Thursday, Jun. 07, 2007 – 7:20 p.m.
2007-06-07 7:20
Weeding….
Several weeks ago, (ok, I should have entered this posting then…), I weeded and cut the grass from around the rest of the fence line and the base of the rose beds. I think it must have been April 28-29 because on April 21, the RRS did a membership drive event at the State Farmers Market. The weather was glorious… sunny and in the mid 70s. I ended up doing my longest bike ride to-date that day. I rode around Raleigh (and I do mean AROUND). I basically did a big loop on the greenways from south-west Raleigh to south-east Raleigh (following the Rocky Branch greenway) then up by Wake Med where I picked up the greenway that runs along Crabtree Creek. Rode that (and connecting greenways) around near Crabtree Valley mall then up north and over to Lake Lynn, From there I basically retrace my path till I was inside the beltline then followed the bike route that runs back to NCSU. Total distance: 40 miles. (grin)
Ok, back to the roses…. so the weekend of April 28/29, I think it was cloudy and I weeding. I got most of the weeding done… though I think I must have also weeded the following weekend (May 5/6: Crown Tourney Weekend) as well… because I didn’t get it all done in one weekend and I was taking care of Emerson. So that was over a month ago … and of course I need to weed again since I haven’t done any weeding since. (sigh)
I also put down some 13-13-13 fertilizer when I was done weeding…. Now if I could just remember if I actually fed everything or just some beds. ARGH. oh well.
Watering…
So, last weekend (May 27/28), I was going to spray the roses. Since I was again dog-sitting Emerson, I went and sprayed Francesca’s roses Saturday morning. That went fine (though she really needs to cut back the lavender border… It is taller than the roses!!). When I got to my house in the afternoon, I figured I should give my roses a drink so they would be well hydrated and not stressed when I sprayed the following morning. I then discovered that when I had mowed the front lawn the previous weekend, I had neglected to reconnect the hoses to the permanent soaker hoses in the beds. Ooops! and it had been the first week of really warm weather we had experienced plus it had not rained it quite a while so we were basically in drought conditions. Things went from bad to worse: Turns out that a part in my faucet had failed (the vacuum breaker) and I could not find a replacement part over this holiday weekend. Ended up having to order the part on the internet and the shipping cost almost as much as the part itself (because I wanted it 2-day air). I should point out that I only have one outside faucet so it was not like I could just run the hose from a different spicket.
In the mean time, I did NOT spray the roses, despite the fact that I have bad mildew infestation. Even with the draught conditions, the bushes in the ground seemed to be doing ok. The roses in pots, on the other hand, were in a bad way. CRISPY. (Yikes!) I ended up filling buckets from the faucet (without a hose connector… the vacuum breaker is where the hose connected to the faucet) and watering the potted roses by hand until the part came in. Still, there is a possiblity that I may lose some the the bushes, like the ones I rescued from Columbia prior to the new garage. (sigh)
Anyway, we are now back to normal and have actually gotten some rain (from the first tropical storm of the season, Barry).
Teaching….
This past weekend was the Raleigh Rose Society’s rose show… but I didn’t go. I had committed to teaching my “Roses Then and Now” class at summer Atlantia University event. Since it was being held in College Park, MD (a good 5 hour drive), I was fortunate that my class was not until the middle of the afternoon. I decided to take the morning to drive up. I got up early saturday morning, cut a bunch of roses and hit the road. The class went well; I had about 14 students. It would have gone better if I had remembered to go through and organize my overhead slides (they had gotten out of order) and if I had not run over on time. On the other hand, the guy who taught the class before me took a while to get packed up so I was behind time to start with. After class was done, I had my bucket of roses that I walked around and if a lady say “Oooo! Roses!”, I let her have a couple blooms. Alas, I ended up with only one Lady Berkeley bloom left when an attractive young lady I had been introduced earlier came by. (sigh)
Spraying….
The remains of Tropical Storm Barry came through as I was driving back from DC. I had been planning to spray on Sunday but it rained much of the day. Oh well. I finally got up early enough this morning to actually get out there and spray. Made four gallons of mix with Funginex and Mancozeb and added in Merit because, alas, the japanese beetles have arrived. GRRRRR! Lots of stuff is blooming (including the two big gardenias) but I am going to have to get out and do some deadheading now.
Well enough for now!