Thank you Olga and Connie. Your notes are very encouraging. :) I am looking forward to trying more Albas and Rugosas since they many of them are not worth growing here. I am fine with once bloomers--some of my favorites only bloom once. (Chestnut rose, Swamp rose, Fantin LaTour, Veilchenblau, Lady Banks) It is so hot and humid here, it's hard to imagine that the blackspot could be any worse. ??? Connie, April might be a bit optimistic for me to attend the Arlington presentation, (though I would love to), but I will absolutely be stopping at Hartwood as I cannot possibly take all my roses with me. :) I actually found your site a year or 2 ago while searching for Gothic Revival Houses (My husband and I love that style)on the Internet. You can imagine how wonderful it was when I saw that you grew and sold old-fashioned roses too! :) I am really looking forward to starting a new garden though leaving this one will be hard. Olga, I have so enjoyed your posts on Gardenweb. I am interested in the Kordes roses too--I read where Peter Beales called them "rudely healthy". ;) I was really excited when I realized that you lived in the MD/VA area! Hope we can meet some time when I am moved. Thank you both again. :)

Hi all! Thanks for asking about me Debbie - I have been very busy this summer and have neglected my internet friends! My veggie garden did o.k. but my tomatoes got wilt. They produced all right but looked very ugly. My asparagus beans - a new variety this year - were a waste of space, I won't try them again. My garlic did great, as did things like lettuce, carrots, beets, chard,and beans. We are slowly taking out plants now, cleaning up those raised beds and getting ready to plant garlic for next Spring. My shade garden was competely ignored this year. Because the weather was cool, we never even went back there, sitting on the porches or lawns instead. Our pool was just plain cold, I went in about 6 times, grandson about 3 times (including the one time he fell in head first - he always wears a life jacket inside the pool fence, thank goodness.). Husband was there and kept calm, helped him out, told him he was diving already at only two years old, child went from being frightened to being rather pleased. We are starting swimming lessons this morning! The pool was cold because there were huge trees all around it, so the sun wasn't getting there. I had a tree service take 8 trees down (mostly Manitoba Maple, which often fall down all by themselves!!!)to allow sun on the pool. The tree service chipped them up for me and left it for me to use as mulch, so Mulch Mountain has kept me in shape all summer *LOL*. We both have arthritis in our hips now so we decided we should sell our beautiful home and move to a bungalow. This means that we worked like crazy to get done all of the things that bugged us about this house in the first place *LOL* and then started looking in nearby towns. Found the perfect house, offered, accepted, then someone else bought it out from under us. Found another *almost* perfect house, but the owner refused to negotiate any terms - no flexibility on price, closing date, wanted double down payment, refused a survey - the house has been for sale for 6 months, guess why it hasn't sold!! So we took down our sign, had a glass of wine, and decided to stay a while longer. Meanwhile, I had DS dig out the dead weeping mulberry and planted a Gingko Beloba Pendula instead; took out most of the sad looking flowers from the front (north side) and put beautiful ferns there instead, ripped out the lilies (decimated by red lily beetle) and prepared that bed for daylilies instead, did the Weed Control thing on the lawns, did the Grub Control thing on the lawns, did the Grass Seed thing on the lawns, and mulched, mulched, mulched, so the place looks the best it has in twenty five years. And the pool is in the sun! My side garden has red leaved and green leaved cannas, and giant nicotania that I got on a trade, shasta daisies, purple coneflower, and datura, all blooming now, very crowded but looking very lush, thanks to Frances. (I am near Ottawa too, so last week we got the rain of the century). Havent had to top up the pool all summer - good for the water bills *ha ha*! So all is well. DD is working away, loving her job as a 911 responder and enjoying the Fire Department; DS is driving us nuts, hanging around here with a long face because he isn't working and has no money (duh!); DH at least feels we made an effort to move, which is what he has wanted for a while, and most of the work here is done or is contracted. So I am looking forward to a little consulting work, and some fun with our little one, whithout the nagging feeling that I should be doing something else. That's all, folks. Enough already, too, I bet you're thinking! Cheers!

