ROSE RAMBLER 9.10.2014

Hello dear rose friends … are you a little lighter in the pocket after paying the kids to harvest snails, slugs, bugs … even worms got into my transactions – cost me $2.50 until Logan reminded me that we didn’t need any more snails because his lizards eat dog food anyway!!!  Laughed till I cried at that comment!

I so hope your garden looks as beautiful as ours … this is a season to beat all seasons with rose buds on so many early-flowering varieties and MRS. B.R. CANT (tea rose) in full bloom; lush, healthy green in every shade imaginable; blossom on the fruit trees.  How blessed are we to be caretakers of this small piece of paradise?  Very!!!

ROSE IDENTIFICATION LABELS …

Don’t you love to know the names of your roses when you’re showing somebody around your garden?  Many years ago I made great labels for each rose in the gardens at Kilmore by cutting 30cm lengths of conduit, with pop-rivets attaching 30cm lengths of venetian blind horizontally then hand-printing the rose name with oil-based black paint.

They were very durable and lasted well, however, several times our rose labels were returned to the nursery after being removed and tossed around the town so I gave up replacing them. I have often thought to make those again for our gardens here at Clonbinane but after planting a lovely new rose garden last week, I came upon this thought as a very sustainable gardening idea…

All our potted rose labels are now attached to a pink plastic ‘stick’ which is clipped to the side of each pot – great for the roses because the stem where we used to tie the plant label was stressed, the label now sits up from the pot and is nicely visible and looks sensational when you walk through the nursery because you see the labels ‘looking’ at you rather than them flapping wildly in the breeze.  When it’s time for trimming the potted roses, we don’t have to worry about re-attaching labels which was a very laborious chore!

As I was planting my new rose garden,

I unclipped a label from the pot and stuck it in the ground in front of each rose.  Then it occurred to me that Virginia (our assistant who thinks outside the square) did an experiment last year by painting rose labels with marine varnish to see if they would endure weather pressure when tied on the bush – a year later, those labels still look brand new.

Sooooo, in the new rose garden, each rose will be identified by re-using the ‘pink stick’ to which the plant label is attached.  I’ll buy a can of marine varnish and paint each label – durable, sustainable, identifiable … perfect solution to naming the roses in your garden – give it a go and check out the new garden when you visit us in the coming weeks!

GRA’S GARBLE …

been busy building a new shade-house area where I grow all my cuttings and seedlings as well as park my car – had to paint all the timber after I dug the holes for the posts – gawd, the things you do for love!  (I love my car and my seedling cuttings!)

Q.  Why did the man give up tap dancing?  A.  ‘Cause he kept falling down the sink! 

My Grandma used to call the sink the ‘zinc’ with a bit of her Scottish accent and this leads me to talking about the minerals we should be adding to the soil.  One of the simple ways we gardeners can provide a balance of minerals is by throwing MUNASH ROCKDUST around the garden.  Once you throw the ROCKDUST around, put ONE SMALL CAPFUL of MUNASH RENEW sea minerals in a watering can of water and pour that wherever you distributed the ROCKDUST.

We do this program over the potted rose plants in the nursery to keep a good balance of minerals up to the pots … amazing results which prevent the incidence of black-spot and mildew on the roses.  I don’t have any scientific studies to refer to our results – just know there are healthier plants when we apply these products.

If you grow vegetables, please, please use these products to mineralise the soil in your veggie garden because our OLD Australian soils are so deplete of a balance of minerals and we must ingest a good balance of minerals to stay healthy – since you don’t eat your roses, mineralise your veggies first and what product you have remaining, use on the roses and you’ll see amazing results!

DATES WHICH YOU MUST RESERVE …