Sammy, I love your idea of dividing the area into rooms. I'm pretty much in the same boat as you agewise, and my husband is very ill so can't help out like he used to.

Recently I added a huge bed along the side of my 6' chainlink fence, it's 70 feet long and in places is almost 40' wide. When I saw the finished bed it was pretty overwhelming, and still nothing planted, will wait for Fall. Plan to put in a couple of ramblers to cover the fence, and will have a few roses here and there, but have really become interested in ornamental grasses; I plan to put large swaths of a few different drought tolerant varieties in as well as just a few shrubs. Hopefully this will cut down on a lot of the watering.

Over on the Ornamental Grasses forum, cactusgarden has posted pictures of what she has done. It's in the subject called Grasses for the north side of the house (or something like that!)

My husband and I have begun to think about retrenching, to plan for it, but hopefully it will still be years before we have to actually do any modifying. We are both 67 and not as young as we were so the day will come sooner or later. Our lot is half an acre with about a quarter of natural wood that will require no maintenance. The rest is lawn, large beds, rose hedges, soft fruit bushes and fruit trees. I think we will have to remove many high maintenance beds and borders and plant some green groundcover between the roses. Roses can take care of themselves if they have to. We will let the grass grow tall around the fruit trees and only mow a path in the grass. Hopefully it will become a meadow with time. We never feed the grass so I don't think it will take as long to go wild as a well-kept lawn.

I have nearly an acre fenced with hillside weeds outside the fence. There are a couple level places, but most of the garden is sloped. We have the area outside the fence tilled each year in spring, as is required by law for fire prevention. Every inch inside the fence must be covered in some fashion or the weeds will invade, and they are not tame weeds. Instead they are enormous thistles of various types, poison oak, bindweed, brooms some fool planted once upon a time, Himalayan blackberry another fool imported and let loose, large exotic annual grasses, oxalis, mustards, spurges, and many, many, many more. In short, if I stop, there would very soon be a thorny, weedy tangle everywhere. And I cannot put in lawn, in part because of the gophers and in part because of the water.

So what do I? Driveway, two patios, buildings, stairs and paths take up about a little less than a third of the space. Another third is orchard and planted beds all heavily mulched. I get a huge truckload of tree trimmings every year and hire someone to do the spreading. It's too big a job for me because of the slope; and Tom has a bad back and cannot help me as he used to do. The mulch surrounds the fruit trees (about 30) and all spaces between plants in the beds. This does keep the weeds to a manageable level, meaning that if I work on it regularly they look pretty good, not perfect. The final third of acre or so is made up of heavily shaded space beneath the redwoods and pine, and the vast swathes where Tom and I have planted native seed. Much of the seed has taken, but I still weed this all year long. Being native grass, we only mow it two or thee times in the season. This is also my chief gopher hunting ground. We over-seed this area with native grass seed every couple years in the hopes that eventually it will be self-sustaining. It is probably the most labor intensive part of the garden. The roses are a lot of work for a couple of months in the winter. After that, it's a matter of deadheading. I can handle that.

My downsizing plan is moving. I can't see that this place can ever be made to be low maintenance. Ten or fifteen years from now I expect to be in a small cottage with a small garden. Now my small garden would be a lot for many folks, but if I am healthy enough I expect to garden until the day I die. My father did, and I think that was one of the best of the many good things he did.

Rosefolly

I would be happy with just a few special roses and mostly native shrubbery and trees. I like puttering with my small potted succulents so much I can see myself enjoying that type of gardening when no longer able to climb ladders and prune 300 roses.

Watching the senior neighbors in the area, I have learned that staying as active and involved as possible is vital. Otherwise you are in for misery. Use it or lose it and be miserable.

A relative gave up her large garden where she used to spend a good part of every day, moved to an apartment, and now sits and obsesses over the side effects of her various medications all day long. She has zero interest in anything else. No thank you.

One of my sister's neighbors recently passed away at age 105. She still gardened up to the very end! She could hardly walk, but got a rolling mechanic's cart and would roll herself around the yard doing things, happy as a clam, still sharing plants, pulling weeds, and growing vegetables.

My mom used to say, the older you get the braver you have to get. She was a wise lady.

I agree with Hoov! Staying active is key to staying healthy and young. I am not planning on slowing down until I keel over. Use it or lose it!

About 10 years ago, I had a daylily obsession, along with smaller collections of other favorite plants. I have .7 of an acre, but 3/4 of it is a rocky field down a hill from where many truckloads of soil were dumped in 1971 to position a double-wide trailer. The trailer consumes about 1/3 of the flat high ground. There is about 3 level feet in the back of the house on the South side before going downhill. On the West side, there is about 8 feet between the attached shed and a privacy fence put up after my 80 something year old gardening neighbor died and the property had to be sold.

As I made garden beds piece by piece on the topside, the daylilys started crowding out the other plants, so with the help of one of my sons I dug a few beds for mostly dillies in different sections of the field. At the time I mowed the field & called it my lawn.

