Four-Legged Foes: Cats and Rats!

March 17, 2024Leave a comment

Living in a classic Baltimore County, Maryland rowhome built in the early 1950s, it’s not unusual to coexist with cats and rats. As discussed in an earlier post, a neighborhood cat thinks my flower bed which hosts pink roses, is her personal litter box. Using her hind legs, she creates mounds of mulch to cover up her unclean presents, and thereby, exposes soil to germinate weeds. The cat is unintentionally creating more work for me by moving around the mulch. On the plus side, the neighborhood cats help keep away rats and mice from creating a nest or munching on my mulch and other plants. It could be worse. Some gardeners in more suburban or rural areas battle deer, groundhogs, moles, and voles. I hear those four-legged foes think roses are a tasty buffet!

With my four-legged foes in mind, on Friday, March 15, 2024, I took the day off from my office job in advance to weed and mulch ‘the pink patch’. I experimented by placing bamboo skewers throughout the bed to deter pests and pets from tromping through my flower bed. Should the visiting cat need to use the restroom, she may feel a little jab, and choose to defecate elsewhere. Likewise, a hungry rodent might decide to go grocery shopping anywhere but on my property! Overall, I think the project was a success as I don’t see redistributed mulch (no fresh mounds) thus far. I just have to remember they are there later in the season when I need to tidy up the bed. They are disguised so well within the mulch. Can you see the skewers in these photos? It’s like a game of Where’s Waldo.

While weeding, mulching, and realizing I’m another year older, I transplanted a small lavender plant, as well as a mound of Lamb’s Ear into their new homes in a different bed. Earlier this month, I ordered ‘Magic Show Pink Potion’ Veronica Speedwells, ‘Fruit Punch Sweetie Pie’ pink dianthus, and more ‘Sweet Romance’ lavender from Proven Winners to add to other beds. I look forward to their arrival and seeing mounds of purple and pink in full bloom! I have a color theme of pink, purple, white, and yellow in my various beds.

My gardening goals this year are to experiment with more perennials to compliment my roses and to invite two-legged guests to tour my ever-blooming garden. Cats and rats are not allowed! Okay, so a cat can visit, just not redistribute mulch!

Happy growing, rose buds!

Optimal Growth

March 5, 20242 Comments

With spring approaching, I’ve been busy preparing my garden for optimal growth. My shed is packed with numerous bags of pine nugget mulch among a variety of garden tools, and I had a small retaining wall recently built in the corner bed to prevent further erosion from the rain. Additionally, tonight, after getting home from work, I quickly pruned and fertilized what I affectionately refer to as ‘The Pink Patch’. The pink patch is a narrow border bed between my home and my neighbor’s property. It hosts several pink rose bushes including ‘Sweet Drift’ and the narrow bed concludes with the hybrid tea, ‘Chicago Peace’ near the garden’s gate. Essentially, I have created a pink hedge – although, at the moment, there is no pink in the pink patch due to the natural effects of winter dormancy. Unfortunately, a stray cat thinks the pink patch is her litter box, which motivated me to prune and fertilize a tad earlier than I normally would because I am hoping the drift roses will unfurl and expand making it difficult for the neighborhood cat to use the rose bed as a restroom. Then again, the stray cat will likely move onto one of my many other flower beds.

‘Sweet Drift’ roses and ‘Chicago Peace’ on the left make up ‘The Pink Patch’ while the wild cane on the right is ‘Earth Angel’.

This bloom of Chicago Peace is past her prime but still a lovely blend of pinks, apricots, and lilac.

During this past Sunday’s beautiful sunshine, I created a new garden bed to house a rose bush that I planted last year but I underestimated her size. After seeing ‘Earth Angel’, a fragrant and romantic floribunda, produce long canes during her first year, I recently researched her size in gardening forums (sometimes the size stated on vendor’s websites is not the reality in all gardening zones). Turns out, this rose can get 5′ by 4′ not 3′ by 3′. Similarly, it’s been my observation from past gardens of mine that Sweet Drift’s height and width grow approximately double what the label claims. So, I dug a new hole elsewhere for Earth Angel, pruned her back, dug her up, and transplanted her, gambling that the weather forecast would continue to remain above freezing. Then I made a new bed around her using cardboard to cover the grass, put dirt on top of the cardboard, and spread a layer of mulch to top it all off. Through it all, I noticed the recently erected small retaining wall for the corner bed partially covered the base of two daisies. I subsequently had to transplant them for optimal growth as well, which reminded me that sometimes that is the case for us humans too. Selah.

