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preparing a rose bed
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Posted by tinahere (My Page) on Fri, Mar 25, 05 at 5:46
| I am about to prepare my first ever rose bed and would like to know if I'm doing the right thing or not, any advise is appreciated. I have awful sand so I have wetta soiled it, put blood and bone over that, watered well, spoiled hay over that and watered again. Tomorrow I will order a load of sheep poo and will alternate that with more hay or straw and blood and bone. This I am hoping will break down enough and be half way reasonable in the way of nutrients for the roses to start off with by the time I buy them and put them in. I realise it will take time for the soil to get to a decent state, but is this ok to start with? |
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RE: preparing a rose bed
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| You are doing the right thing. I live on top of a (small) mountain and the type of soil varies about every ten feet - must have been SOME volcanic activity way back..It can be difficult in the rocky parts,but tackled as you are going to - no problems.. I did just that - killed off the weed with spray, then newspaper, then pea straw, farmyard poo, lawn clippings (a professional mower drops his bagfuls here rather than pay the exhorbitant tip fees)
Then more hay, then more poo, hosed the daylights out of it and waited until it was the month to plant...
I now top up round the roses with chook poo and pea straw, and occasionally, rotted down lawn clippings.
I've seen these raised beds at a TAFE college and wow did things grow in them...
The thing is you have to get the mix quite solid to settle the roses in, so it's important to keep it pretty damps for a while. A bit of stomping helps consolidate.
Roses don't like a lot of air around their feet.
When you have everything blasting along, just keep up the spoiled hay when you need to feed and chuck in the B and B and anything else.
Roses love a good feed.
The bed I planted like this has far too many roses per square inch in it, but hey - no one's complaining and they are all flowering well. |
RE: preparing a rose bed
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| thanks Fran...good to know I'm on the right track...I grew spuds at tafe this way as part of hort course, the teacher wasn't impressed at the beginning, they managed to get the weediest hay I've ever seen and he used to tell everyone else to weed their patch but would tell me to go and slash!! I got the blame for all the weeds there I think...but in the end he was suitably impressed with the amount of spuds and he went on to use the soil in his next gardening class!! I will spread the poo tomorrow and just keep layering it as you say and see how it goes. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Tina |
RE: preparing a rose bed
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If you sweat the hay by wetting it, the weeds will come up, then just turn it over again while they are little.
It's why I liked Pea Straw or lucerne hay, both really good and the seeds i nthem don't worry at all.
Funny we both got the idea at a TAFE college.
the bed mounds they had were fantastic, and everything in the grew flowers and vegiesl ike you would not believe. |
RE: preparing a rose bed
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| The hay is from last year and has sat out in all weather and hopefully done all it's sprouting, the next lot I will wet then cover though. It sounds like you are a very busy person...how do you find time to get out in the garden?? I have been lucky enough to go part time at work and part time at tafe and I still don't have enough hours in the day.... |
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