The hosta obsession was growing at the same time. There was a wooded section near the boulder fence near the road, mostly self seeded scrub oaks & maples from the giant ones near the fence. I had the same son cut down most of the crap in a fairly large area & made a few hosta & other shade plants gardens.

Then I got tired of both dillies & hosta and concentrated on clematis.

Anyway, about 3 years ago, I hardly even went down into the field even to look at the dillies. The shade bed was on a more gradual slope, but I was running out of room & didn't put any more plants there. I let the field revert to a meadow, with too many blackberry bushes the birds gifted me with.

But 2 years ago I noticed that the mature clumps of dillies did look rather nice when flowering, so I dug them up as they flowered and planted them in pots in the pot ghetto by the driveway, along with the bulbous lilies I had almost given up on a few years when the red lily beetle invasion was at its worst. Some yellow dillies did get planted in a yellow bed I was reworking.

As I grow a lot of my clems and some roses in large tubs, I am digging out some of the overgrown dilly & hosta clumps this year, dividing & returning some, and planting others in pots. Especially with the dillies, I can leave them in a more unobtrusive spot until they flower and then drag the pots between the clematis supports and the road for the main show, and then move them out of the spotlight when they start looking ratty.

Also started thinking about trying to dig next to the neighbor's fence & the shed for the larger hostas. I didn't take any vacation time in May or June this year to work in the gardens, but plan on using some time in September & October to try to work on these big plans. Too hot now to do more than try to dig out some of the smaller plants buried under the larger ones and pick yellowed leaves off the plants. I'm 68 and have no plans to retire as I am too poor.

On our country property we've always had the intention of gardening only around the house and a little way down the driveway, other than some trees on the hillside, and in almost five years have not deviated from that plan. In fact, I have fewer roses now than I had about two years ago and, as the roses grow larger, I plan to weed out the poor performers or roses I'm not really that fond of even more, which will decrease fertilizing, deadheading, watering and mulching. I've given up on my more grandiose plans of arbors and pergolas, although I do have several climbers on the house walls, which should be fairly easy to control as they're not of the monster variety. My husband, without whom there would be no garden, does not really enjoy gardening and I want to be able to handle most of the work by myself, even as I get older. I'm aiming for that delicate balance where the garden is still beautiful to me but takes no more work than I'm able to give it.

Ingrid

To me passion and modification don't go together. The only way this place could be modified is with a bull dozer. Right now I'm having the time of my life building a dream. Some day I'll either have to leave or sit back and let it turn into Sleeping Beauty's castle.

My husband is seventy-six and my chief workforce, and I am stoutly refusing to face reality. We'll garden as we're currently doing as long as we can, and when we can't any longer, we'll garden in some other fashion. Actually, this is one reason why I'm eager to get as many kinds of plants in the ground now as I can, while I still have someone to dig holes for me. I'm hoping, perhaps not realistically, that as the garden matures maintenance will become somewhat less onerous. Mature shrubs should help keep down some of the weeds--I say--as will rarely disturbed ground; and I should need to mulch less--I say--as time passes and the soil improves through the mulching we're doing now.

I totally agree with hoovb. I can't imagine a life--any kind of life worth living--without gardening. Perhaps I won't always be able to have a big garden; well, then, I'll have a small garden. And if not a small garden, then a balcony filled with plants. And if not a balcony, then some pots on a windowsill. For me gardening is life.

Me too.

This year I turn 70. Doesn't seem like it. I think I'm really about 35 except that my 5 children are all older than that. My DH does not like to garden - well it's more like he grew up in New York city and just doesn't relate to it. He mows the lawn, on a 2 story hill yet, so I cannot complain. And he does things that I cannot, use the chain saw for instance. I'd cut my leg off.

But I am beginning to feel like I'm fighting a rear guard action. So I use Preen, a germicide, to prevent weeds. It only lasts about 3 months and I only give about 2 applications even on the most intensely treated areas. Some areas get no treatment. Also I am trying to rescue the woods, the lowest part of our 1/2 acre property, from garlic mustard, burs, sweet cicely (vicious needle-like seeds) and jewel weed. There I also use Roundup once a year, sprayed weed by weed, not a general application. In addition I now have someone prune our yew hedges . (The eight oldest plants I started from cuttings over 30 years ago.) About 60' of the hedge is about 7' high and on a 30 degree slope and there are more but shorter sections. Ladders are not fun on this. The last time I sheared these was 2 years ago.

People have said, "Ohhhh Preen will have residual effects. I wouldn't put it on my garden". I keep thinking, "If only". And I do think it has some residual effect but not much.

This all makes it sound like I don't weed. Don't believe it!

Cath

My original obsession was outrageously out of hand and I loved it. When that one required dismantling, it was difficult and tremendously freeing. The most recent permutation was a pot ghetto of about twenty percent the number of the huge one. Putting those in the ground has forced me to weed out the ones for which there just isn't level room and which I can live without. Not that they aren't great roses nor that I don't love them, they require more room and would take the space of multiple roses I chose to live with instead.

