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Gardening with Gael - Up the (new) garden path

 

It is time to prune the roses. Information is available in most gardening magazines, books and of course the internet. For pruning roses I have my gardening friend Jan. Very fortunately for me Jan chose this last week to come and stay a few days and help me not only prune my roses, but helped me move them as well.

We do have Barney the possum-hating dog who is doing a great job of keeping the possums away from the roses, but if we are away a wave of them sweeps on to the property and any new shoots are attacked leaving the stems broken and wounded. I must have been muttering one day after such an occasion and Box said “I think I will build that walled rose garden off the east end of the spare room.” Then, a month or so later he said: “I’ve cleared the area for the rose garden and this week I am going to rotary hoe it. You’d better start thinking about how you want it.”

Soon after a friend sent me a picture of a path that looked like a persian carpet but made out of stones. I immediately decided that it would be a good idea to incorporate that into the design as well. We were planning a trip to the South Island in the truck. Perfect, I thought, I’ll gather stones all the way there and back. We had some furniture to pick up in Christchurch, of course stones would fit around it. Box thought it a great idea on the way down but after he had moved the boxes of stones for what he said was the fifth time he was less enchanted.

Now to form the path and the rose beds. What better time for the arrival of Jan with her sharp secateurs and trusty wire brush. After forming the path we were ready to fill the beds. In fact, it took Jan and me all day, scraping and digging the recently rotary hoed clay. During the next few days Jan pruned the roses and I dug them out and planted them. They each received the wire brush treatment. Any lichen was brushed off and, at the point of the graft among the main shoots, Jan gave the area a brisk clean with the wire brush. She says it stimulates the new shoots. She is right. I have seen her give this treatment before and the result was a magnificent display. They were fed some well rotted organic compost and this week I will feed and mulch them.

There is room, I am happy to see, for some more roses. Jan and I indulged ourselves with a trip to the market on Saturday. Ces Adams was there with his van and an excellent specimen of Graham Thomas, one of my favourite Austin roses and an extremely healthy Peace climber.

“Well,” said Box looking at the climber, “I expect you want the wall finished before the Garden Ramble.”

“No,” I replied, fingers crossed behind my back, “not at all.”


Gardeners learn by trowel and error.

- Gardening saying

 
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