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After a February rain once my wife Annie asked
me why I was hand watering the plants along our driveway. I answered "It's the micro
climate alongside the bricks... makes them thirstier". You see along a driveway water
run-off is higher and so I plant my more water-dependent plants there and yet when using a
sprinkler they actually get less water at the perimeter, plus in extended hot weather the
radiant heat from the bricks, dries the soil faster, so they need a top up more
frequently. Annie's barely convinced, but you must have similar areas? If you have ignored all earlier warnings to fertilize your lawn,
this is the weekend! If it's large one hire a spreader and wet the lawn, then spread, then
water again. Organic or chemical fertilizer, it's your choice, but for a rapid response,
it's chemical.
It's now time to consider the kindest cut of all to your
roses. By lightly trimming them back about a third, you can get them into flower again in
8 weeks. That's mid April if you do it now. It works on Florabundas and Hybrid Teas, but
of course the stems will not be exhibition length.
Irrespective of whether you summer-prune your roses or not,
they will certainly need a feed and the respite of yet more rain on Sunday night, has put
them in growth mode. I'd use a cocktail of organic pellets and a water soluble rose food.
There's no potassium in your average organic pellet or blood and bone and they need that
to flower. |