I'm keeping to the level area as much as possible. Weeding that slope is offensive enough without having to traipse up and down, sliding on every other step, to maintain anything down there. I know I will resent the ones which go on the slope and will eventually allow them to go the way of the Dodo, so I'm choosing to rid myself of them, instead. That's a LOT of roses, quite a few of which are seedlings either generated through my obsession or those shared with me by other "obsessives", but that is what it is going to take to keep this "fun", doable and prevent the water requirements from eating me out of house, home and desire. Weeding through them to maintain those which are just happier to be here with me and those which are endangered, has been a real chore. Now, if there was a ton of level land with high ground water....Kim

I love to hear about people who continue gardening thoughout a lengthy life. I feel so good, but want to plan a garden that I will be able to enjoy for years to come. The arbor with 6 roses was beautiful, but needed to leave. Three roses on each side climbing to the other side was a disaster waiting to happen.

The mulch we use is pine bark mulch that we get in 3 cubic feet bags -- 30 at a time. I can manage a few, but know that we may need to get it in smaller bags in time.

I have put in many stairways in our hillside, but want it to learn to take care of itself. Once the crape myrtles and bushes get larger, I will only go down there for my enjoyment.

I keep all of my roses at the top of the hill except for 3 that are only a few steps down. I used to have the hillside loaded with roses that almost connected with each other, and encouraged poison ivy and many critters. The hill goes away from the house, and ends in a creek, so it does not have that much visibility from the house. From time to time our neighbors are at the end of their yard, and they yell over "thanks for the view".

Our biggest project will be to order many many large rocks for stepping and design on the hill. Bark does not hold the soil very well, and we may need to have it trellised in time, but I hope that many rocks will work.

Sammy

Hi Sammy,

What I modified the most isn't in my garden -- I exercise more and work out with weights so I stay strong, and I do a lot of yoga. Have to do this every day now. I think of my grandfather, who ran his business up to age 86 (and a car accident) and could easily lift 200-pound soap drums. The doctors all said he had the body of a man 30 years younger, and he recovered from a broken neck in record time.

I recently read Hemenway's Gaia's Garden, which turned all my ideas about gardening upside down and helped me understand why the old way I gardened was a daunting amount of non-stop work. If you want to move towards an ecological garden that runs itself, the book has lots of useful ideas. I am using covercrops, living mulches (alfalfa is my favorite), multi-layered plantings, rock edgings, and raised beds, and incorporating as wide a range of flowers and veggies (annuals and perennials) as I can.

I don't have rooms like you do (not that formal), but I am working on getting one area under control (and trying out new techniques there), then growing by chunking. Cover crops and living mulches keep the rest of the areas in check until I get to them and also build rich soil so I don't have to move compost. Deep mulches around plants (hay, straw, leaves, etc.) save me watering. Raised beds (built on prunings and storm cleanup from the orchard and shade trees) take the strain off my knees and back. Planting polycultures (multiple species in a bed that changes over time as food crops are harvested) keeps ground covered so there's no weeding and confuses the bugs, who can't easily find the plant they want. Using open-pollinated seeds means annuals resow themselves, so I don't have to plant alot -- I just move seedlings if I want to, or I let the beds shape themselves depending on what comes up where.

Good luck in figuring out what will work for you. I plan to be in my garden when I am 95, and I hope you are out in yours having fun at that age too!

I am limited by a bad back, not mine my husband's, so any project envisioned has to be one I can handle myself because physical therapy and chiropractor costs not to mention pain and suffering aren't worth it.

My garden is small but there is still digging to be done and 25 lb. plants to be drug home from nurseries and planted. Luckily there's not much room left for large plants (yes I have a macadamia tree on order but it won't be very large).

I'm only 50-something but medical issues have at times made manual labor impossible (not currently). The last 3 years have been spent making the yard as labor-free as possible and it's worked. Only the grass mowing remains and eventually that can be jobbed out, right now I enjoy it and the lawn grows smaller in size every year.

The roses I own are all low-maintenance high-enjoyment. No spraying goes on unless the tomatoes are overrun with hornworms. Everything not lawn is well mulched with cardboard or newspaper underneath prettier mulch, very few weeds except in the side driveway. And besides weeds don't show if you take your glasses off, another benefit of aging :-)

Denise

I add more sand to the sandbox so I can get my head even deeper into it. When I can't lean over to do that (soon, soon) I will probably have to make a raised sand box......

Susan

First, I've put up a 'mental stop sign' in my head! I've drawn the line at 175 roses, which means any new rose I get must replace a 'non-performer'. I've also drawn the line at the number of garden beds - no more new beds. I'm more religious about adding mulch early in the season to cut way back on weeding chores. I'm substituting more annuals with small shrubs and perennials that need less annual work. I'm being more careful about putting in bulbs that are more perennial as well (i.e. I only use species tulips and the long-lived Darwin hybrid tulips). Although my husband still won't let anyone else cut the lawns, we are using a lawn service to mow the orchard now. And investing in irrigation has been a wonderful boost not only for the garden but the gardeners. My husband always claimed that if he had been Native American his name would have been 'Dances With Hoses".

