I don't till, I just top-dress by putting grounds, manure, compost on top of the soil, and let the soil food web take care of everything.

I never till either. Any thing I lay down is just on the surface and has to work it's own way in.

Same here.

Same here. Earthworms come to the surface at night, eat up the organic material laying on the surface, then retreat down into the ground and excrete a processed substance that plant roots can use. It just can't get any easier than that.

The best thing you can do is try and shade the roots. Put on layers of mulch and then go get rock or branches or even scrap lumber cut up to put on the top. Anything to hold the moisture in and keep the sun from drying the soil out.

If you watch the Back to Eden film that is around (an easy search turns it up) there is a man who gardens this way named Paul Gautschi. His point of view is religious but his soil shows how conventional tilling only makes hard earth and weeds. Mulching is the way to go and the water is retained. He has chickens so that is what he uses to feed his plants along with compost. I just throw my scraps down and cover them with free horse manure and then mulch. You will also have fewer weeds and injury to feeder roots if you don't use the spade or hoe around the roses.

This post was edited by kittymoonbeam on Thu, Jan 9, 14 at 21:22

Thank you so much, everyone! I had no idea so many people grew roses this way! I think you've answered my questionâ¦..My only problem with mulch (I use redwood bark) is that I have to move it aside to put anything down--right?

When I used to mulch, I put the manure on top of the mulch and then another layer of mulch. Now I get manure that is about 50 percent wood shavings, and I use that as my mulch. I'm happy with the way it looks straight from the stalls.

bebba, that's one of the reasons I don't use bark mulch any more. Whatever I have left is under the leaves that I use now. The idea is for the roses and companion plants to be close enough to each other that you don't really notice what's underneath. When there are blooms the eye naturally gravitates upward anyway. The leaves and other things, like rose clippings when I prune which I also leave under the roses, except for the thick branches, all take on the same grayish-beige tones which just sort of blend in. I don't like a "manicured" look to my garden beds so it all works quite well.

Ingrid