Friday Flowers: Changes in the Arcade Garden

Toward the middle of our property, we built a large structure that I call The Arcade (because it has arches).  This serves as a place for climbing roses along the 'path' to the Rose Field and English Garden beyond. 

Like the majority of my gardens now, The Arcade is suffering from lots of weeds and very little mulch.  Storms we had on Sunday made the soil perfect for pulling weeds and, while I was in a holding pattern for the plumbing consultation for The Shack on Wednesday ... I spent Monday and Tuesday getting this little garden back into shape.

I say "little" because it holds only ten roses ... not 'little' at all in reality.  The structure is 54 feet long and 10 feet high.  The bed that holds the roses is 7' wide.

Which roses, you ask? 

1.  'Pink Perpetue'

2.  'Rhode Island Red'

3.  'Sombreuil'

4.  'Isabella Skinner'

5.  'Henry Kelsey'

6.  'Swan Lake'

7.  'Parade'

8.  'Pink Pillar'

9.  'White Cap'

10.  'Compassion'

As I was pulling weeds, I decided that now is the perfect time to make some changes I have been thinking about.  First, though, I had to get the weeds out.

For the first couple of years, I was very happy with my rose choices on The Arcade.  Fast forward to 2013, and I think I'm in the mood for a little change.  Six of the ten roses here please me greatly.  There is nothing wrong with the other four, I just had the urge to switch things out ... to plant four different roses in this garden instead.  The roses that I am replacing are:

'Sombreuil'

Before.

 

Cut back for transplanting.

 

 

'Isabella Skinner'

 

Before

 

Cut back for transplanting.

 

 

'Henry Kelsey'

 

Before.

 

The tag is wrong.  I thought this rose was 'Heidelberg' when I planted it, and I never bothered to update the tag.

 

 

'Swan Lake'

 

The pink flowers are from the next rose 'Parade', arching over into Swan Lake's space.

 

Ready to transplant.

 

 

It is a fairly simple process to dig up an established rose.  Cut the rose back to a point where it is safe to work with, dig it up with as large a rootball as you can handle.  There's no artful spring pruning here ... just cut it back and dig it up.  I put these roses into large pots for now.  They should recover and start to grow again soon, and I plan to offer them for sale this fall.

I don't have photos of the flowers on the four new replacement roses yet ... they're too small and haven't flowered yet.  For the record, they are Movement, Pirontina, Orfeo, and Looping.  (each name links to that rose's page on Help Me Find, so you can see what they look like from other people's photos.)

With the weeds removed and new roses planted, it was time for mulch.  In the past, I used thick layers of newspaper under my mulch, but the soil here degrades anything organic like that at an unbelievable pace ... and soon I'm right back where I started, with weeds and nothing to help prevent them.  Landscape fabric under my nursery benches did a super job of smothering weeds for the past two years, so now I'm using it under any mulch that I apply.  I cut large holes in the landscape fabric for the roses, then I cover the holes with newspaper before adding mulch.

It's no surprise that my two day job stretched into an extra day.  By the end of Wednesday, I had made great progress.  All that's left to do now is to cut back 'Pink Pillar', 'Parade', and 'White Cap' so I can lay fabric and put mulch underneath them.  Can't do that right now, though, because there's a bird nest in 'White Cap' and I don't want to disturb it.

Accomplishments like this serve to fuel my motivation, and I'm all energized to keep at it and see how much of this place I can whip into shape.  Not resting on my success with The Arcade, on Thursday I attacked the roses and weeds in the Hybrid Tea Garden in the front yard (with the generous assistance of my friend Robert).  Weeds there are gone, Preen is applied to prevent any new sprouts, and the first two rows of landscape fabric are down.  Today, it is raining ... which forces me to stay in the house and take a day off from outside work ... but it loosens more weeds, so I get right back at it tomorrow.  (This is really therapeutic!)

What are you planning to do this weekend?

Warning: This Post is All Over the Place

Sitting here trying to make sense of all of the photos I have taken recently, and it can't be done.  I'm rarely without access to something that I can use to take a picture (two cameras, my phone, or my iPad), and I have been known to take dozens of seemingly-random photos on a given day. 

