Progress in the rose garden

Rose bed, facing north

I dug out a wider border around the roses this week and that was just as much work as I expected (ouch!). I also took out two roses that were growing from the rootstock, which seemed to be some type of climbing rose, much too large for the bed. I'm sore now and have to sneak grass clumps into the yard waste can for a few weeks (too heavy to put in all at once) but the area looks much better than two weeks ago.

Rose bed, facing east

The rose beds are now an even four feet wide, with a temporary border of leftover composite decking. That will, hopefully, keep the grass out until perennials have time to grow and I can decide if this is the final size.

I'm still mulling over what to plant with the roses, trying not to order too many plants or make impulse buys at the nursery until I have a plan. I'm planning a border along the lawn, which will be partially lavender, but that's 19 feet on the north and 14.5 feet on the east so I want a little variety. I was thinking of mixing it with catmint (nepeta), but I've read that will grow larger than expected, so I don't want too much of it. Now trying to find another plant to intermix with lavender.

For groundcover, I'm looking at creeping thyme, veronica and lambs ear. Maybe some type of sedum? I don't water my roses much unless it's really hot out, but it's not a "rock garden" type of environment either. I can't find anything native that likes that much sun. I'll need a lot of groundcover plants to fill in as much space as possible, except right around the base of the roses.

Next up is the annual massacre... I mean, time to prune the roses. In the past, we've done that as early as Presidents' Day and as late as mid-March, mostly depending on when we had a dry weekend and energy to get it done. We're trying to follow the "when the forsythia blooms" rule now, and that will be very soon.