I want to have my garden tidy for the first flush when I will have some of my roserian friends comming to visit. I want to finish off my five garden rooms, plus start on two new areas.
I want to take lots of garden photos and individual rose photos and post them on rose forums.
I want to spend alot of time in my garden and really observe and enjoy the roses.
I also want to put the rest of my poles in, put some more polypipe and taps in and get my ride on mowers working again. I should be doing that with the mowers now instead of buying more roses, although the roses survived last growing season not being mowed around hardly. Luckily I got onto a a really good old push mower that can go through long, thick grass.

So Ingrid, picking the buds helps the rose grow heaps more, I will remember that trick.

Tidyness and profusion, the two opposites that I long for simultaneously.

Rosefolly

If I could just get the tidyness down pat, I would be thrilled. Weeds in central Florida are an overwhelming tide, particularly since I'm surrounded by pasture land and orange groves. I don't think they're so bad in developed areas. For me, they're a never ending chore.

I can sympathize, floridarose, since I have an orange grove next door but otherwise live in a wilderness area. I do think the lack of rain makes weeds less of a problem here, but after the rainy season they're quite something to see. My garden areas are mostly subdivided by hardscape and I mulch the planted areas heavily, and the acreage that's not landscaped we have the weeds cut by a service during the dry season. Having separate areas somehow makes it all seem more manageable and you can tackle one space at a time and feel that you've accomplished something.

rosefolly, you've managed to capture the overall goal for my garden in three words.

rosemeadow-gardener, your goals are impressive and I hope you're able to accomplish them all, or at least most, especially the most important one in my eyes, observing and enjoying your roses. I find I lose sight of that sometimes when I'm busy doing this and that. Often dusk is the best time for me, when all is still and cool, and I can sit on the bench or walk around slowly and take it all in.

I was taught about the disbudding recently on this forum by Kim Rupert. I'd read about it before here and there, but he really convinced me to give it a good try. Without a control group I can't prove that it works but logically it makes a lot of sense.

Ingrid

What a great topic for a thread. It might make me actually think about some goals--I'm not organized at all.

Goals: I'd like to finish the concrete culvert at the back of the property so that rainwater from the properties above us doesn't gouge out the usual 2 feet of soil every winter. What a mess that is. It's not the rainwater from our property, which is properly taken care of. It's from uphill.

I'd also like to plant a climbing rose or two on this arch. Wouldn't that be a beautiful entrance to this part of the garden? I planted some 'Kentucky Wonder' pole beans to climb this arch for temporary whimsy. (There's nothing like pole beans for temporary whimsy.)

{{gwi:296327}}

Two goals is enough. I'll be thrilled if I can get that much done.

Hopes: I hope with all my heart we have slightly above average rainfall this coming winter! Enough to fill the reservoirs to the tippy-top, but not so much people are flooded out of their homes or are harmed in any way. My fervent hope and wish!

HoovB, what a lovely picture that is! So inviting and so beautiful.

Rosefolly

Fewer gophers

Susan

Survival. Stabilization. Filling in spaces with companion plants. Achieving color effects.
I want to survive the fall planting. We have a few hundred plants to get in the ground, and a sufficient number of them will require decent holes to be dug. Between weeding, mulching, and watering we're not doing that right now. Nor are we lifting the iris clumps I want to move, a job that ought to be done this month.
Usually when I plant an area I start with roses and shrubs and then after a couple of years begin filling in with small plants. A good part of the garden needs this filling in. I have lavender, valerian, echinacea, and thyme in quantity, but also a zillion plant odds and ends that all need to go in the right place. Something that's not entirely under my control is the fact of stabilization of disturbed soil. Digging soil disturbs it, and then weeds come in. I'm looking forward to see the beds settle down and generate fewer weeds as I refrain from digging more than strictly necessary. A lot of my work comes from the garden being both large and young: a few years ago the greater part of was a weedy field (the other part was a swampy dump).
I spent time this year looking studying color in the beds and planning changes to develop themes, building around tendencies already present. One bed planted with Damasks and near relatives I want to be dominated by blue-violet, lavender, green-gray, and silvery pink, except for one area of cherry pink and acid yellow-green (this is because I planted 'Duchess of Portland' in the bed and it doesn't go with anything else). Another bed is planned to be purple and orange; another purple again, this time with yellow and gray- and acid green. The roses themselves aren't contributing much to the last two beds; when they get bigger I may find changes necessary again.
Along with color I'm paying attention to plant styles: not everything that will grow in an area necessarily gets planted there. Some areas have more of a Mediterranean look to them, others a more temperate zone style of planting. The latter plants look wilder--weedier, you could say. I'm coming to appreciate those herbaceous perennials that bloom in summer and early fall: tall asters, goldenrod, Saponaria, achillea, for example. I'm putting them in some areas where once-blooming old roses grow.
hoovb, your garden looks wonderful.
Melissa

My goal is to be physically able to keep up the mulching and organizing. Plants will always need transplanting. I'd also like to improve on my paths, such hard work moving soil to level it. I need to get to the gym and get strong!! Will also need to move some perennials around. They are the icing on the cake!

My goal for the summer was to get those tomatoes to bear fruit. As of July 18 I have four healthy beautiful plants full of blooms that are not setting fruit. Too cold and wet, I think. So much for goals.

