Rosa 'Peace':
One area of a garden can look great for a while--years--but then suddenly decline. Does that mean the original planting scheme was a failure? Should a particular scheme be deemed successful only if it endures for decades? Surely not.
Not enduring for decades:
For the normal human, the idea of never having to change anything in the garden is ideal. For the rabid gardener, it is a disaster. Nothing to do in the garden but enjoy it? Oh, the horror! Time for a rework in the area by the driveway. I've been intending to get rid of the sad rabbit-plagued grass there for at least three years. Even after a winter of lavish rainfall and coyotes to control the rabbit population, the grass still looks awful.
Ewwww:
Not only because of the slope does that grass require a heavy dose of water--because of the rabbits constantly eating it to the ground, it can never really thrive without a level of attention and rodent control I am unwilling to provide. Now that the standard rose has begun to seriously decline, I am motivated to begin.
The Helichrysum 'Silver Icicles' looked good for a long time, and still looks nice--silver! Me love silver! However, it has formed a thatch of dead material that appears to have cut off water to the rose standard. I removed it all to see if the standard can be returned to its former spectacular beauty via water.
Sod is sold in this area with a plastic net backing. Great to keep it together at installation time, but ten years later, that netting is all still in the ground, waiting to be tediously pulled out:
Right after digging up the last of the grass, I realized I didn't miss it already.
Not one little bit.
These roses deserve something better than half dead, rabbit-eaten grass at their feet:
Try scraping a lot of grass off a slope. Ouch! I'm hurting now. Tomorrow the re-work will continue.
One area of a garden can look great for a while--years--but then suddenly decline. Does that mean the original planting scheme was a failure? Should a particular scheme be deemed successful only if it endures for decades? Surely not.
Not enduring for decades:
For the normal human, the idea of never having to change anything in the garden is ideal. For the rabid gardener, it is a disaster. Nothing to do in the garden but enjoy it? Oh, the horror! Time for a rework in the area by the driveway. I've been intending to get rid of the sad rabbit-plagued grass there for at least three years. Even after a winter of lavish rainfall and coyotes to control the rabbit population, the grass still looks awful.
Ewwww:
Not only because of the slope does that grass require a heavy dose of water--because of the rabbits constantly eating it to the ground, it can never really thrive without a level of attention and rodent control I am unwilling to provide. Now that the standard rose has begun to seriously decline, I am motivated to begin.
The Helichrysum 'Silver Icicles' looked good for a long time, and still looks nice--silver! Me love silver! However, it has formed a thatch of dead material that appears to have cut off water to the rose standard. I removed it all to see if the standard can be returned to its former spectacular beauty via water.
Sod is sold in this area with a plastic net backing. Great to keep it together at installation time, but ten years later, that netting is all still in the ground, waiting to be tediously pulled out:
Right after digging up the last of the grass, I realized I didn't miss it already.
Not one little bit.
These roses deserve something better than half dead, rabbit-eaten grass at their feet:
Try scraping a lot of grass off a slope. Ouch! I'm hurting now. Tomorrow the re-work will continue.
Brav-o! I can already see some mass of one or two plants that serve as a base that allows those roses to get the attention they deserve...
ReplyDeleteYesterday as I worked planting things in the front garden I thought about the day 5 years ago when we completed the planting design and I declared the front garden "done"...not quite. Since then I've removed and reworked countless times. Partly due to mother nature and partly because I got tired of something. So...I know what you mean! And your area of focus looks so much better without the grass. That silver Helichrysum was a looker though...
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt, rip it out.And never regret lawn eradication.Never. And that stupid netting, I'm still unearthing it after 5 years of lawn-be-gon.
ReplyDeleteHi hoovb, popped over here from gardenweb. Lovely blog! Really enjoying the pics.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, in the last pic, that is Peace in the middle, yes? What are the roses planted in the background and the foreground of it?
My peace never looks like that... it's almost always solid cream, and sometimes has a faint edge of pink.
Geetha, good eye, that is indeed 'Peace'. The pink in front is 'Belinda's Dream', and the red-yellow striped is 'George Burns'.
ReplyDelete