What Mendocino Rose said succinctly was what I was trying to say in my rambling fashion. I don't think I can garden less intensely here. It would take me a start-over at a new and different property.

Rosefolly

I decided that I needed an attitude adjustment. I, too, am creating a dream, but I have decided to change my work style. Instead of pushing myself until I drop, I am going to keep working, but at a slower pace so that the fun will be back into the gardening process.

I, too garden on a slope and everything has to be hauled up or down. Even tho' I do exercise every day, hauling mulch and rocks and soil up and plant debris down is hard labor.

I have lousy soil, so I am looking for plants that LIKE lousy soil to fill in some areas of the garden, so I don't have to work so hard.

I never want to just quit, but I garden for joy, so that has become my primary goal. Instead of going out each day with a long list of things I want to accomplish that day ...with a self-imposed deadline, I am going out with the list, but working at a pace where I can enjoy the process instead of beating myself up.

The garden is still moving forward and the dream has been re-defined. It is to enjoy the garden.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, you've said what I consider to be the most important statement of all - the goal is to enjoy the garden. Since you garden on a slope, reaching that goal can't always be easy. Most of our property is hilly, but there are flat areas all around the house and that's the only place I garden. Having this limitation has been very freeing for me, and it still leaves plenty of room to work a lot more than I want to. For that reason I've limited myself to easy-care plants that do well in my climate, and roses that are tough and heat-loving, although still beautiful to my eyes. It can be done but takes a willingness to experiment and to discard roses and other plants that don't suit my situation. It's been a wonderful journey of discovery which I hope will never end.

Ingrid

This year with all its hardships has brought me around to face the harsh reality of the climate I garden in and its many limitiations. North Texas is just not mild and temperant, California it ain't. The dream garden dripping with fabulous roses is not going to come to pass.

This fall will come a grand culling of the dead, dying and just ugly. And comes at somewhat of a relief. I have come to the realization that the success/failure was not contingent on my gardening culture, it's just the dang uncooperative weather: early heat, then late freeze,, then early extreme heat, mixed up with no rain and quick spells of deep freeze, followed by more heat. And the perpetual, eternal wind, sometimes hot, then cold. Our water sources are drying up and La Nina looks to be resurrecting, forecasting the shape of things to come. Life on the southern plains.

But to get to the purpose of the thread and passion. The page turns and rose mania to be replaced by the eternal grace of ornamental grasses that soak up our intense sun to flower, flourish. Perennials that utilize that solar energy to produce astonishing amount of bloom. And my new craze, xeric desert types with clean, pristine beauty all their own (this ought to be fun, a thorn by any other name would poke as hard...).

Many roses will remain, my beloved damasks, some mosses, all the fantastic spinossissimas and eglantines, some teas and noisettes. All of course, Souvenir de la Malmaison, a desert rose at heart.

The garden journey continues, with renewed passion...

As a matter of fact, there is one new thing that excited me when I saw the photo. I moved the metal arbor out of the front garden a while back, and it was laying on its side in the back until I asked the two DS's if they could move it for me. It had occurred to me that I could let Jaune Dezprez grow on and over it and along the top of the fence. It has been a very slow starter as others have noted as well. Finally, it's got a cane or two with some length, so this will work great, I think. You can't see JD in this photo because it's still laying on the ground between the arbor & the tree where I pushed it out of the way for the arbor planting. I need to get to that task. Someday I think JD will look astonishingly great atop this arbor and fence which arouses my passion pretty well.
{{gwi:289869}}

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Lovely arbor, Sherry, and I hope your vision is fulfilled soon. Jaune Desprez seems to be a strange rose. Mine grew like a weed in a less than optimal spot, and flowered quite well, while so many people struggle with it. Strangely, it never really captivated me that much. This was in another garden so I don't know what its ultimate fate was. I'm growing on a baby Cl. Lady Hillingdon which is a rose that I am passionate about, having grown and loved it before. I debud religiously and it seems to be making good progress. Hope your JD does the same.

Ingrid

Greybird..........

Not all of California has an easy climate for gardening. I live in the mountains of northern California and face different challenges than I had when I lived in southern California. I love roses, but I am expanding my pallet of plants to enjoy to include the plants that like this climate.

Like you, I have accepted that the climate will influence my choices of plants. I am not going to keep working to improve my soil, it's glacier slurry. Instead, I am going to work with nature and allow it to be the primary dictator about what stays in the garden and what leaves.

There are thousands of interesting plants that I have yet to explore. I have been so focused on roses, I haven't really taken the time to study other plants. And I am no longer concerned about doing it "right". The plants that survive this garden will just be the ones that like my gardening style. Yes, weeds will be managed to some extent, but not to the point where I am going crazy with the task.

I have found a source of free wood chip mulch and will mulch the garden heavily and then take it from there.

