Coming Up Roses
It's been raining buckets lately here in New Jersey, which has been both a good and a bad thing. It's been great for the gardens that my daughters and I have planted -- in the gardens, our peas, sunflowers, lettuce and cucumbers have sprouted, and the basil, oregano and tomatoes I've planted are doing well. Also, the yellow roses in my front yard have started to bloom, so I'm happy about that!
Weeds and More Weeds
What has not been so great is that all the rain has encouraged the weeds to grow in the planting bed in my home's front yard -- I am sure our neighbors hate our weeds! We're one of the maybe two or three people on our block who don't hire a lawn service (thrifty as we are), but because we're often busy on the weekends, the weeds have been having a heyday!
Cutting Back
So this morning, I got out some garden clippers and clipped back some of the overgrowth in my home's front planting bed. I cut the spent blooms from the spring, and cut back the evergreen bushes that have started to crowd out the roses. I also clipped a pretty rose stem to adorn my home's kitchen table -- nice!
One of these days, I have to get to the garden center -- I never seem to add enough mulch to my planting beds, so the weeds and grass always grow in them! Those bags of mulch are so heavy that I can only stand to purchase a few at a time. (The employees at the garden shop never offer to help me get the mulch to the car for some reason.)
I am thinking that maybe I should go to a local nursery and order a truckload of mulch -- and spend several days mulching all the garden beds!
Lauren Kim is the executive editor of MomHomeGuide.com, a website for moms on creating the perfect home for one's family.
JEAN ANDERSON
8:49 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
Lauren, if you are going to cart the mulch at the store you might as well get the free mulch Lawrence Township makes for us from the leaves we rake in the Fall. The price is sooo right!
Conrad C.
6:16 pm on Thursday, May 24, 2012
Find good quality mulch from a garden center or mulch supplier. What you want is triplel ground hardwood mulch. The free stuff from Lawrence is free, but often badly ground and you never know what you get in it. Lots of trash etc. in it. Also, all of that tacky colored mulch suburbia likes to use, you know, "color enhanced" or "red dyed" or "black dyed" is mostly ground up pallets. They don't use quality wood because they are dying it. Some of the dye can cause allergic reactions also depending on what they use. Cedar mulch is a good choice also. bagged stuff often sits around too long and becomes a soggy, compressed mess at certain garden centers or big box stores. Plus you are actually paying more and often it's badly ground low quality stuff. Unless all you really need is a few bags for a small space, get it delivered by the yard.