I wrote about pruning all the roses as soon as they started to leaf out. That encourages even more growth. We pruned the KnockOuts back by 50%, and they are responding well.
Inspection of roses - only one died during the winter. That will happen, and it is a very low rate for 60 to 70 roses. A true rosarian says, "I know what I will plant there."
The maple tree garden has 18 rose bushes, 8 of them transplants, all doing well. By transplanting early, pruning the transplants, and watering them well - with rain following - the transplants are all chipper and growing.
The main rose garden will grow by one row. Mrs. Ichabod prefers roses to grass. Rose are really low maintenance when grown the right way (my way).
Four barrels are gathering rainwater now, two in the front. I am filling gallon jars with rainwater to serve in two ways, In the tomato garden they will gather heat and radiate it all night, which protects against frost and gives the plants a energy efficient, solar-powered blanket at night. If some plants look stressed from dry weather, I have gallons of rainwater to pour on them at once.
More than 60 bags of autumn leaves are on the cardboard, the grass is composting below. Since I already inoculated the area with Uncle Jim's red wigglers, reduction to the best soil will take place rapidly. The remaining layer on top should make a good weed barrier. This is my first large scale cardboard and leaves compost/mulch factory. Grandson Alex loved it last fall. "May I walk on it?" The sound was hollow underneath.
Bird Paradise
The platform bird feeder needed some help, so I straightened it out in the ground and built some gravel in cinder blocks around the base. The squirrels take great leaps to land on the feeder, which rocked it back and forth.
The two rain barrels yielded two lids for bird baths. I have about six large bird baths in the backyard. They will be placed in other areas later. When I am walking with Sassy in the morning, we see the starling flock circle the block and land in our yards. Sometimes we have a flock of grackles. Both are corvids, very clever, and great at eating grubs in the soil.
I had a bag of sunflower seed, so I filled the platform and scattered some old cheap seed around the tree stumps.