It's the process of gardening that I love, even weeding, and since the results are always changing, that has to become the most important part of my gardening life.

Smiles,
Lyn

Oh, Greybird. I have your weather only yours may be more harsh. THe temps over 100 began in June, and have eased back about one day here. Today should hit 107, our new typical temperature with humidity of 57. When I came inside this morning before 11:00, it was 93. The weather is not my friend.

I think the realization that I cannot take the hear or cold has made me think about my age. But also it is unwise to just let things happen and not plan ahead. I still work full time, and must make my garden more friendly. THat, I am doing, but this year I have had few flowers to share on this forum. They were either loaded with thrips or shriveled from the heat. Only SDLM is smiling at me --- but the thrips hit it for awhile.

It is interesting how I can be so old, yet feel so young --- in every way. This will be my last birthday that starts with a 6, yet I feel the way I did when I was 40 and was running everyday. I must revise what I say. I feel very young, but my endurance has changed. I am wiser, and do not attempt those things that would not be good for me.
That is why we have taken down our arbor and will create more beds. Neither of us should be on a ladder.

Must go now, but I do read and totally enjoy each and every email. Thank you so much for writing.

Sammy

Sammy........

I have to tell a story of a lunch I had with Ralph Moore when he was 98. Kim Rupert, who was in his early 50s, JD who was in his 70s and I, in my late 50s all visited Mr. Moore at Sequoia. We went to lunch and the subject of age came up. We went around the table had discussed what age we thought we were in our minds and what our chronilogical age was at the time. It turned out that ALL of us thought we were somewhere in our 30s in our minds, including Mr. Moore, but all of us were working with bodies that just didn't want to go along with that program any more. All of us knew we would continue gardening, but have found to have the energy to continue to play in the dirt, we needed to change our work style. The most interesting part of being a participant in that conversation, with all of us in different stages of ife, is that I learned that our minds, our interest and our passions do not change, so we just have to go about things in a different way.

None of us had lost our passion to garden, we, like nature, adapted to our new situation. The feeling around the table was one of interest and joy. That's what I lost for a while, but this year that is what I am reaching for in the garden.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, thank you for sharing that story. It was illuminating and I had one of those wonderful aha! moments while I was reading it.

I met Ralph Moore only once, right around the time of his 100th birthday. Luanne and Bluesibe of this forum were with me that day. We were driving down to attend a Great Rosarians event at the Huntington. Mr Moore told the three of us that he hoped to live five more years because that would see him to the completion of a breeding program he had envisioned. He did indeed live several more years, though he did not quite make the full five. I thought he was a happy man, if happiness can be defined as interested, curious, and delighted. I think it can.

Perhaps the planning as well as the doing are keys to longevity? I don't know. They certainly lead to absorption and engagement so that the years we do have are rich ones, however many they may be. I would very much like to life a long, long and happy life, but I would rather lead a shorter but happy life than a long life with a long miserable ending.

Rosefolly

Please forgive my old brain for not remembering this sooner but there is one more thing we do to cope when we cannot get to weeds fast enough, old age having slowed us down. When the weeds in the woods are almost ready to ripen seed DH weed whips the seeding tops off and leaves them where they lie to decompose for mulch. Timing is important here. We want the weeds to expend energy in seed formation but they must be cut with the seed immature enough that it will not ripen on the ground. Seeds will continue to ripen until the stem dries somewhat. This doesn't sound like much of a solution but is surprisingly quick and effective in a pinch because it prevents a whole season's worth of seed from being sown. This may have to be repeated because the weed will sprout from the remaining axils and reseed if there is enough time left in the season.

Cath

modify!
Nothing, absolutely not. This is my dream, my garden and my folly and it will be shaped to my demands,regardless of age, energy or cash.
However, I am not a stubborn gardener and don't mind correcting mistakes (just as well since they are legion) but in my head, I have a very clear idea of where I am going, even though it is going to take at least another 10 years. My allotment is only 9 years old and it doesn't even belong to me - it is basically a strip of land, rented from the local council but.....I intend this as my life's work (apart from offspring, of course). If a time comes when I cannot leap around on ladders or dig massive holes or erect dangerously top-heavy timber supports....I WILL BULLY, COERCE, BLACKMAIL OR BRIBE my gallumphing boys to bow to my every command. And they will, because I am the MATRIARCH and my word will be obeyed.
Gardening is much much more than a mere hobby - it defines my life. I simply cannot imagine any future in which gardening does not feature. Even if I was left completely homeless, debilitated or demented, there are going to be seeds to sow, plants to split, cuttings to take, bushes, shrubs and trees to prune and catalogues to salivate over. Even if they are not mine, I will volunteer somewhere. Nope, if I fall to the ground with a trowel in my hand and a failing heart, I would consider this a life well-lived.

LOL, Camp, you are funny.
The thing about how we see the future is that....we don't and we can't. Our ideas about how our bodies will impact our lives are flawed by the cloudiness of our crystal balls.

