25 February 2009

Forking The Rose Beds

MY PENNINE WAY PICTURE FOR TODAY
High Force waterfall

Cronkley Farm


TODAYS WEATHER READINGS
Temp Low: 4C
Temp High: 11C
Feels Like: -1 to 7C
Precipitation: 0 mm
Wind Speed: 30 mph
Wind Direction: W
UV Index: Low
Weather: Increasing cloud.

MY WORK BOOK

See to the sheep
Field
Misc
Wed 25/02/2009 08:30
Wed 25/02/2009 08:50
20 minutes
Checked and counted the sheep.

Pruning
Rose garden
Walled Garden
Wed 25/02/2009 08:50
Wed 25/02/2009 10:35
1.75 hours
Finished off pruning the roses in the rose garden.

Break for tea
Home
Misc
Wed 25/02/2009 10:35
Wed 25/02/2009 10:55
20 minutes

Pruning
Rose garden
Walled Garden
Wed 25/02/2009 10:55
Wed 25/02/2009 12:45
110 minutes
Forking over the rose beds fetching and adding manure as I go.

Break for lunch
Home
Misc
Wed 25/02/2009 12:45
Wed 25/02/2009 13:30
45 minutes

Forking
Rose Garden
Walled Garden
Wed 25/02/2009 13:30
Wed 25/02/2009 16:45
3.25 hours
Finished off forking over the rose beds.

Clean and put away the tools
Potting Shed
Wed 25/02/2009 16:45
Wed 25/02/2009 17:00
15 minutes

See to the bins
Hall
Wed 25/02/2009 17:00
Wed 25/02/2009 17:15
15 minutes
Put out 3 black bins from the hall, 1 from Franks and 1 from Pumpend.


COMMENTS FROM THE POTTING SHED
Sara Knowing dogs I think they would either totally ignore it or do something really funny with the sheep. We have one dog that goes mad when she sees another dog on the TV yet the other two dogs don’t take the slightest bit of notice of anything that goes off on the TV.
EB I know y’all going to pull faces now but to be honest I can’t say I like roses very much. They just don’t do anything for me – except make me walk like a cripple. I don’t know the names of the ones growing at work, the ones in the rose garden are HT roses and by the look of them they are quite old. If I had to grow roses myself I would probably go more for the old English type.

5 comments:

Sara said...

Wow - that's a really amazing waterfall!

I'm with you on the roses. I think they are more trouble than they're worth. So many other flowers are just as beautiful, and far more "human friendly".

Jeanette said...

Gday Bob, the rose gardens will look gorgeous (I love roses) once they all come into flower..i see you have pruned them well back,, I have 4 small bush and 6 standard roses I give mine a light prune after flowering and a heavy prune in winter do you think im doing the right thing?I seem to get a lott of flowers..love the pics specially the waterfall...

EB said...

I don't like roses much as individual plants, I like their flowers and I like them as part of a mixed border. Traditional rose beds look like thorny woody skeletons to me in the winter, and still very brittle and one-dimensional in flower. But planted with some cranesbills underneath, maybe some fennel behind... that's more like it! Perhaps they do flower a little less, I don't know, but they still thrive (if you keep up with the weeding...)

The Weaver of Grass said...

Forking rose beds - that makes spring seem near - they are greedy feeders, roses - I agree that they are a lot of work, but I have an Alexander Girault old-fashioned rose growing twenty feet or more along our old calf shed - and when he is in full bloom - wow!

Dreadnought said...

Sara I think the rose borders would look much better planted up with perennials all flowing over the stone walk ways. You could still have some roses in there if you wanted.

EB I wish you were my boss as I’m sure the gardens would be far more interesting. I agree, six months of the year the rose garden is stark and even when in flower it never looks especially tidy and then you have all the usual black spot problems. I’ve seen them under planted with lavender and they look better for it.

Jeanette It sounds to me like you’re doing pretty much the right thing. I give ours a light prune in the summer after flowering. When people dead head roses they tend to go round snipping off each individual flower but I find the best way is to prune back the whole stem at one go about 2 or 3 buds down from the old flower which is sort of giving it a light prune. This is also the way to dead head Dahlia’s too, don’t just snip off the old flower or you end up with a lot of dead stalks.

The Weaver of Grass Spring did seem closer at the beginning of the week but it’s felt quite a bit colder today – the body warmer was back on! I don’t mind climbing roses too much. They aren’t so back breaking and they can look good trained on a wall or even left to ramble up in to a tree.