Having gone through a lot to de-weed a rosebed, I decided no longer to water the whole bed, just the roses, to discourage weeds.
So I bought a length of narrow PVC at Home Despot, plus plastic end cap and threaded connector. I will take a hot nail and poke a little hole at each rose, hook up the hose, and do slow watering. This worked pretty well in a veg. bed in back of the lot, so I think it'll do OK by the roses.
Considering the price of municipal water, can understand why you did the garden with PVC piping to deliver water exclusively. However, roses need more care and you need to talk to them. Hand-watering is best during these times. Good luck anyway.
You are right about "talking" to my roses. I have been neglecting fertilizer for too long. Now I am going to apply liquid worm castings periodically and observe results.
Hand-watering is tedious and demanding (my aching back!) I fear there would be a tendency to cut it too short.
Don't you think the same results can be obtained by slow drip irrigation through my little holes punched in PVC? Straight question.
Of course I *would* give them overhead baths every few days at twilight or early morning, to wash off the dust and refresh the foliage.
Why not use a drip system. Use variable emitters. You can apply the right amount of water to each plant. Cheaper, too. Far less noticeable than PVC pipe. You can even cover the soil with plastic or groundcloth (no more weeds) and run the tubes and emitters under the plastic. Cover the plastic with bark or gravel.
Sorry for the top post but just wanted to make a short comment. I did what you're going to do when we first moved to the farm. Only it was trees, about
40 of them, and we have the most beautiful trees on a place that people said rocks wouldn't even grow.
They won't get wet feet from me. Approx once a week I water anyway, with a sprayer from a portable vertical. But the water goes all over, so those hateful weeds crop up. This way, I direct the water just to the roses. P.
Not watering between the roses won't stop weeds from growing even one little bit, in fact many of the most pernicious weeds prefer dry. Don't you think a mulch would be far easier amd more effective... for roses I'd use weed block cloth, covered with small pine bark nuggets for aesthetics. Heck, laying down corrogated cardboard would look nicer than a grid of makeshift piping. And anyway, you want to water at the outer perimeter of a rose root system, and not directly at the base of the plant. You don't say how large a rose bed but the easiest way and to conserve water is with soaker hoses between the rows, best laid under the mulch.
Do you need to be impolite? I thought this group was for people to help each other, not to condescend.
News to me! I'm not questioning your statement; just surprised.
Tried that a few years ago, as explained earlier in this thread. A disaster. Weeds worse than ever. Gardener warned me, but did I listen?
Heck, laying down corrogated cardboard would look
The "grid of makeshift piping" that you denounce consists of one PVC pipe, buried under mulch.
And anyway, you want to water at the outer perimeter of a rose root system, and not directly at the base of the plant.
Thanks; I wasn't planning "directly at the base" since I'm aware that roses have a root system.
You don't say how large a rose bed
About 9'' x 2' - contains only 5 roses
but the easiest way and to conserve water is with soaker hoses between the rows, best laid under the mulch.
That's what I've had for 'n' years on my major rose bed in another part of the garden. Few problems with weeds. Maybe something to think about, if I can find a very short soaker hose. I can always use the PVC somewhere else in the veg garden, if I decide to go this way.
Perse In a hot, dry climate, no disaster will occur from overhead watering of roses. In fact, the roses do appreciate a cool refreshing 'bath' and it gets rid of all the dust and dirt on the foliage. (No black spot) Emilie NorCal
You refer to 5 rose plants as a "rosebed", and have the nerve to get all thorny because you don't get the attaboys you anticipated... how difficult and time consuming is it to water and weed 5 rose plants that you need to build an invention... you're a joke.
And you're not a real gardener. Real gardeners are kind and helpful, not intentionally rude. No point in commenting on your childish post, just please don't address me again, and thanks in advance.
I know that, dear NorCal friend. I have "overwatered" if you will for more years than certain parties have been on earth. I routinely water the large rose bed from a soaker hose, but every few weeks I do give the roses -- and everything else in my garden -- a bath, to get the dust and dirt off. This isn't a "hot" climate as such, as a fellow Californian will know; more like Mediterranean, but very dry. After all, the only reason LA exists at all as a mega-city is that water was brought here via all kinds of shady deals. "Chinatown" wasn't that far off!
Perhaps in the future you'll be more careful of what drivel you post to usenet, because you cannot prevent anyone from reading your posts and replying however they see fit. Maybe usenet is not for you, it's obvious you are not receptive to constructive criticism.
ok, so you know about soaker hoses. do you use a pressure reducer? i've recently added them to my system; got them from some internet soaker hose type supplier, along with backflow preventers (so you won't suck garden water back into the house if the water pressure goes off one day). prevents overwatering, as well as leaks (which i didn't have anyway). i have the thing rigged under plastic mulch, and like you said weeds like the wood chips so i use that "newfangled" recycled rubber tire mulch on top of that. got it at home depot and lowes this year. i haven't figured out how to feed them this year, but i could always just shove the stuff out of the way temporarily and pull back the slits in the plastic mulch.
anyway, i think the pvc thing oughta work, you have enough experience with the soaker hose to get the general principle.
as for avoiding watering from above, and related to my highly synthetic garden, the spores live in the dirt and get splashed up onto the leaves by water drops. (same deal with tomatoes) i'm hoping to cut that down a lot with the plasticing, even though it does rain from time to time. also a lot of fungus spraying, hack cough.
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