I don't plan, which probably makes it easier to adapt to the changes that aging is bringing. I throw myself out the door and into the yard and do whatever happens to appeal to me that day. Some days I can still do anything. Yesterday it finally occurred to me that smashing my right foot down on a shovel just might be why the ligament at the top of my right calf aches all night. Yikes. Am I really going to have to find someone else to dig holes for all those roses I am still acquiring???? Now that will be a real slower-downer....waiting for someone else to do that part that has always been so simple?

Still, I do have one plan: to have not a single bit of this 1/2 acre be bare of beautiful flowering plants (mostly roses). And somewhere between some one or two of them there will be a place to plant....ME.

Campanula,

I concur with the NEED to grow things. My problem is that my four stalwart sons are not nearby. As I say, I love things that grow; plants, animals, children and money...not necessarily in that order.

Cath

A few years ago, after I had a severe injury, I looked at the 200 or so different roses in the garden, from 14 different classes and evaluated which roses of which classes gave me the most pleasure, the most bloom, and required the least amount of maintenance.
My evaluation showed that where I live Tea roses bloom for an average of 33% more weeks of the year than Hybrid Teas, and Teas need only about a third as much maintenance as H.T.s. I had loved Tea roses ever since meeting them after moving to California, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out how practical a rose class they are for a physically compromised gardener.

.
To avoid the need for spraying, I visit one of the 3 no -spray Old Rose gardens in my area every year if I can, and write down the names of the most disease resistant roses, and add the most beautiful and fragrant of these to my "Most wanted" list.
I feel so blessed to have a garden of my own after renting for so many years.

Luxrosa

What wonderful reading, thankyou everyone, although I should be in bed sleeping. Soon.
I will soon be 48. One of my Roserian inspirers that lives near by and has a Open garden type garden ( which she has had open to the public twice ), recently turned 70 and she said she doesn't feel that old. She started her garden when she was 55.
I am putting in a new garden area and this has motivated me to clean up a area between the house and the garage and further. Already it looks amazingly tidy and garden like and makes me feel good. It is better for my soul to have garden here than not, and it will make sure that I keep the area mowed and always tidy. I will plant the roses far enough apart to mow around. I don't prune roses although this year I did do it to some climbers and ramblers and tied them up so I could walk past them.
Mendocine, I laughed at what you said because I use to wonder if this rose garden would turn into one thorny mass like in the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty. I would love to stay here and continue to plant year after year, till I am very old, of different plants as companion plants to my roses. But one day there will be a very large coal mine very close and I will be out of here by then, so I am just enjoying what I can continue to create here till then and then I will be off to create another garden. Eventually in Tasmania, I reckon, where the rose blooms grow twice the size and double the sheep numbers where I can work my Kelpie sheepdogs.
Landperson,I also had a foot that ached and found out I had a bit of small fracture from digging probably, it disapeared thankgoodness during Winter. I hope your ligament in your calf comes good.
I hope I wasn't too much off the topic of the post here.

I think I am the oldest one here, and that may be why I started this talk.

I work full time and have 135 roses to care for. My garden is really a mess now. My school started a week ago and our weather is oppressive. It is so hot that to step outside takes your breath away. I have turned on water and let it run, but have not taken the little trips to pull necessary weeds for over a week.

That is a modification.The weeds may take the nutrients of the soil, but the water should keep the roses alive until on a weekend I can get out there at 6:00 in the morning. I cannot do that and leave for my school at 7:00. There is no way.My day is tiring the first couple of weeks, so I choose to keep my roses alive, and take care of myself.

I feel like I felt when I was 40, playing tennis and running.

I have always looked to the future and planned ahead. I know exactly what I am going to teach this year, and when I will teach it.

I will not plant a rose that needs spray or one that requires my using a ladder. We have no grass, just weeds. I can dig with a spade fork, but not a shovel, and need to watch the heat. Drinking water isn't enough in this heat. Some days I drank 4 liters of water and still did not feel well. I know I must take care of myself because I don't want anyone else to do it. That is my only choice.

I would never challenge a tool, it would win.

I hope you keep on posting because I love to read what everyone does, but I don't have time right now for a full reply. My school is a high school and right now I have classes jammed full of 10th graders. The school is huge, and there are many demands -- especially now before I know the names of the kids. It is an amazing profession, and I simply am not ready to leave it yet.

Sammy

Don't feel bad. I have not taken the little trips to pull necessary weeds for over two months. Between the humidity, heat, rain, fire ants, and mosquitoes it's all I can do to mow the grass. I'll probably get to it in October when the low temps get below 80.

Sammy,

If you drink that much water and still do not feel good your electrolytes are probably depleted (from sweating). Drink some salt water. I know - it sounds wacky but it is not. It is science. Or you could just drink Gatorade.

