Until last year, I used to garden for my mother-in-law when I visited (2-3 times a year) and you could go to a pick-up place in one of the county parks (?) and take all the compost you wanted for free. I think you were supposed to be a resident, but no one was there to check. While I wasn't a resident, she was, so I felt ok about it. Over the years, I did it many times. I never had a truck, just my m-i-l's very fancy car, but I just saved the bags from when I bought other amendments or potting soil for her, and reused those and other assorted containers. Anyhow, I am not suggesting that you go to a different county to scam free compost, but that you look at other sources if you aren't happy with the compost from WF. BTW, compost from yard waste is perfectly fine to use. It heats to a much, much higher temp than home-made compost and is very, very unlikely to contain any weed seeds or pathogens. Aphids won't survive even home composting. Heck, they won't survive a blast of water from the hose. You can compost them yourself quite safely. "Some kind of mulch" is a whole 'nother story. Whatever that is, could, indeed, have brought in oak root fungus or some other disease. This would be especially true if the mulch was un-composted oak bark chips or something like that. But oak root fungus is so widespread in your region, your friend could have gotten in any number of ways. It often is dormant for many years before it starts showing symtoms, so it would be impossible to say it was "brought" in by any one item. If you can't get compost in your county for free, go to the nearest nursery or Home Depot and buy it. I would bet you nearly anything it would be cheaper than WF.

About the water in the hole - is that a normal spring occurrence or were you testing for drainage? There are differing opinions about the size of planting holes, and if amending the hole is wise, but I think it is all about drainage. My clay drains well, but it is still clay and it gets hard when we don't get a lot of rain in summer, so I dig big holes and amend like crazy in areas that haven't been cultivated yet. If you typically dig planting holes like the one in the picture and your plants thrive, then my guess is that it's ok. If I were doing the planting, I would dig up that entire area, then mix in (really well) - a few bags of compost/manure. If there is enough light for your rose, then there is enough for the clematis. The combination should be pretty.

Very nice....I love making roses. Instant gratification. I had some glass hearts that I put sprays of clay roses on. A great project for TV at night. They turned out great....always leary about going into the oven, but worked fine.

I visited Germany and fell in love with the Reutter miniatures. I bought a bakery room box and a few individual pieces (gardening), thinking I would make my own potting shed roombox one day. Then, last week I found a sewing shop diy kit online and purchased it. I will have to build all of it from the supplies in the box. I think I will enjoy making this because it is sewing related, besides the store front (its mostly precut wooden pieces) I'll be making ribbon spools, and bolts of fabric. Looks like a lot of fun. Anyone who has done this, could you tell me what kind (s) of glues I should be using? I was hoping to use something simple like (Aleens ?) Tacky glue. Thanks, tish