SC77 said the stuff in italics... Core aeration is not just about compaction. It's about getting oxygen to the roots, plus a priceless opportunity to get compost 3-4 inches down into your soil. It takes a lot more time to get OM down to the root level simply by topdressing a lawn, plus you run the risk of losing precious OM through runoff. Core aeration is a poor substitute for having proper fungal mass and thousands of miles of fungal hyphae enmeshed throughout the soil. There's no way you can achieve thousands of miles of core removal from a typical lawn, but a good fungal colony can do that in a week. OM doesn't run off. OM is sugars, living roots and microbes, and dead roots and microbes. They don't flow away, they live there or are stuck there. Sugars don't flow away because, as Dr Ingham said, they are only released from the plant roots in dosages needed to control the soil microbes. Compost - I have to challenge you on the importance of compost as well. I don't think it can simply be replaced by using organic fertilizer. The two play very specific and separate roles in organic lawn care. Maybe, in a very well established, mature organic lawn, one could get away with simply adding fertlizer such as alfalfa, sbm, or cgm, but in those of us that are still building up our OM %, compost is priceless. "The soil must first be alive in order for fertilizers to function well" -Paul Tukey (The Organic Lawn Care Manual). I agree there are two different functions for compost and organic fertilizer. Compost supplies microbes. Organic fertilizer provides protein...and lesser foodstuffs. What we might disagree on beyond that is how long it takes for organic fertilizer to build the population of microbes that were thought to be missing. If the microbe population is teensy, it might take longer for the fertilizer to work. But if I can apply 10 apps of fertilizer for the cost of compost, that's what I'll do. Fertilizer seems to work in 3 weeks. The use of compost is fraught with peril in that even a normal application of 1/4 inch can set a lawn back for a full season. Why? Because getting an even 1/4-inch seems to be impossible. Some places will have none and some will have 3/4 inch. Where there is 3/4 inches, the grass likely will die from being smothered. Sure it can be done, but we try to deal in practicalities. Every single year for the past 20 I have seen lawns killed or nearly killed by compost. I've never seen any lawn even slightly tainted by using too much organic fertilizer. ...price [of compost] doesn't have to be a problem. I further agree that price does not have to be a problem. My property in San Antonio is completely covered with trees and that is not enough to make a decent compost pile. I collect leaves set out by the curb to make a pile. With 20 large bags of leaves I make enough compost to treat our garden beds, about 1,000 square feet. I have seen you question Tukey's advice, but he is far from the only one suggesting that the addition of compost be at the core of every organic lawn program. Compost improves soil structure, adds microorganisms, balances pH, feeds existing soil life, and adds around 1% nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 5% is the optimal amount of OM, which takes a long time to achieve anything beyond that is just gravy and won't hurt the lawn, only improve it. Tukey is an organic gardener in the tradition of Rodale. Without rereading anything of his, I would suggest that if he is a disciple of Dr Ingham, it is only inasmuch as she is a proponent of compost and not to the extension of the value of microbes feeding directly on protein dropped on top of the soil. If you want to rapidly improve the OM in your soil, you need to talk to morpheusPA. He has a few recent posts on this forum, but he has thousands of posts on another forum, and more recently has branched off into his own blog. He boosted the OM on his lot by several percent in one season by using zero pounds of compost but thousands of pounds of organic fertilizer. That was the nutritional equivalent of 2 cubic yards of compost applied every weekend all season long. There is no way to do that with compost in a practical or economic manner. It was more of an experiment, but it really, REALLY worked! So the idea that is takes a long time to improve the OM percentage is simply false. If you use the wrong materials, like compost, then yes, it takes a long time. Something you missed in the interview with Dr Ingham was the references to feeding the compost before using it. She didn't mention what she feeds it with, but I have talked to another of her disciples who uses a dose of oatmeal to feed her compost prior to converting it into compost tea. In other words, she recommends feeding it a protein filled organic fertilizer. Well, if you're going to feed the compost before applying it, then why not just feed the soil directly? After seeing this post I am further confused. You said you learned what you know from Dr. Ingham, but she is a HUGE proponent of the benefits of compost and compost tea. Tukey and Todd Harrington are both disciples of Dr. Ingham and they all agree on the importance of Compost and Core Aeration. Harrington has the largest residential and commercial base of organic lawns at over 2000 and is considered to be the forerunner in the industry. Dr Ingham is absolutely the premier leader in the compost tea movement. Great compost tea is a function of starting with great compost and following a critical set of rules for making the tea. One of those rules which is rarely mentioned is the water temperature. The problem cropped up with a critic of hers in Phoenix who ended up making worthless tea in the Arizona heat. Ingham called it, essentially, a rookie mistake by the Phoenix researcher. Aerobic microbes cannot live without air and water above 80 degrees F barely holds enough air for normal aerobic life. Trying to make compost tea above 