Judith’s Corner - January 2003

 If it wasn’t for the fact that all my fingernails are of equal length, it would be hard to tell that it’s winter--I haven’t broken a nail since October. As I’m writing, it’s 60 degrees outside and buds are breaking on my neighbor’s trees. The ground in my yard hasn’t frozen, so I haven’t mulched my hybrid teas--some of my roses look dormant, and some are still putting on new growth, especially my Fourth of July climbers. Remember the first rule of gardening--just when you think you know the rules, circumstances change the rules.

 And, the predictions for this year’s spring weather are going to confuse things more. We’re supposed to be getting several heavy, wet snows in late spring, with accompanying arctic weather. Last year we had several late, killing, frosts, and then fierce, hot winds--that Mother Nature is a real card, isn’t she? I suspect she’s fed up with all of us.

 I have doubled my composting capacity this year (I use composters called the Garden Gourmet), so I should be able to add compost to every planting bed. My composters sit on a pallet in full sun, so they’ve cooked along well this year. I’ve also begun adding nitrogen to my compost, to offset nitrogen losses from decomposing materials.

 I purchased a Toro leaf blower that also sucks up and mulches leaves. My neighbor has a huge cottonwood that drops all of its billions of leaves on my yard. Cottonwood leaves don’t break down well, and can form an impermeable mat when they build up on the ground. This year I sucked all those leaves up and turned them into small, usable mulch, which made me feel very smug. This solution will keep me out of jail, because I’ve had fantasies about cutting down that cottonwood by dark of night!

 My mail is full of rose catalogues, so it’s time to plan for adding new roses. So far, I haven’t had a plan--I have roses all over my yard, with no particular rhyme or reason. I regret that, now, but my long term plan is to plant around my errors, and turn them into successes. This is an idea that allows for adding roses rather than subtracting the mistakes. Even my mistakes bloom, after all. My pathetic Dolly Parton perked up a little this year and had a few beautifully fragrant blooms, so I won’t shovel-prune it just yet.

 As far as possible, I want to be able to buy roses locally--the catalogues are nice for pictures and finding out about new roses, but the prices are high and it takes a lot longer to get a full sized plant. As GVRS gets larger, we hope to provide the local nurseries with lists of varieties our members are interested in--as an organization, one of our long term goals should be to inform the public about all the varieties of roses available, creating demands that the nurseries can feel comfortable trying to meet.

 I received The Rose Bible for Christmas, so as much as I like hybrid-teas, I also crave heirlooms, David Austins, shrub roses, Gallicas, Bourbons, hybrid perpetuals--I want some of ALL of them. More roses--that’s my resolution for 2003!

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