Roses and most all garden plants are much happier with mulch.

My heart skips a beat when I see fresh mulch!  Is it the fine finished look of garden beds, or the palpable joy in plants that makes me so in love with mulch? My answer is both, and much more.

Mulchless soil is like no blankets on a cold night.

And weeds take over in no time at all without mulch. The top half of the image is soil without mulch! My friends, I didn't spread that mulch just for a photograph – I put the mulch down in the winter when there were no weeds and waited for my photo op. Those weeds were a little too eager.

The benefits of mulch deserve a nice bulleted list.

• retains moisture
• trickle feeds
• deters weeds
• keeps earth soft and friable
• insulates soil in winter
• cools soil in summer
• provides a finished look to garden beds
• applying mulch is great excercise

My mulch of choice has always been shredded redwood bark. Wood chips, leaves, grape seed, small stones, hay, pinestraw (needles), cocoa hulls are also good mulches. All but the stones break down into lovely humus. I'm always stunned at how quick the break-down is. The earth is like a giant mouth and the soil is so much better for it. I apply mulch every year, but not always on the entire garden. People ask how close to the rose canes mulch should be applied. I spread it right up to the canes like a lovely hug.

If You Have Lots of Fall Leaves

Last week (February) I dumped garbage bags of silver maple leaves (from the big tree over the house) on a wide swath of dormant roses. It's not as dense as the redwood, but how nice to cover the earth with a little nourishment. In March of 2016 I'm updating this post and want to mention that leaf mulch like this does very well in the weed deterrent department.

For further reading, you might find this Wikipedia mulch entry helpful. 

At Rose Place Garden Design

we love promising you 

a Rose Garden.

A rose garden with roses as your garden's enduring and valued shrubs,

growing in harmony,

whether the palette is pastel,

monochromatic

or a multicolor extravaganza.

We ask clients, "How do you picture your rose garden?"

Romantic Country

Private and Personal

Bold and Dramatic

Quietly Elegant

or Formal with an edge?

We'd like to know your garden's purpose. 

Do you need curb appeal,

privacy,

a patio garden?

Do you want to attract butterflies

and bees?

Do you want cut flowers?

And what about companion plants?

Horticulture bows to roses in great abundance.

Contrast

Variety

Texture

Drama

Years of experince trying to acheive an exuberant association with plant companions to roses has led to a sure knowledge of what works and what doesn't. And we are always looking for new and more creative approaches.

ROSE STRUCTURES

Since roses long to reach their growth potential and provide gardens with showstopping focal points, we've designed structures to help.

Enclosures

Fencing

Arbors

Some ask, "Do you design gardens without roses?"

Of coarse,

and with pleasure.

The aim of Rose Place Garden Design is to harmonize a client's garden and design needs with dependable, long lasting and gorgeous plants. We especially enjoy structuring a garden with roses. They are underrated when it comes to good garden shrubs. Companion planting is our specialty and these include deer and drought tolerant plants.

One client might want to redo a small condo courtyard; another requires a full-scale garden plan for a new home; and yet another simply needs her garden beds updated for a special event. Then there are those who dream of rose gardens– classic, contemporary, small, medium, or large– there are endless possibilities. We also design gardens for corporate settings.

Rose Place services include

• Custom Designs
• Conceptual Planning
• Working Drawings
• Planting Plans
• Plant Scouting and Procurement
• Horticultural Advice
• Project Management
• Design from a Distance*

Garden and plant consultation is available by the hour.

Send us an email with your needs and questions, or give us a call 925 323-7708.

*If you live far away, of course I'll fly to you for a consultation, but if that's not in the budget I've designed wonderful gardens through email, photography, and private client blogposts. Even the sky is not the limit at Rose Place Garden Design.