Cath

Or those salty foods we normally feel so guilty eating: French fries! olives! It finally got hot here too, and has been sweltering for most of August. Forget about going out in the garden: there's no way I'm going to pull weeds in this heat. Sooner or later the weather will cool off, and I'll WANT to get outside and work. In the meantime, forget it.
Good luck with your pupils! We need dedicated teachers like you.
Melissa

Kim said... >My original obsession was outrageously out of hand and I loved it. [...] I'm keeping to the level area as much as possible. Weeding that slope is offensive enough without having to traipse up and down, sliding on every other step, to maintain anything down there. I know I will resent the ones which go on the slope and will eventually allow them to go the way of the Dodo, so I'm choosing to rid myself of them, instead. That's a LOT of roses, quite a few of which are seedlings either generated through my obsession or those shared with me by other "obsessives", but that is what it is going to take to keep this "fun", doable and prevent the water requirements from eating me out of house, home and desire. Weeding through them to maintain those which are just happier to be here with me and those which are endangered, has been a real chore. Now, if there was a ton of level land with high ground water.

Hi Kim,

Back in the Dark Ages we lived in California in just the sort of spot you are conjuring up as a high ground water fix. But native trees really like spots like that too... and our house had lots of shade, too much shade for most roses. Still, we wouldn't have dreamed of cutting down a tree. We didn't own the house, we like trees, and anyway, removing a tree was illegal without a good reason for a permit where we lived (a Monarch Butterfly preserve). Anyway, we were relative youngsters at the time and didn't know just how wet that property was until our vegetable garden was swimming in water during the winter months. It was fine, fine black silty sand that held on to the water pretty well too.

Your post made me think about what we'd do if confronted with your lack of water problems back in California again. What you're doing makes a lot of sense.

But I also am wondering whether a bank full of Renaes rambling around might not survive and also keep the weeds down once they proliferated and established themselves? They might take over the other remaining roses, but if you weren't still trying hard to keep those... A bunch of Renaes might not require so much watering once established? I don't think a big crowd of them would look bad at all, depending on personal tastes, of course. In fact, I prefer that kind of look.

We've done that crowded thing in a pretty good sized area with azaleas and rhododendrons here; they all grow together and if there's a weed under there somewhere, well, you can't easily penetrate to find or see it. Once in awhile there's a tree sneaking in that will have to be pulled up, but basically it's too shady under all the plant thickness for most weeds to grow. And I adore the looks of those crowded plants! No, we don't have big problems with fungal diseases, even with the crowd. Maybe fewer than average problems, though phytopthera wilt sometimes does require some cutting back of rhododendron limbs.

You know a big problem with azaleas and rhododendrons is that they aren't drought tolerant. Well, we have lost huge numbers since our drought problems began big time here around 2001. It's been wonderfully rainy most of the time during the last couple of years, but the next drought period is probably just around the corner... and if we lose some more azaleas and rhododendrons then, well, I'm thinking of trying to establish some Renaes and Annie Laurie McDowells in their place in the relatively sunnier spots... along with some more camellias, which are drought tolerant after the first year. (Though blooming is less than ideal if August and September are dry.)

We lost our Annie Laurie McDowell to Rose Rosette Disease last year, but I am figuring that if it's anything like our Renae here, well, it's as no-care, no-worry a plant as any other plant of any kind we've ever had in our yard. Not a touch of blackspot or any other disease here thus far (though that may well change just a bit as we get more shade as the sun angle changes during the fall). Anyway, I'm hoping for another Annie Laurie McDowell eventually too. Ours is a no-spray all-organic yard for everything we grow and Renae fits well into that way of doing things. I think Annie Laurie McDowell will too.

I know it hurts to cut back some on what you are able to continue doing, Kim. But I keep thinking mostly about your achievements and how much you have helped so many others in what you have already contributed. Thank you!

Best wishes,
Mary

Great thread, Sammy. I appreacite the advice you gave me on banana peels and ants (in another forum).

I would plant stuff to please myself, rather than trying to block out the neighbors with 26 trees. Who cares if the neighbors see me, unless I'm a nudist in the backyard?

I would plant more peach trees - peaches are incredibly sweet in my limestone, alkaline soil. And less pear trees, they don't taste good in my soil. I would plant stuff that my soil likes, rather than striving for a variety of non-performers.

Hi Sammy,

>I tore down the arbor, and will replace the roses. Neither of us belong on the ladder anymore.

We've just gotten started with some climbers and have gotten some metal obelisks that are 96" tall out of the ground. My husband could easily reach to the top (no ladder) by the time he had pushed the first one into the ground as far as I thought a good idea for leveling stability. (He's 6 feet and I guess has pretty long arms too.) My idea is to locate another one 6-8 feet away, and tie a couple of ropes or chains between them, with the whole thing reachable by my husband and much of it reachable by me. They do sell metal obelisks that are shorter than ours if you wanted to be able to reach the top yourself. (Deduct maybe 18" if you want to estimate what you'll lose in height if you get something like this into your ground.)

>I feel like I felt when I was 40, playing tennis and running.
[...]
>Drinking water isn't enough in this heat. Some days I drank 4 liters of water and still did not feel well.

