Peach Profusion, Papa Meilland, Mr Lincoln And Stainless Steel

James often looks out the window and sais: ‘that’s a pretty good garden’, and he likes it when his mates come over and comment on ‘his’ garden, so he’s OK with the roses. He did protest when I came home with yet another rose, telling me I couldn’t have any more until next winter at one stage, but he doesn’t do that anymore.

lol jac .. no more till next winter

You'll have to post some photos of the whole garden (sorry if you have done this if I have missed the post)

That’s right, Dan, I’m done with all this next-winter-crap …

My garden is a work in progress, and I’ll post the pix as soon as I’m done; but there’s nothing stopping you from coming over and have a look for yourself, Teesh.
I should add that I’ve got cars slowing down now: When I go closer and squint to see who it is, people wave me away: “its OK, we’re just admiring your garden”. Sometimes this excites me so much that I pull them out of their cars and make them smell the roses (a bit embarrassing around midday when there usually are no fragrances detected).
I don’t really take people on tours around the garden anymore though, because there are no longer any borders here, and not all people can jump over taller plants equally gracefully and its most annoying when people ignore the boulders I’ve put into place as stepping stones and just trample across; there just started to be too many broken off buds. Most pedestrians comment positively, neighbors and strangers alike; my favorite came from a little boy on his tricycle: “How come we don’t have ANY flowers, Daddy?”

You've got to have a passion in life Rosy and Jac and if its gardening and roses , well i can't think of a better passion , beats going to the pub and pokies ( i hate them ) i tell my husband . I have two passions in life , gardening and footy , and don't you feel sorry for that little boy who has no flowers ... Please post photos Jac and Teesh of your whole gardens , would love to see too .....

I would love to Jac! Thank you Our front garden is 1/3 the way there. I snuck 5 roses in there along with some mock orange, lavender, mint and jasmine. There's so much land to fill at the front but its not good soil for my roses. Although some of them seem to be doing ok, so the majority of our roses are in the pool area, apart from petals in the pool, I love lying by the pool and looking at our roses.
My hubby helps me with the gardening, we had to rip the entire garden out when we bought the house last year. I will post some before and after shots when I take some tomorrow

Yes, that’s the one I’m using, Maree: I could spend a whole lot more, if I was into fine wines, plus I would be drunk and stink, my oh my are you lucky I happen to like roses instead.
We all know what that little boy will do when he grows up …

Teesh, I just lopped a HUGE 3x2m Mock Orange to make room for Brother Cadfael, who had to come out of his pot. I adore MO’s fragrance, just magic, but they’ll take over, if not controlled carefully. My neighbor planted a hedge of them and I benefit from the fragrance coming from it, and taking mine out was no loss. I have hundreds of MO seedlings under the trees in my backyard, so I potted some up to maybe plant a hedge between the nature strip and the road, because I must do something about this wind here …
Mint also takes over and is better kept in pots; love, love, love lavender and jasmine, two definite favorites and your selection sounds beautiful and fragrant. If your soil is bad in the front, I suggest you get your hands on some fresh manure and cover the whole area with it and then put a thick layer of sugar cane or leaf mulch on top (that will also cover the smell) and just leave it until next winter. Then all you need to do is turn the soil before planting and anything will grow there.

Thanks Jac The lavender just loves the position it is in, although it's SO big I had to cut it back. I would love to put manure on it, however, it's too close to our bedroom window, and when I put some chook poo down the smell was almost unbearable lol. The other plants do really well there but the roses not so much. They are still doing ok though. But also, I don't pay as much attention to the front roses as the back, that's my bad

This tip came from a guy we ran into who had gone and gotten a degree in horticulture and now runs a gardening business in Toowoomba. He assured me, if I put a very thick layer of mulch on top, I wouldn’t smell a thing. He said it was the best way to start a new garden from a blank slate, it just has be left in place for a season, so its not an instant solution.
When I took the lawn away or as I continue to do this gradually, I replace the soil that I’m building in the back and behind the shed. Never mind, if all your other plants are doing well in that area; maybe the roses there just need some extra mulching and foliar feeds.

The guy we bought the house off of did put soil down, then a weed mat, then ROCKS!! Millions and millions of rocks. So it would take us months to remove them all. We just dig the plants in at the moment which seems to work. I think the roses may just need a little more TLC There's a good 20-25m of land by about 4-5m so a lot of garden. We have done the back yard which is 20m but that only had rhoeo to pull out and no rocks (20 metres long 0.5m high 2m wide!!!!!). It was more than 5 trailer loads full of it. I never want to see rhoeo again! lol

Your kidding, Teesh, what is it with the weed mats and rocks. I had the same here, shoveled piles and piles of the krep away and have an everlasting supply of gravel for my pots now. I tried to give some to my neighbors and they all laughed and pointed to their own piles. A garden vandal, who wanted to ensure that nobody could ever plant anything in those areas again, dreamed up this crazy arrangement.
You’ve got a wonderful piece of land there; I’ve got a good amount of space, but not that much. My God, you’re going to have a lot of roses when you’re done.

We have so many gardens! I don't think I'll ever run out of space with gardens and grass hehe. We ripped up the fence too. We are still taking concrete to the tip. We found concrete, bricks and even roof tiles in the ground while doing the new fence. Weird!!

I know; I had this situation in my old garden, a new townhouse courtyard, where the builders used all their leftover rubbish as fill and just covered it with a small amount of topsoil. You wouldn’t believe what I pulled out of there and how much of it. I had to replace all the soil on short notice before my roses arrived. That’s why I put so much effort into building my soil this time around. People who just walk into properties with good soil are very lucky, becase that makes all the difference.