Here's some hopes - We cleared out an area at the edge of the woods and I'm trying to grow a woodland rose garden there. There are some gallicas that seem to be doing okay with the limited amount of sun they're getting.

I'm hoping that Darlow's Enigma will thrive there along with a few other small climbers I just planted that I'm hoping to grow as shrubs with some woodland plants and a path through it. I'm hoping the deer don't show up anytime soon and consume everything. I'm hoping the slugs that eat my plants will all die from my ammonia water spraying. Do you know that those things are carnivorous? Gross. That's a lot of hoping.

Next year's goal - There is a very boring cream colored garage wall in an entry area and I've been scratching my head over how to design. I am contemplating painting a faux blue door and then laying a path as if it goes to the door and plant around that. I'm hoping whatever it is I wind up doing won't look tacky or ridiculous. It is a weird little area.

another goal for next year - to figure out how to actually make some second year climbers into shrubs without cutting them back too much or destroying them. I haven't destroyed them yet, but the year is still young, lol.

Patience

Susan

Fewer gophers

LOL!

{{gwi:225679}}

Patience, he!!... more fertilizer.

Ingrid, the only things that thrive here in drought, and we are in drought, are the weeds. I can have a bed entirely cleared of weeds, and within two weeks they are infested again. And, yes, these beds are either heavily chipped or mulched with newspapers with hay on top. Admittedly, it takes many months for the weeds to start seeding on top of the mulch, but when they start, they come on with a vengeance. Then I must start over again with another layer of newspaper with mulch on top before the entire cycle starts again.

My only tangible goal for next year is to install a drip irrigation system. Watering is now taking me about 1 1/2 hours a day, which although enjoyable, is time that could be much better spent.

My hope is that my education about roses and gardening continues as vigorously next year as it has so far this year.

Calendar or fiscal year?

My hopes are that we get some rain and the summer is not so hot.

My goals now and then are to keep as many plants alive as possible.

floridarose, your weed problem does sound a lot more daunting than what we experience here. You're right though, the darn things prevail through anything that would kill other plants. If only weeds were pretty we wouldn't have to bother with gardens!

Ingrid

My hopes, perfect weather for roses, not too hot or cool, plenty of sun but regular soaking rain.

My goals, do the finishing touches on the new bed and get all the soaker hoses in and maybe get one new climber for the other post on the carport. I aim low because something inevitably comes up and blows all my plans out of the water, l0l.

I would love to contribute to this thread but the question is very disorienting when I still haven't got this year in order. Ask again in January when the dream gardens spin out like cotton candy.

Cath

Beyond the filling in with, as yet, undetermined new roses, I have to find or make a nice, sturdy trellis for my Constance Spry.

Non-rose related, I've got a bowling pin shaped bed under a spruce tree that is the bane of my existence. I'm completely revamping it next year.

My hope is that next year I will have the best (rose) garden ever :-)!

To accomplish that my goals are to reduce my black plastic pot ghetto significantly by planting roses in the ground, in nice terracotta containers and give some away. I also will make a serious try to mulch the whole garden. Besides that I want to fix the irrigation system and put in irrigation where we don't have it yet to reduce the time I spent hand watering parts of the garden.

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

My husband and I recently volunteered to revitalize a heritage rose garden located in a public arboretum in upstate NY. Our ultimate goal is renew and enlarge a small collection of old garden roses while strengthening the overall design of the site. We hope that the renewed garden encourages visitors to stroll around, relax, and savor these roses (that are for predominantly once-blooming).
This year we hope to establish an overall plan, revitalize the soil and the roses that presently remain at the site.
Idealists that we are, we hope to successfully nurture many more disease-resistant OGR varieties and practice sustainable gardening methods. Among our lofty aspirations, we would like to interrupt the rose monoculture with companion plantings that will complement the roses, and provide some interest when the bloom riot subsides.
Incidentally, I am propagating OGR cuttings with abandon. (I recently posted to the exchange and propagation forum) I hope they will all thrive (so far, most have rooted) and that we will be able to use some in the Garden and also trade to obtain more cuttings (or rooted cuttings) of cultivars to propagate; I am not sure what our budget will allow for nursery stock in the coming year).

To finish the paving and paths.
At the moment, everything looks messy. Hard landscaping will pull it all together, so that even if a part is still messy, it won't look so bad.
Also, although I only water once a fortnight, when I do, the water runs onto the dirt paths in places, so that I end up squelching in the mud. I even slid and landed flat on my back, last time I watered!
Daisy

To be able to take 2 vacation days a week in May & June like I had done (except this year) without needing to work the overtime that is only available at this time of the year.

But it did save the days so I can get them off in September & October to do all the things that it has been too hot to do this summer.

World Peace.

But I'll settle for average rainfall and a cool summer next year. I believe my garden may be on some tours this spring, so I'm hoping I can avoid freaking out and getting too anal about weeds and pot ghettos and gopher damage. I would like to fill one huge hole in the very center of my garden with a large rose. Just can't decide which one!

Renee

I dont know how to answer this question. We've finally finished the hardscaping and planting as much as we could. Weeding...well I've been fighting that battle for decades...it will probably be around next year.
Probably have some holes to fill next spring but who knows. Time will tell.
Hopefully we'll have an easy spring.
Jeannie