No War Garden

Palestinian woman collects tear gas canisters fired by Israeli Army. She grows flowers in them.

Companion planting

Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial creatures, maximizing use of space, and to otherwise increase crop productivity. Companion planting is a form of polyculture.

   

Growing Sunflowers

Sunflowers are one of the easiest plants to grow. You can try planting some of the seeds you buy at the grocery store if they are still in the shell, and they might grow. 

However, there's a good chance that they won't become the big sunflowers you sometimes see or make many more seeds. You need special seeds that have been saved just for planting. 

When you are ready to plant them, get the spot ready by digging it up and taking out all the rocks and weeds. 

Poke holes in the dirt with your fingers and drop a single seed in each hole. Cover the seeds and give them a good drink of water with a garden hose or a watering can, and then wait about two weeks until you see the first green sprouts pop up. 

Keep watering them during that time if the soil gets dry or it doesn't rain much, since they need lots of water to start growing.

February Garden Tips

* Order perennial plants and bulbs now for cut flowers this summer. Particularly good choices are phlox, daisies, coreopsis, asters and lilies.

* Check stored bulbs, tubers and corms. Discard any that are soft or diseased.

* Don't remove mulch from perennials too early. A warm day may make you think spring is almost here but there may be more cold weather yet to come.

* Order gladiolus corms now for planting later in the spring after all danger of frost has passed. Locate in full sun in welldrained soil.

* Branches of forsythia, pussy willow, quince, spirea, and dogwood can be forced for indoor bloom. Make long, slanted cuts when collecting the branches and place the stems in a vase of water. Change the water every four days. They should bloom in about 3 weeks.

* Late winter is the time to prune many deciduous trees. Look over your plants now and remove dead, dying, or unsightly parts of the tree, sprouts growing at or near the base of the tree trunk and crossed branches.

* If bird feeding has been a favorite activity this winter, order trees and shrubs which provide cover and small fruits for your feathered friends. Consider species such as crabapple and hawthorn which can help lure hungry birds from cultivated fruits, if planted on the opposite side of the yard.

* Check any vegetables you have in storage. Dispose of any that show signs of shriveling or rotting.

* This year plan to grow at least one new vegetable that you've never grown before; it may be better than what you are already growing. The new dwarf varieties on the market which use less space while producing more food per square foot may be just what you're looking for.

* Send off seed orders early this month to take advantage of seasonal discounts. Some companies offer bonus seeds of new varieties to early buyers.

* Don't start your vegetable plants indoors too early. Six weeks ahead of the expected planting date is early enough for the fastgrowth species such as cabbage. Eight weeks allows enough time for the slowergrowing types such as peppers.

* Prune fruit trees and grapes in late February or early March after the worst of the winter cold is passed but before spring growth begins.

* Fertilize fruit trees as soon as possible after the ground thaws but before blossom time.

* Late February is a good time to airlayer such house plants as dracaena, dieffenbachia and rubber plant, especially if they have grown too tall and leggy.

* Check all five growing factors if your house plants are not growing well. Light, temperature, nutrients, moisture, and humidity must be favorable to provide good growth.

* Repair and paint window boxes, lawn furniture, tools and other items in preparation for outdoor gardening and recreational use.

Raised Garden Beds

Tomato Companion Plants

Are you a tomato gardener and worried due to not getting good yield? No try planting tomatoes with the plants in green and avoid those who are red. By companion planting not only you can get a better harvest but companion plants might deter the pest for your tomatoes.

Top 10 apples to grow in your garden

Bumper crop: a mixed basket of apples from the Aspall estate in Suffolk. The family has been growing cider apples for eight generations

We have the best climate in the world for apples, so why do we grow so few varieties? A leading orchard owner recommends 10 to try at home

By Sarah Raven 

The Telegraph

This year looks like being a vintage apple crop. The spring rain was good for blossom and we've had plenty of sunshine since – but not baking drought – which is just what makes an apple particularly tasty. There's plenty of sugar in the fruit, along with quite high levels of acidity, the perfect balance for flavour.

The apple-growing community is loving 2013, and are on a campaign for us all to plant more trees. We should be adding them to our gardens and underused public spaces. In apple-growing counties such as Suffolk, Herefordshire and Kent community orchards are already being encouraged.

Henry Chevallier Guild, eighth generation of the apple-growing Aspall cider family, is a leading advocate. As he says, Britain has one of the best climates in the world for apples. In the 19th century we used to make the most of that, with 2,500 different varieties listed in the UK, but that's now declined to only 12 that you'll commonly see. It's even quite rare to see a whole orchard of Cox varieties.

The most widely grown apples are now modern hybrids such as 'Gala', 'Braeburn', 'Jazz' and the similar 'Kanzi', along with 'Idared' and 'Falstaff'. These are OK and travel well, but they're not the best for flavour, whether eaten or made into juice or cider. For that, you need Coxes, Spartans and Russets: traditional varieties that have done well here for decades but which are on the wane.

Aspall's estate in Suffolk is entirely organic and, as Henry says, if you choose the right forms, growing apples in your back garden without chemicals is easy. I'm tired of my home-grown apples being riddled with scab, so I am keen to find tasty, disease-resistant forms which will give me a decent harvest. That's the primary requirement of Henry's top 10 apples listed overleaf, but they'll all be helped – as Henry says – if they're planted with a walnut or garlic nearby.