80 degrees is a fool's errand because you have a concentrated population of microbes along with plenty of food. Once the air is depleted (immediately!), the aerobic microbes die and the tea is taken over by anaerobic microbes. But Dr Ingham does not mention this fact in the general guidance about making tea. Essentially this factoid limits the making of compost tea to a "non-summer" activity. You really want water between 50 degrees and 70 degrees for best tea performance. So I wish she was more up front about that aspect of tea making. I have seen so-called professional tea makers running their equipment all summer long and selling compost tea which is microbially worthless. Harrington is selling products and services. The profitability of aeration and the application of compost is through the roof. He'd be an idiot if he didn't promote the heck out of these services. And there is the authoritative Rodale history over the past 80 years. Everyone knows compost has to be an integral part of a conscientiously applied organic lawn care program. Everyone knows that except me. I believe any improvement following the use of compost to be coincidental with the increased emphasis and attention paid to the land where the compost was applied. I do believe there is a beneficial "micro mulching" effect, but not much else. In the article you referenced, Dr Ingham says, "Compost is the mix of plant materials." Even if you read the rest of the context, she never gets more explanatory. Compost is a mix of decomposed plant AND ANIMAL materials. How decomposed is it? Pretty darned decomposed. In fact I refer to it as a pile of depleted fertilizer materials. The stuff going in may have been weak in the protein department, but it is definitely weak in the protein department following months of aerobic decomposition. I might also mention that Dr Ingham has profitable products and services to sell. Part of the problem is, since the 1990s when all these hundred thousand species of soil microbes were discovered, there hasn't been enough time to run proper studies of the effects of the various foodstuffs in improving the soil. The foodstuffs used for the popular organic fertilizers include human waste (such as Milorganite and Hou-actinite), soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn meal, corn gluten meal, flax meal, used coffee grounds, alfalfa pellets, feather meal, hydrolyzed feather meal, blood meal, kelp meal, and poultry litter. All of these materials work stupendously well by themselves to improve the color, density, and growth of grass. So why would anyone waste the energy to run peer reviewed tests? Where is the profit in the results beyond what we in the trenches already know? If I can summarize: Compost is too depleted of protein to be of much value as a fertilizer Any organic fertilizer is much better than any compost, unless the compost was fortified with organic fertilizer Soil microbes are more resilient than people give them credit for. And I know some very smart folks who disagree with me on this. We'll never know until the research is done. Aeration is a poor substitute for fungal mass and miles of hyphae in the soil.

I kind of like the hedge look you have going with these, but I agree you need more of a contrast against all the greens. Perhaps variegated hostas in front of these? Shrub-wise: Carol Mackie Daphne - nice contrast to the darker greens, has spring flowering. Lighter green leaves edged in a cream color. Pics don't do it justice. Semi-evergreen (spray with 'wilt-stop' in November to keep moisture in leaves). Pigmy barberries are nice and compact with great color, but I agree about the thorns. Been there, done that, tempted again once I saw my friend's pigmy variety (I had the 'rosy Glow' that I wouldn't do again). So pretty. Smaller variety rhododendron (or azalea depending on light), though only spring blooms, right? Virginia Sweetspire 'Henry's Garnet' will be a nice fall contrast against the greens. V.S. foliage turns reddish in the fall, with white spires in the spring. Weigela, Wine & Roses - nice foliage contrast and pretty flowers in summer/spring, though mine took a couple of years to bloom, then wow! Deadhead for repeat blooms. Purpleleaf Sand Cherry (the shrub not the tree variety, though you can trim the shrub variety into a tree form if you prefer). Trim annually to keep from getting spindly. Euonymous Gold Splash (or a variety of euonymous hardy to your zone) for contrast. Other ideas: Amsonia Hubrechti (herbaceous perennial turns yellow in fall), planted with Bergenia ('Bressingham Ruby' - foliage turns reddish in fall and has red flowers in spring, though foliage is green otherwise). I have Euphorbia (cushion spurge) 'Polychroma' planted alongside these for a nice yellow contrast. 'Polychroma' turns red in fall. Nice fall color combination. Astilbe does well in shade, I have Red Fanal Astilbe, Heucheras (plum pudding and citronelle heucherella??), Hostas, Brunnera Jack Frost, Japanese Painted fern near my spireas (neon flash). Jack Frost is directly in front of my spirea. Annabelle Hydrangea? Don't fertilize once established as the plant can't hold blooms otherwise. Brunnera Jack Frost, perennial, a SPECTACULAR contrast to evergreens and thrives in full shade. A nice "pop" in the shade. I have variegated hostas in front of my house with my evergreen yews, and in another area I have lamium 'white nancy' (full shade) with boxwood. I also have other lamium in half sun, 'silver beacon', ok as long as it gets ample moisture. Pulmonaria (lungwort) is also nice for shade/part shade ('Benediction' is supposed to be nice). Variegated foliage. Ajuga 'chocolate chip' is a nice compact groundcover with blue flowers in summer (I deadhead for reblooms through summer). Artemisia 'Silver Brocade' is nice for contrast as someone mentioned earlier, though pretty informal for a front planting bed (as are some others I've mentioned).