Jeri: As always thank you for your advice. Few more questions. My rose bed is the only sunny part in the yard so beside roses all my other sun loving plants get dumped there too. Thins like Oriental Lilies, Mary Gold ( to cover the base of the roses), and maybe a new set of perennial since I am re-doing the bed. Can bulbs, coneflowers or other deciduous plants push through the mulch in spring by themselves or it has to be removed for them? Is the mulch you mentioned the very fine and almost like compost/dirt kind? What happens if in the processes of planting new stuff dirt gets mixed with it? Does it have to be topped off every year or every other year to keep it clean and fresh looking? Can compost be used mulch? Sorry for long list of questions but these issues always kept me from mulching. I mulched one bed with redwood chips last year and in process of replacing 6 plants, the chips all got mixed with soil and it is a very ugly sight.

MUCH of what we're seeing this year IS due to the weirder than usual weather. Diseases and insects are at all time highs. I'm seeing tremendous die back on normally RUDELY healthy, vigorous roses here (Iceberg, Sally Holmes, Polka, Grandmother's Hat and shrubs of all types)I've never seen before and it is NOT due to any chemical applications. These gardens all have dogs which are not restricted in any way, other than to not be allowed out front where they can get into trouble. One has three small children, one of which has developmental issues and can't be trusted not to touch or eat things you'd normally expect to be safe. I don't spray any pesticides or fungicides in those areas, period. There aren't any aphids (too hot) but there are spider mites and scale which haven't been issues. There is the die back and slow growth which haven't been issues before. There is black spot and there is rust, and this is in arid gardens. But, this year, we got at least 150% normal rainfall. There has been humidity like never before. Morning fogs, afternoon mugginess and the compacted soils are just soggy with ground water and irrigation. The roses which are doing best are getting hosed out at least twice monthly to remove debris and insects. We've been in a perfect model for Fire Blight, humid/cool, humid/hot, humid/cool and I'm sure similar things are attacking roses and other species, too. Common areas are being watered more heavily and run off is affecting homeowner plantings as well. Few roses are behaving as they have for many years. It has to be the changed environment. Nothing else is different. Providing them with the resources they need is about all you can do without chemically making matters worse. I agree about removing the offending varieties, but you should perhaps wait until you are sure the conditions aren't going back to what they were previously. It seems a shame to toss something that's been great for years based upon a season of weirdness. As for horse manure, I had excellent results in arid, hot Newhall on virgin adobe, from "apples" still steaming, straight from the "machine". Just use enough water and keep it away from the crown/union of the plants. Worked wonders! Kim

Thanks for the feedback, lazy_gardens! Don't worry I won't strip the forests down if I do gather some from there. I've got an old cabin that I've been working on for *years* and the grounds around it really need clearing. Also, a clear-cut down the road has a lot of waste (don't they always!) that I could gather some from and wouldn't make a dent in it. We'll see... :) I was thinking that cutting the 50' rows in half with a path *was* creating a shortcut to the other side of the rows. ;) The idea of a stepping stone mid-25' row might work, though. Thanks for the idea! As for the irrigation line... I'm figuring on having two lines going down each bed hoping that will be enough. If that's not enough I can add another line. What I'm torn between is whether to go with poly-tubing drip-line or to go with drip-tape. They both have their pros and cons. The tape would need to be replaced more often but it is much less expensive and replacing it would put all new emitters into play. But, the durability of the tubing is attractive, too. It appears that the 1/2" tubing has a much longer run/flow to it than the 1/4" tubing does. It seems the 1/2" would be stiffer and a bit more trouble to position but probably(?) more durable and is capable of longer runs. Looking at the quantity of tape/tubing I figure I need 400' to run two lines per bed. The package that I linked to at Berry Hill has 1000' of tape which would give me a "spare" application of lines plus a couple of hundred feet for repairs/additions. But, I certainly don't need a SFG size kit...it will have to be a sizable one. Paths...I've thought of the cardboard and pinestraw....seems until the cardboard gets good and wet that might be a slippery surface. :) But, I may end up going that route. I'm also thinking of trying some Dutch clover between a few rows and see if that works out...our heat might do it in, though, during the middle of summer. Deer... Well, I tilled an "apron" around the garden proper yesterday...a DMZ to combat the bahia that will inevitably attempt invasions. Overnight the deer had to check that fresh ground out. I'm afraid that the row covers would simply be an amusement for the deer...something to scratch their ears while they dine on fresh veggies. I think I'm going to need a physical barrier for them...8' fence. Or, maybe a shorter double electric fence. On a bright note...I started pressure canning meat last year...I've done beef, chicken, and pork. It might be getting time to try deer. ;) Ed

Fortunately I'm not responsible for the flowers in my household, but agree too many variables to attribute to the mulch. But by all means try some other mulch. Stepping back a little, I think there's different points and goals going on here. One is mulch as a weed suppressant, and mulch as long-term soil amendment/enrichment. All organic mulches eventually contribute to a decent soil, once they've broken down. In thick enough layers, they deprive weeds below of sunlight, and generally make weeding easier, if weeds are less numerous and in loose mulch. Healthy perennials and annuals planted below that mulch do fine. Then there's mulch that doesn't provide a good environment for germinating (hence we bring seedlings in and plant through/below the mulch). This is where I think these ideas that e.g. wood chips steal nitrogen and pine needles are too acidic - they may well be environments that are hostile to germination/growth of young plants in the mulch above the soil. The points are true in a specific sense but don't generalise to e.g. compost made from this stuff or what it does to full grown plants. As a mulch, that may be true at the top mulch layer, but won't matter much several inches down if plants have rooted. If it was true when the mulch was first laid down, decomposition and time will deal with the imbalances (ph level tends to neutral, nitrogen "hungry' mulch gets colonised by fungi and bacteria that bring their nitrogen with them, some natural chemicals get broken down over time). So yeah, for example, under conifers with lots of needles underneath, not much else grows, and if you test that top layer, it may be acidic. So not much new germinates or grows under (some) big conifers - although that is almost certainly partly due to lack of light and the soil that the conifers prefer to grow in, too, not to mention their heavy consumption of nutrients in the soil and root systems, etc. (Also true under some other trees too so it's not just needles) Anyway, sorry for the verbiage, still comes down to 'if something seems to be working, keep doing that', perhaps supplemented by 'if something doesn't work, it doesn't mean the mulch you just tried was the issue' (although clearly didn't solve the problem either).