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Soil, Compost & Mulch

mulch and compost (and roses)

15 years ago

We have a new-to-us backyard we are prepping for next year's garden. I am the researcher, not the gardener, so I pointed DH to the lasagna and compost information. What I *think* he did was put down some layers of cardboard and newspaper, then 6 bags or so of manure bought from the big box store. We have plenty of leaves we can throw on that pile, and have started a compost bin. Yesterday we bought another 5 bags of manure and the city delivered a big pile of free wood chip mulch. I think he's planning on putting down the manure and leaves, then throwing the mulch on top of it. Are we doing ok? We are first time gardeners (obviously LOL).

And, related question. If all that is fine, I have 2 of those grocery store roses (well, more like 8 apparently) in terra cotta pots. Can I overwinter them by putting them in this garden area and mounding the leaves and mulch around them? I'll post this in the rose section if no one answers, but for now I have to get back to work ;)

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Comments (2)

joepyeweed
15 years ago
Sounds great. Have your hubs come over and make some of those piles for me, please!

In zone 5, I would bury those bury those roses in piles of leaves. Make sure the pile is huge, like 3' clearance all the way around. My Mom lives in zone 5 and she creates what I call leaf huts for all of her roses. Surrounds them with chicken wire and fills with leaves.

Be prepared to have extra leaves set aside to refill/restack the pile as the leaves will settle through the winter.
blackcats13
Original Author
15 years ago
Well, I didn't say how long it was gonna take for him to actually finish those piles! I will send him the rose tips too ;) Thank you!
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Assuming that your first mulch is an organic material such as bark or wood chips, I don't think so. I did something similar. I added new compost a year or two later and the original mulch was only partly decomposed. So I "stirred" the two together so that the compost was available to the plants easily, then put new mulch on top of that to protect the compost from the sun. It is my opinion that you would want to avoid stirring these two into the soil where the decomposition would bind nitrogen during the process. However, current thinking is that if the decomposition takes place on top of the soil, only the contact layer of soil is affected. If you are using a non-organic mulch then yes, I do think you will want to try to remove it. Rosefolly
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Not zone specific 'cos I'm not even in your country. However - none of the above for me. One of my pet hates re planting roses or any other plant, is to dig a little hole and stick a plant in it. The hole for the rose needs to be a well prepared hole a couple of feet wide by a similar depth. Dig in plenty of organic matter - putting compost on the surface at planting time isn't tkat useful, it rots away and leaves your plant planted too high. Compost on the surface might make what looks like nice soil as you're rooting around with your figers, but 2 or 3 feet down where it matters most, it won't have made a blind bit of difference. There is a point in the year when adding fertiliser is a no, ie when it makes your rose send up new canes too late in the year. Over here, we plant bare roots in november, so at that point completely dormant, and I do dig in rotted manure. In september time, if planting container roses, I would just add compost of some sort.
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I don't know what your climate is like. Stripping leaves won't make your roses go dormant, but it will allow you to use dormant strength sprays that could damage leaves. Here in the bay area we rarely have enough cold to make my roses truly grow dormant. I have a lot of roses so it takes me a couple of months to get them all pruned and dormant sprayed. This year I have enough still blooming that I am waiting until after Christmas to do most of them. I prune first, then strip the leaves that remain, then spray with a dormant season spray. I prefer to use Bordeaux which is copper based, though if I had a problem with rust I will follow that a week later with a second spray of sulfur. At the time of pruning, I weed and clean up that area. When I'm all done with my roses, the garden is ready to be fertilized and mulched for spring.
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Personally, I wouldnÂt use thorny materials in the compost pile to lessen the chance of getting pricked, and have not done so. But if the compost is well aged, all organic matters would crumble into fine, small granular so that you may not even see shape of thorns afterward. It may be easier to chop the canes to less than a foot long or so for easy mixing with other green materials, and wear thick gloves.
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