What’s happening in your garden and the proverbial, spiritual garden of your heart? Is construction, pruning, fertilizing, transplanting, or all of the above needed for optimal growth this spring? Like, subscribe, and comment below.

Be ever-blooming, rose buds!

In March of 2024, a new flower bed and the small retaining wall in the corner bed “bloomed”.

Chocolate and Roses

March 25, 2016Leave a comment

“Sweet Drift” enjoys cocoa hull mulch.

When you think of chocolate and roses, Valentine’s Day may come to mind, but did you know there is mulch that smells like chocolate? Cocoa hull mulch or cocoa shell mulch is simply the shell of the roasted cocoa bean. This economical, organic, and dark colored mulch is readily available at many nurseries in the area or online and boasts a divine smell as well as other benefits to your garden. Some benefits to this aromatic mulch is it improves the soil since it has a pH of 5.8 and puts nitrogen back into the soil, whereas rapidly decaying organic mulches reduce nitrogen level. It also helps retains moisture and cocoa hull mulch helps prevents weeds as it interlocks together when wet creating a nice barrier. In addition, it helps repel slugs, snails, termites, and some bugs.Another benefit is cocoa shell mulch gets darker as it ages not lighter like most mulches.

A word of caution though if you have small children or pets, cocoa shell mulch can cause physical illness or death if consumed in large quantities, but most animals would not be attracted to it in the first place. Nevertheless, something to consider. Another factor to be aware of when considering this mulch is a harmless mold can grow on it if over-watered or when in very humid conditions with not much air circulation. A simple solution of vinegar mixed with some water will resolve this issue though.

Personally, because of it’s smell, textures, natural resource, and benefits to my roses, I am a big fan of cocoa hull mulch! It seems everyday is Valentine’s in my garden!

The Irony

March 18, 2016February 21, 2023Leave a comment

Eden {photo credit: unknown}

Upon waking up this morning, my heart nearly stopped when looking at my phone to see snow in this weekend’s forecast. The irony of snow falling on the first day of the much anticipated warmth of Spring. Ordinarily, such a surprise winter attack would not be cause of panic, but when one considers I just planted the newly arrived and leafed out Eden rose a few days prior, my heart sank. Not to mention, freezing temperatures were not in the forecast. Even the forsythia are blooming as well as Japanese Magnolia trees (also known as Tulip Trees) and Eastern Red Bud Trees. With such promising signs the welcomed warmth of Spring was seemingly here to stay, I proceeded in clearing my rose beds and pruning my beloved rose babies just last week.

Naturally, prior to even completing a full cup of coffee, I was on the phone with my local nursery getting critical feedback on how to protect my newest addition, Eden. Upon receiving such advice, I also called Heirloom Roses, where I ordered Eden from, to get a second opinion. Both retailers suggested I apply mulch around the base of the plant then cover the hopeful bush with a 5 gallon bucket and blanket of sorts using a brick to secure it. Fair enough.

While driving to the nursery to purchase mulch for our emergency rose rescue operation, my husband gently, but adamantly declared we will most ardently not be purchasing any more roses in this trip or ever as our yard is small yet full of roses (plus I do believe he is tired of breaking ground). I calmly assured him not to worry. After all, unbeknownst to him, I already inquired on the local nursery’s rose inventory and was informed all they had right now was a few bare roots and left over Knock Outs. Naturally, I had every intention of still browsing their selection as well as all the other garden candy they had to offer. Ironically and much to my surprise, upon walking up to the few bare roots they had on display, my adamant “no more roses” husband immediately fell in love with Angel Face, a lavender purple color rose and promptly suggested we get it (we can plant the bare root rose once this cold snap passes).

Angel Face (photo credit: Pinterest)

Consequently, I about fell over… Then again, I did pull him close and hugged him before entering “the danger zone” of the nursery (aka where they keep the roses). Ha! Although I did not knowingly intend to manipulate, I discovered bodily contact within the nursery limits was certainly a good way to get more roses should he ever attempt to intervene in my apparent rose addiction again.

With all that said, I’m hoping, of course, the up and coming snow fall turns out to be a bust, but am thankful regardless for it provided me an unexpected rose and a productive day of weeding and mulching! The irony!

(Update: Thankfully, the weather experts were wrong. It didn’t snow nor even rained. But God cares about roses and still answers prayers!) 😄