by Bill George
ROSE GARDENS AREN'T BUILT IN A DAY
I've just spent the last two days of my weekend working on winterizing the roses. All 150 of them! That means burying them in compost, erecting a wind barrier and filling the beds with oak leaves. I feel like I've been run over by a Mack truck and then the trucker backed up again just to make sure the job was done right. I hurt in places I didn;'t even know existed in my body. Yeah, I know, so I'm a little out of shape. Thats what happens when you've passed the half century mark.
Well anyways, while I was mucking around in the garden, I got to admiring the quality of soil I have. It was loose, black, light and pretty, unlike what I started with three years ago. Then, it was about 3 inches of top soil below the sod and the rest was sand. Not a very pretty sight for growing roses.
Fertile soil for a garden takes time to develop. To get that light granulated texture to the dirt, you have to keep adding organic material and let Mother Nature work her wonders. Ever heard the expression , "Rome wasn't built in a day"? Actually, the original addage was more like, "Rose gardens aren't built in a day", but then one of those Romans came along and changed it to fit his needs.
Now is the perfect time to add some organics to either an existing garden or a new garden area you're planning to plant next Spring. If added to your garden now, it has all winter to freeze, thaw and breakdown into plant food your roses are going to love come Springtime. Even if the ground is frozen by the time you get this article, you can still apply organic material as a top dressing. When I refer to "organic material", I mean grass clippings, manure, alfalfa, compost or whatever plant material you have that will rot. The only reason I have not mentioned leaves here is because in an established garden, the wrong leaves can create problems. Leaves from the maple tree will retain water while they are breaking down creating a slimey mess. These are best left to the compost bin or a new unplanted garden where they will not cause damage to any plants. On the other hand oak leaves in the garden will shed water, stay crispy and act as an insulation for your ground cover and plants. A word of caution here. If you're planning on burying your garden in oak leaves you might want to include water proof mouse poison in the garden area to prevent them little varmints from setting up house and feeding on your rose roots through the winter.
Garden soil can be compared to the foundation of a house you might build. You can have the grandest expectations for the structure, but without a good foundation, your house will be worth little. And so it is with a garden. You want to have the best foundation possible in which to grow your roses. This requires you to add organic matter to the soil whenever possible and if it can be applied in the Fall, all the better!
One of my favorite soil additives is horse manure (sometimes referred to by the locals as "Michigan road apples"). Part of the reason I like to use it so much is because of availability out here in South Lyon. Did you know that most horse farms or stables have to pay to dispose of their manure unlike cattle farmers who can sell their by products? So when a rose grower like me shows up on the door step of some stable asking for manure, the owners are usually all smiles. If you are a westsider, take a ride out Seven Mile Rd. past Northville and you will see numerous horse farms. Our local papers, The South Lyon Herald and The Ann Arbor News usually have a few ads for free horse manure. Key in on that word, "free". What makes some of them even better is if they can load your truck or trailer with an end loader for ya. This can cut your labor by better than 50%. When it comes to manure its usually much easier to unload than load. Take it from someone who has loaded a trailer with a pitch fork more than a few times.
If you're going to cut in a new section of garden this Fall, you can add fresh manure to it providing you are not going to plant it `til next Spring. Fresh manure can burn roots and damage plants if not allowed to cool down or compost first. Spending a winter in an empty garden is just the ticket for allowing manure to cool off.
There is also the issue of odors. Personally, I like the smell of a barn or barnyard, but for those of you who might be a little more timid about this matter, one winter will take care of that problem. Remember that these horse farms are either using straw or wood shavings for stable bedding, so the smells are mixed with a number of elements. If odor is a concern, I strongly recommend you stay away from chicken or pig manure, which can be VERY acute!
There are few concerns to be addressed when using manures. You're going to want to let it age before introducing it to your plants. The smell from this material is minimal so I don't think you'll offend any of your neighbors. In the end you're going to have a soil that will be the envy of any gardener. It will be loose, light and granulated, which is what the roses love.
And on a final note, for you avid golfers out there. On those especially cold sub-freezing days when you just can't get out to the links, you might want to try teeing up one of those "road apples" and see just how far it will go with a little coaxing from a 2 wood.
Good Luck and don't forget to yell FORE