I'm a bit fuzzy on how you felt when you were 40 and doing both tennis and running. Do you mean you overdid things back then? Or that you really felt great from exercise that you liked? (I always had more energy exiting the tennis court than when entering, but then, I wasn't running too.)

So I am a bit fuzzy on how you're doing overall now that you're not out in the heat so much. If in case you're forcing yourself to drink that much water on the theory that you need it when out in the heat, that's one thing... but it would be better if you drink something like water spiked with Celtic Sea Salt. (I'm suggesting Celtic Sea Salt as opposed to ordinary table salt because it replaces some trace minerals that are likely to be lost too...and it plain tastes better. To make it extra tasty, add a bit of Manuka honey and lemon juice!)

But it's quite another thing if you are anywhere close to being thirsty enough that your body seems to need that much flushing. Seriously. There are problems you might need to treat. See your doctor soon if you are often a thirsty person.

About the heat, that reminds me... We had to have our roof redone after Hurricane Hugo passed through here in the fall of 1989 (three trees through the roof!) but the roofers were so busy we couldn't actually get the job done until the following summer. They also waited until no rain was expected, so the sun was shining its brightest then, and I think it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer--all days in the mid-nineties. And for our roof, much of the time they were carrying buckets of hot tar up ladders. I don't know how they did it; I felt bad just imagining myself in their shoes and at times now when I'm really hot I'll think about them again and cringle. For me back then it was overwhelmingly hot just carrying them out some lemonade, which I did partly because I didn't think they were drinking enough of their own ice water that they brought from home. Other than a couple of large cups of my lemonade, they drank maybe one large cup of the ice water they'd brought from home in jugs. No kidding. Anyway, Sammy, they could have quadrupled what they were drinking and not have come close to 4 liters.

One thing I offered to do for the roofers was to hose them off when they came down from the roof. Maybe that was a no-macho thing, I don't know, but they declined. But I think if you're hot, water at least will cool you down fast and if you're roofing with tar, etc. on your dirty clothes, who cares how unfashionable you might look wet? I've many times set up a sprinkler for myself when trying to work outside in the yard in the heat; otherwise, I have no heat tolerance at all. I've appreciated getting really wet working outside on a hot day as an adult just as much as I did as a child running barefooted through the sprinkler on the grass on a hot day.

Anyway, if you're feeling overcome with the difficulties of working outside in the heat, try hosing yourself down from the top of your head down, every 15 or 20 minutes. It works, and it works well. If you're concerned that someone will think it odd, just tell it around that it's the latest fashion craze in the Internet-Savvy Young Hipsters Gardeners' Club.

Best wishes,
Mary

Lol, I hose off when I'm outside all the time! It's always so humid here and a good rinse off works wonders for cooling me down. I usually find a spot that needs watering and stand there so the water isn't wasted and hold the hose over my head. I also adjust the sprinkler to the perfect spot with it on so I can run in and out of it and get cooled too. I've found that with damp clothes on I stay cool for quite a while.

I just read most all these threads. I love you guys! Campanula - you may have said it best. It seems our enthusiasm of the last decade is trying to bite us back. There is plenty of inspiration here and I plan to clip it for future reading. We all seem to be of the same mindset. I know I will be cutting back at some point as I seem to have arthritis in both wrists and DH has never cared to be in the garden. I prefer to do it all myself. At some poing I can just give up portions of my rented plots and hopefully, have my best garden around my corner lot at home. Another task will be to clear out some of my thornier bushes; my skin is just getting too thin these days and then there is always the sun damage.
Thanks for making me feel part of the community.
Mary

Starting tomorrow I am going to (really really really) make myeslf carry my cordless landline phone with me. Today I fell. Not a bad fall. Nothing broken. But I lay there on the ground and looked up at the sky and wondered what would have happened to me if ....

No one would notice if I lay on the ground for a day or two. Gruesome thought. It's gonna be hard getting used to the idea of carrying it around with me, and I'll probably lose it in a heartbeat, but....the alternative is really not fun to contemplate.

I'm old enough (never mind) that my motor skills have some glitches, and that never stops me from climbing, digging, hauling, and -- as today -- tripping over a newly installed bit of irrigation. I really don't want to get planted yet....

So, before I go to bed I'm putting a note to myself on the mirror: carry phone !!!!

landperson,
I too always carry a phone, even though my husband would check on me if I were out for two houra.

Having noticed my balance is not as keen as it once was, I have started doing some balance exercises, and stair climbing. I also, like Anita, lift weights (light ones, not monsters).

I can't imagine life without gardening. I have determined (for the third year) not to add any space for plants, and I am doing fairly well...but I cheat. It isn't new space if the mulch is just sitting there, right?

I won't climb a ladder unless DH is aware of the activity, but so far, haven't really had to change yet. Well, I do wear a brace on my knee, and if I am doing heavy or stretching work, I wear a lumbar support, but I have to garden. Even in this awful heat, and drinking Gatorade and tea and water like never before, I have to garden.

If I couldn't garden, it would remove so much of the joy from my life.
kay