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| It's looking like maybe around here there is going to be more drought and dry weather for a while.
I'm thinking that for a successful garden, planning may be a good idea. So, I'm locating most of my roses in one quadrant or so of my property. The tiny back yard will be xeriscaped. The front right quadrant is mostly grass and it won't break my heart if it dies in a drought. From what I understand, unless in the direst circumstance, even if one is under a watering restriction one can always use bath water. By now you are probably thinking I'm some kind of nutcase for talking about a crisis that has not even materialized yet, but I'm putting the roses in and it seems as if they are all located in the same general area and there may be only so much watering I can do, that they will do better that way. One part of the hedge and the yet to be planted mailbox area are the only roses outside the quadrant.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| I think you're being very wise, especially since more drought and less water are a foregone conclusion as we speak. I would like to suggest, though, that you also add some non-rose companion plants to avoid boredom. Roses by themselves, especially the modern ones, are not necessarily all that beautiful or interesting. Adding some day lilies, everblooming irises (I have several blooming right now) and other easy-care plants can really add to the beauty of a rose garden. |
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| I agree, and it's already planned. In my thread about hedges and RRD (yeah, not only drought but disease it looks like we got to worry about) I decided to plant roses in clusters, so the hedge for example is 2 roses, then something else, 1, then something else, and so on. Have around 20 day lilies in the ground already. |
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| Lucille, I'm with Ingrid. You are being wise. And every prediction I read tells me that we must all be equally wise. Take advantage of grade changes, and catch-barrels, and laundry water, and shower water, and anything else of the sort available to you. Pioneer women did it, in order to have the joy of roses, and so can we. Jeri |
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| Fortunately, roses, once established, can tolerate dry weather pretty well. So do a lot of the Mediterranean herbs, including lavender and may of the agastache, and they make great companion plants to roses. High Country Gardens (website same name) carries lots of xeriscapic plants and even if you don't buy from them it is worth looking at their catalog. |
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| Because of my soil, many of my roses are in containers. I asked a friend of mine the other day, who stole October? where had it gone? Then she pointed out that because of the continuing drought, that I had spent about a month more doing nothing but watering. True to form, yesterday, before we went for Thanksgiving dinner, I spent the day watering again (the soil is also bone dry now). A friend of mine in Kansas is closing her plant nursery because of the drought. The stock animals and the wild animals are in bad shape. So what does my DH choose to show last night after dinner. A taped recording of Ken Burns the "Dust bowl"....... The drought will end one day, but until then do what you can to save the plants. I was told once that droughts go in groups of 3 years, 7 years and 10 years. Let's hope it's the 3 year cycle this time.....Maryl |
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| If I knew how to use my camera properly, I'd post some pics of my roses growing in the same beds with lavender & cacti. I plant the roses deep in improved soil & heavily mulch. The cacti, lavender & artemisa grow in the surrounding unimproved caliche & gravel. Looks cool. |
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