A Plan for Lots of Roses
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." –Oprah Winfrey
Life rewards those who prepare; so does Mother Nature. When you prepare the soil for plants, they grow better and faster. When you go even further and plant things that are suitable for the location, they’ll really thrive. When you plan colors, textures and bloom times, you can have a show-stopping garden. But what if you don’t have time for all that preparation?
If you really don’t think you will have time now to prepare, will you have time later to deal with the consequences? Let’s say you plant some hot new orange and russet roses bare-root in March ... forgetting that in three months, they’ll be surrounded by pink dianthus and purple salvia. No problem—just move the roses in 90 degree heat to avoid a color clash. It will save you a trip to the gym. Then buy some more roses to replace the ones you moved. It will help the local economy. Even if you spend an hour in your yard on a mild winter day recollecting what’s planted where, that’s a treat compared to moving shrubs under a Western June sun (or looking at orange and pink together).
Lack of planning costs money, too. Let’s say you want to plant a traffic-stopping row of roses out front. The easiest and cheapest way to do it is to order several bare-root landscape roses early via mail order and plant them in the spring. But if you don’t plan ahead, you’ll end up spending $30 apiece on potted roses from the nursery (which they might have bought from the same mail-order nursery you could have ordered from) and plant them in hot weather.
Planning and efficiency might sound dull, but they give you more time for the fun stuff. Assuming that your schedule isn’t going to change, if you don’t have time to plan for a gardening project, you won’t have time to execute it. What to do? You could make some more time for yourself by organizing the things you absolutely have to do. For instance, I shop online instead of going to malls. I make a week’s worth of lunches at a time. I take care of every piece of paper the day it comes in—it helps keep me worry-free and clutter free, and it frees up a lot of time that I might have spent looking for important papers or bills. Give some of these things a try; you might be able to free up some time for a substantial gardening project.
On the other hand, don’t overestimate what you can do. You’ll wear yourself out. For me, creating one bed is a good-sized project for one season. Make sure you have the budget, too, so you can enjoy your project without regret.
Life rewards those who prepare; so does Mother Nature. When you prepare the soil for plants, they grow better and faster. When you go even further and plant things that are suitable for the location, they’ll really thrive. When you plan colors, textures and bloom times, you can have a show-stopping garden. But what if you don’t have time for all that preparation?
If you really don’t think you will have time now to prepare, will you have time later to deal with the consequences? Let’s say you plant some hot new orange and russet roses bare-root in March ... forgetting that in three months, they’ll be surrounded by pink dianthus and purple salvia. No problem—just move the roses in 90 degree heat to avoid a color clash. It will save you a trip to the gym. Then buy some more roses to replace the ones you moved. It will help the local economy. Even if you spend an hour in your yard on a mild winter day recollecting what’s planted where, that’s a treat compared to moving shrubs under a Western June sun (or looking at orange and pink together).
Lack of planning costs money, too. Let’s say you want to plant a traffic-stopping row of roses out front. The easiest and cheapest way to do it is to order several bare-root landscape roses early via mail order and plant them in the spring. But if you don’t plan ahead, you’ll end up spending $30 apiece on potted roses from the nursery (which they might have bought from the same mail-order nursery you could have ordered from) and plant them in hot weather.
Planning and efficiency might sound dull, but they give you more time for the fun stuff. Assuming that your schedule isn’t going to change, if you don’t have time to plan for a gardening project, you won’t have time to execute it. What to do? You could make some more time for yourself by organizing the things you absolutely have to do. For instance, I shop online instead of going to malls. I make a week’s worth of lunches at a time. I take care of every piece of paper the day it comes in—it helps keep me worry-free and clutter free, and it frees up a lot of time that I might have spent looking for important papers or bills. Give some of these things a try; you might be able to free up some time for a substantial gardening project.
On the other hand, don’t overestimate what you can do. You’ll wear yourself out. For me, creating one bed is a good-sized project for one season. Make sure you have the budget, too, so you can enjoy your project without regret.
posted by Lori Miller at 6:55 PM
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