Can't make these weave a cohesive theme, except that this is all stuff that I saw over the past couple of days.  There's a lot of stuff here for you to see this morning ... you may want to refill your coffee cup before you get started.

The weather has been cloudy and cooler than normal for the past two days.  Two thunderstorms on Thursday night dropped a lot of rain ... after which the sky was a beautiful shade of pink.

All that rain made the soil very receptive to weed pulling ... which is what I did all day on Friday.  My Rose Field is horrible (I'm not overstating the situation by using the word "horrible"), and I am beginning the process of reclaiming it by starting on the center aisle.  While I worked, I was distracted by dozens of butterflies flying around me ... attracted by the thistles there that are taller than I am.

 

By mid-afternoon, I had cleared my way about halfway down the center aisle.  Where there was once fallen roses and weeds as high as my shoulders, I now had the beginnings of a real live path again.  It's not pretty yet, but it's passable and I'm energized by the progress and will keep at it when I can ... I let this once-beautiful garden get into such a sorry state ... and I'm determined that one day it will be beautiful again.

Now that it's August, there are only a few roses blooming ... most of the garden is in between cycles, and everything is gearing up for the fall flush.  I did find a few roses with photo-worthy flowers on them.  It's important for me to concentrate on whatever I find that's beautiful while I work, so I stay motivated and energized to keep on with the awful job of pulling and cutting all the weeds.  At least the weather was relatively nice, and I really like working outside ... even if it's a nasty job that I'm doing.

'Country Doctor' ... I didn't see the tiny spider on the bud until I was editing the photo.

 

'Renae' on an arch in the Rose Field, blooming despite the sorry conditions.

 

'White Cap' is my BEST climbing rose!

 

 

We caught Groundhog #4 on Friday afternoon.  It was an adult, and he/she went to live with the others at the abandoned house down road.  I didn't bother to bait and reset the traps on Saturday.  While I worked in the Rose Field, The Husband was mowing for most of the day ... so the remaining groundhogs laid low because of all the noise and commotion.  I will be setting them today, though.

 

 

 

 



 

Speaking of The Husband, he is currently working on a portrait of a friend's granddaughter.  Here is the artist at work, putting the finishing touches on the underpainting ... soon to begin adding details and highlights to make this portrait come to life. 

 

 

 

I had to run to Lowes for something on Friday, and I did a bit of window shopping in the tile department while I was there.  I found the most beautiful watery blue glass tile mosaic sheets!  Mind you, I nave no projects here that I can use this on ... thought I'd pass it along in case any of you are looking to add some sparkle and color to one of your projects.

 

 

 

Japanese Beetles are still here, though I think their numbers are dwindling.  It's been a longer Beetle Season than I remember in recent years, hopefully they will be gone in another week or two.  I left them alone this year ... too much other stuff to do to spend precious time knocking beetles into buckets of soapy water.

 

Japanese Beetles on 'Perle d'Or'

 

 

My Hummingbirds are still draining my one-quart feeder every two days.  I could stand at the kitchen window, or by the feeder on the deck, and watch them for hours.  It's amazing how close the little critters let me get, as long as I'm standing still.  Took this photo with my iPad ... I was close enough at the time to almost reach out and touch the feeder.

 

 

 

The pets here are always a source of cute photos.  Dorothy and Alice like lounging on windowsills ... the ones here are 12-inches deep, so there's plenty of room for them to stretch out.  Dorothy's favorite place is her shoebox in the dining room window.  Alice is usually on the cat bed in the family room window ... for this photo, though, she was keeping me company in the sewing room.

 

Dorothy loves her shoebox so much, I don't have the heart to move it.

 

 

Cute cat lounging on a cat pillow ... perfect!

 

 

Today dawned bright and sunny, with a light breeze.  It's a beautiful view out the window, beside me as I'm sitting at the counter in the kitchen. 

 

 

 

Temperature is cool, and it looks like it will be a perfect day to get back to work in the Rose Field.  Having made such good progress out there for the past two days, I'm excited to get back to it and see what else I can accomplish. 

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone ... it's a beautiful one here in Hartwood!