We use fresh wood chips for our pathways. It makes for a nice bright yellow pathway which then weathers to a nice grey and finally earthy brown once it's broken down. Breaking down takes about a year and then we use it as a soil amendment. Sometimes we screen it, and sometimes not. We lay down 4 to 6 inches of wood chips in the pathway. Sort of a pain in the neck, but we live in a triple decker neighborhood and a lot of folks look into our garden and this makes for a nice "something's alive" look in the midst of a dreary New England winter. Note: In our community garden the Fire Department was once called to put out a steaming pile of fresh wood chips. They had a bit of a hard time understanding the pile wasn't actually burning, but was getting digested by bacteria.

While it should be possible to bud to either of your choices, the Gloire des Rosomanes would likely be the better choice. I don't know if the Tea and Californica would be genetically compatible. There can arise an incompatibility issue where the buds simply won't knit because they are genetically unsuitable for each other. Judge Henry Fonda who operated a small nursery in his retirement in Mar Vista, CA, by Santa Monica, tried unsuccessfully for many years to use his huge Cl. Cecile Brunner for standard stocks. The thing refused every scion he tried on it. He was skilled at budding, but Cecile was more obstinate than he was skilled, leading him to theorize she was just genetically incompatible with anything slid under her skin. You don't have to have "young" stocks for budding. I have successfully budded to three year old stocks this summer. Ones I had intended to use for other ideas, but never got around to them, so they sat there, waiting for the need. As long as it's possible to easily slice into the bark to expose the cambium, it's possible to use. When they become so "barky" you can't easily work them, that might possibly be too old. Another reason you probably don't want to mess with the Californica is it suckers MADLY, all over. Rose producers in very cold climates tried Rugosa stocks for cold hardy standards decades ago. They worked, but they also colonized the gardens in which they were unleashed. Ragged Robin won't do that...or won't anywhere nearly as as badly. You'll want to de bud your Glorie des Rosomanes cuttings, all but the top one or two growth buds. You may leave the growth tip on them as one of the upper buds. You want the stock to continue pushing foliage on top to keep the sap flowing and feed the plant. After that, it's a simple matter of inserting the buds and tying them in. If you're using Parafilm, you may want to wrap it over the bud several times to keep it tightly in contact with the cambium of the stock. Sealing the bud in with the Parafilm also can help prevent it from drying out as quickly until it knits and begins absorbing sap from the stock. Parafilm will split as the bud swells, so you don't have to worry about it girdling the stock or strangling the bud. A couple of hints about bud selection...you can use almost any bud you wish, but selecting those closer to actually growing will often result in faster growth. This is probably the most elegant job of budding I have ever accomplished, but the danged bud is dormant and will probably take until next season to mature sufficiently to grow. Notice how flat it is against the shield (the portion of wood sliced from the bud stick or plant stem). It will work, but it isn't going to push any new growth this year. Selecting buds which are closer to growth, such as these, will result in much faster response after you cut the top of the stock off above the bud or buds. You can even use them about to this stage of development, but they are more likely to fail due to water stress because of the developing leaves. As long as the growth is still tightly contained within the bud, water stress isn't as easy to encounter. Once they start forming thin foliage tissue, they can dry out quite quickly as there is thinner tissue and greater surface area to transpire water from. It takes about three weeks for the buds to knit to the stocks. Keep them well watered all that time to keep forcing sap up the stocks to keep the buds irrigated and the growth pushing. From more swollen buds as I've shown above, you could easily see them begin to push out like this... as early as about the time you "head them back", cut off the top of the stock above the bud. This image is of a bud I inserted on July 1 and cut back a week or so ago. It was when I was posting about not being able to stop the stocks from 'bleeding'. This one wouldn't stop with the Elmer's Glue, so it is sealed with a cool melt candle dripped over the wound. Pruning sealer or grafting wax will probably work, too. From July 1 to August 13 is all it's taken from a bud stick to this amount of growth. Good luck and have a ball with them! Kim

Oh--photo print paper, etc.! I do this in a drawer intended for files--I just put some hanging folders in there, and set the paper in the folders. But that does raise the stuff in the folders up a little, and some of the outer cardboard envelopes of the sticky labels, etc., do come close to the top of the drawer. If you think that might happen to you, then just get one of those "desk sorter" or "vertical sorter," or a "pot lid rack" to go in the bottom. That will keep them from flopping over, and make it easy to pull them out. (though, some of those 'desk sorter' things are themselves raised up a bit at the bottom; if that bottom platform is very high you might have a problem, so get one w/ the flattest platform possible. Or you could cut some foam board or mat board about 4 inches too wide for the drawer, score it two inches from each end, then fold it to make a flap on each end, and then staple-gun the flaps to the walls of the drawer. That will keep the envelopes from flopping around. Just make the divider a couple of inches shorter that the drawer.

annpat, I'm not sure anyone was referring to mulch as a single material :-) The question here was is it safe to use wood chips as a mulch and that answer is yes! Of course you can buy 'mulch'......many places sell a product labeled as such, although what exactly it is will vary from place to place :-) But the intent is that it will be used to topdress garden planting beds. I DO understand what you are saying.....really any product or material, from grass clippings to shredded bark, to hazelnut shells to compost or wood chips (or even recycled tires and gravel or river rock) IS a mulch when used in that manner........there is no generic material known as 'mulch'. And they will all achieve pretty much the same thing - weed suppression, soil insulation and moisture retention. And the organics have the added bonus of improving soil conditions and soil biology over time. I am also not sure I would be so bold to say that "real" gardeners only use leaf or compost mulches :-) After 50 years or so of gardening both professionally and personally (and with a couple of degrees attached) and growing everything from Asparagus to Zantedeschia, I would like to think I qualify as a "real" gardener and I have used all manner of organic products to mulch with, including wood chips. What it all boils down to is a matter of personal preference, not that one type of organic mulch is the best. Doug, the nitrogen tie up or depletion only occurs when the wood chips (or bark or sawdust or any other wood product for that matter) is incorporated into the soil. When used as a mulch or top dressing, that is of minimal concern and adding a high N fert source to offset is not necessary.