THE WAR OF THE ROSES

THE WAR OF THE ROSES:

Roses are red, Violets are Blue beyond that, I haven't a clue!

Just when I thought the construction on the house was coming to a halt, we turned our attention (and our heads) just north of the scaffolding, to the back yard. There it sat. Ignored. Neglected. Like a latchkey kid waiting desperately for attention, our yard, specifically the rose garden, was in dire need of a little TLC (TOTAL LAWN CONTROL!!). My vote was to dig it up and put a pond or, better yet, a pool in its place. Joe decided that might take longer than the two days we'd allotted to work on it. So, we dug in to "dead head" the roses and prepare them for the next bloom. So, here's what we did...Who knew?

1.) This might seem obvious but you MUST have a strong pair of gardening gloves for this chore. We're still picking rose thorns out of our fingers!

2.) We used hand trimmers to cut the rose stems to the base where the initial growth started (basically it will wind up looking like a bad haircut at first)

3.) Joe...God love him...has every tool imaginable. If you don't have a chipper shredder..and I'm still not sure why we have one...purchase a bag of mulch from your local Home Improvement store. We, however, ground up the clippings in the chipper shredder (I'm sure our neighbors think we're nuts!)

4.) After weeding the area around the base of the rose bushes, we placed newspaper in the beds (apparently this is biodegradable, keeps weeds from popping up and forms a nice base for the mulch). Again, who knew? Our puppies helped a bit with this step.

5.) After spreading the newspaper we placed the mulch on top of it and, according to Joe, in a few weeks we'll have gorgeous roses without tedious weeds!

TIME TO COMPLETE PROJECT: 4 Hours

COST: $0

STRESS LEVEL: LOW