line in place.

Working by myself, it only took a little over an hour for me to do the whole garden.  The green stakes blend nicely with the grass, and the fishing line is all but invisible.

Since this fence can't have a true gate, I left an access point by overlapping two layers of the fence across the path and I can zig-zag into the garden through this opening ... if that makes sense.

My next challenge, if this experiment in the Austin Garden is successful, is trying to figure out how to use fencing like this to help protect the Rose Field.  This will be a LOT more complicated.

(edited to add:  Donna just emailed me and told me that I have to tighten up my fishing line.  I guess I know what I'll be outside doing later this morning.)