There is a problem growing roses to close to veggies. They get diseases & don't think natural stuff works all the time. I've moved my strawberries & onions away from the rose garden. Mildew, black spot, scale etc all require something to get rid of them, rust, leaves orange stuff I sure don't want on my strawberries. Years ago it was not so humid, now that climate has changed some they don't work close together. Don't know about the lattice, didn't know any of it was PT mine isn't. I do have cedar 12 in wide boards, rough on 1 side that is still like new. I saw guy taking it off his house & asked if I could have it. Most was 8 ft long 12 in wide & 1 in. thick. Made a gate from some, made walkway(nailed down) all over in attic & use rest in garden around strawberry bed in winter so helps keep from freezing & by mini rose garden so wind doesn't whip off the leaves & so they are protected some. Looks like when I got it & I've had it at least 5 yrs.Cedar is at least 30 yrs old. My lattice is just about 20-30 yrs old & it did used to be thicker, I have couple of sheets newer & it has had to have repairs & I've added small nails to keep it together. Roses don't do much climbing, you have to wire them on or tie them on with string or twine or they will flop over. I have a 40 yr old yellow peace climber with huge flowers & it stands alone most of time or run wire from top of patio cover to it to hold it up & pink peace in corner of yard has a fan shaped support that I wire it to some. Maybe New Dawn or some like that would go through the lattice as their habit is more delicate(I think) the peace climbers get canes 2 in. thick or more. You need some room in front of roses before the veggies to trim out wild growing canes,or tieing them up so your veggies aren't in shade. Good Luck!

Wellspring - my path system works very well for me on a variety of levels, some of which may be appropriate for you as well. I'll try to give a description that might help you visualize it. The backyard garden and paths evolved over our 9 years here and are now in a pretty ideal state for my needs. The backyard is roughly rectangular (one side is a few feet longer than the other but imagine a rectangle...) The house is on the east side; the back of the house forms an L, with a poured concrete patio filling the L to make it a rectangle and making a straight line across the back. So the backyard rectangle has the house and patio as its east boundary, and chainlink fences on the other three sides. There is an 8' wide alley along the north and south sides of the house. There is a 4" drop from the concrete patio to the lawn and that is ramped with paving stones - a wide (~7') ramp on the west side and a narrow 24" one on the north side. There is a 3' wide pinebark/sand mix path that runs from the driveway at the front of the house, through the south gate, down the south alley, across the rear of the lot, up the north alley to the north gate. There is also a path that runs across the back of the house connecting the north and south alley paths. The larger ramp from the patio enpties onto that path. The narrow ramp empties onto the north alley path. The paths run along the fences. This spring we put in the final pinebark/sand path. We made the back lawn a rectangle. It is offset from the north fence by about 15' and offset from the south fence by about 20'. There is about 20' to the back fence. On the house side, it abuts the path along the back of the house. There is a 3' pinebark/sand path running between the lawn and the woodland garden beds that fill the space between the lawn path and the fence path. There are several cross paths that connect the inner and outer paths. So try to visualize a smaller rectangle nested in a bigger one with links between them and the larger rectangle linked to the front yard through the alley paths. The advantages of this arrangement for me are many and some seem pertinent to your situation. - We have dogs (one of our own - we used to have two - and we dogsit frequently for friends). Dogs inevitably want to patrol/run the fencelines so it is easy to do it here without damaging the garden. The dogs also love to just run for fun and exercise, chasing each other around the paths and leaping across the beds to cross from inner to outer paths via the secondary linking paths. They really do take the path of least restance so prefer to run on the paths and have never caused any damage to the garden beds! I'm sure your dogs would have fun with the paths. Since the dogs follow the paths, the pattern of paths effectively increases the exercise space by giving them more tracks to run on. - The outer paths are close to the fences so the fences are within reach for support if I need it (or orientaion references in your case.) - The ramp material and the path material is different so, while I can see the difference, my vision is a bit fuzzy so the different textures helps confirm that I've moved from the path to the patio ramp or vice versa. - Similarly, there is a difference in texture between the bark path and the lawn so you notice when you've strayed off the lawn path and onto the lawn or can tell when you've moved onto the lawn deliberately. - The lawn is nice and easy to mow now as there are no curves (other than to smooth the corners of the rectangle). And the beds don't require edging any more because the lawn path separates the grass from the beds by 3'! Our lawn grass doesn't seem to like the path material so hasn't tried to grow across the path. The path material will probably need topping up every few years as the bark breaks down so adding new bark/sand will help smother any grass that tries to encroach. If need be, a bit of Round-up could be used to zap any encroaching grass. So the lawn path simplifies garden maintenance enormously! - The combination of pinebork mulch and concrete sand packs down firmly. The dogs sometimes leave lauch grooves and skid marks when they get racing about. It's easy to rake it flat again with a garden rake. And as I noted above, falling on the bark-based path gives a softer landing than falling on hardscaping of any sort. Sorry to be long-winded but I thought maybe there might be useful ideas for you in what I've done here.

I can't believe I never went to Garden in the Woods when I lived in MA about thirty minutes away - now it would be a six hour drive. I have some of Cullina's books from the library now, and you know those people working there exhibit no restraint whatsoever - fiddling with conditions to come up with twenty different ecologies and plant communities - most which have nothing to do with that part of MA - it's probably catching. Hope all your treasures do well in your garden.

Trubby, Well, of course they returned in broad daylight....they had to check and make sure they hadn't accidentally left any spinach for you! The eat lots of other stuff, too, but have never touched my carrots either. They do seem to love bean plants as well. And where were the eight magnificant mongrels with whom you share your home? Asleep on the job? Away chasing the deer? I have a 12-year-old Australian Shepherd who instinctively knows when something is in the garden. She'll wake you up having a fit because she knows something is out there and she wants to go get it (and right now!), and she is right every time. She's half-lame now, totally deaf and about half-blind, so she gives "the bark" and two of the younger dogs chase off the deer, rabbits, possums, armadillos, coons or whatever. For a while, the mama dog, who is a terrier mix, would kill the rabbits and bring me their heads. She would politely leave that mangled head on the Welcome Mat by the front door where I was sure to find it. After numerous scoldings, I broke her of that. Well, she still might be killing the rabbits (although I don't think she is) but she no longer leaves body parts on the Welcome Mat. So, I wonder if your spinach-eating rabbits have super strength? Well, at least spinach grows fast so you have time to plant a new crop. Did they nibble it off and leave the roots? If so, it might resprout. Or, did they essentially pull it up, roots and all? If those rabbits keep coming back, it might be time for rabbit stew. Dawn