How this companion planting works is not well understood, but it is regarded as an effective way to help prevent scab. There is some symbiotic relationship between the scab spores and walnuts or garlic which means the apple tree stays scab-free. In the apple forests of Kazakhstan (from where all apples trace their genealogy), there is plenty of scab spore about but none of the trees have it. At ground level there are many bulbs, and it is widely believed that they perform the same job.

Henry gives me his list of top varieties but, when pushed to name his desert island apple, he decides on 'Howgate Wonder', a brilliant all-rounder, supremely tasty and easy to use in so many different ways.

HENRY'S TOP TEN APPLES

1. 'Chivers Delight'

This is a late flowerer and cropper referred to in the trade as a 'Cox Plus'. It has as much flavour (if not more) than 'Cox's Orange Pippin' and better acidity, which it keeps in storage. Cox famously go woolly quickly in storage, whereas the flesh of 'Chivers Delight' remains firm and nutty. This fell out of commercial favour because of its colour irregularity. If the sun is on it, the fruit goes red, but it will not colour up on the shady side. This does not affect the flavour but makes them difficult to sell.

2. 'Spartan'

Nothing has the same richness of colour as 'Spartan', a lovely deep plum red, with almost bright white, contrasting flesh. It's a beautiful apple, which stays late on the tree and makes a fabulous eater with very juicy fruit. It's the one I use at Perch Hill for Christmas wreaths and, being a good storer, is widely available late in the year.

3. 'Blenheim Orange'

A fabulously aromatic, peppery, almost spicy apple with a softer nuttiness than you get with the similar-flavoured 'Egremont Russet'. This variety is a bit prone to scab, so is best grown on its own and certainly away from very scab-prone varieties such as 'Crispin'.

4. 'Egremont Russet'

A famous apple with a wonderful nutty, woody texture and a very characteristic taste, floral and heady, so you can almost smell the blossom. It stores well, with the flavour deepening to honey.

5. 'Pitmaston Pineapple'

This is a very unusual apple, difficult to find but, in Henry's view, worth the effort. It eats like a 'Greensleeves' early on, but you can store it until April when the flavour morphs into pineapple.

6. 'Greensleeves'

A light, crispy, full-of-flavour apple, lovely and crunchy straight off the tree. This is the one 'Golden Delicious' aspires to be, with excellent flavour in a beautiful pale yellow fruit.

7. 'Discovery'

This is one of the first to harvest (in August), so Henry loves it for reminding us what we've been missing all summer. If we get a sunny July and August, the redness leaches from the skin into the flesh. Then if you press it, you'll have a beautiful pale pink juice.

8. 'Worcester Pearmain'

A rich, creamy apple with a really strong flavour, one of the original varieties brought over by the Normans. It's just about surviving in the UK, but you don't see it often, apart from in the Wye Valley where it's usually pressed into juice.

9. 'Howgate Wonder'

A great all-rounder apple – a good cooker early on, it also presses well and mellows the later you leave it, with the acidity dropping away, so it can be eaten as a dessert apple from the store or tree. It's one of the few varieties where you can leave the fruit on the tree, start harvesting in August and carry on until the end of October at least. It performs well whatever the weather and is often a challenger for the largest fruit.

10. 'Médaille d'Or'

Henry's final recommendation is this wonderful bittersweet cider apple, still abundantly on the tree, until the end of November. The tree's appearance is unique – "there's a Grand Dame feeling about them, which reminds me of my grandmother," he says, "knotted and gnarled in the winter and very late to blossom in the spring. You think they're dead and then out the flowers come towards the end of May". The fruit is small and very acid, essential tannin for flavouring cider.

This is one of the great cider apples and one that – if you have the room for two trees and fancy a bit of cider-making – would be good to grow. Mix 50/50 with an acid apple such as 'Howgate Wonder' and you're away. Then you have the tannin from 'Médaille d'Or' and acidity from 'Howgate Wonder' and both have good sugar levels. 

They are pruned to weep in the Aspall orchards, with graceful branches arching down almost to ground level. You can get right in underneath and be enclosed in an apple den.

Colorful Plants for Shade

Shady areas of the garden needn't be dull as there are lots of attractive plants that will thrive in low light conditions.

Osmunda regalis, Royal fern

• Latin name: Osmunda regalis
• Common name: Royal fern
• Type of plant: Fern
• Hardiness: Hardy
• Flower colour: N/A
• Leaf colour: Bright green
• Height and spread:     2m x 1m (6.6ft x 3.3ft)

Description:

This handsome deciduous fern has bright green fronds. In summer, rust-brown fertile fronds appear, which look a bit like flowers. Needs moist soil. 

Vinca, Periwinkle

• Latin name: Vinca
• Common name: Periwinkle
• Type of plant: Ground cover
• Hardiness: Hardy
• Flower colour: Purple-blue
• Leaf colour: Dark green
• Height and spread:     30cm x 1m (1ft x 3.3ft)

Description:

These evergreens make useful ground cover in shady spots. They are vigorous growers so cut them back hard each spring to keep them under control. 

Mahonia

• Latin name: Mahonia
• Common name: Mahonia
• Type of plant: Shrub
• Hardiness: Hardy
• Flower colour: Bright yellow
• Leaf colour: Dark green
• Height and spread:     1m x 1.5m (3.3ft x 4.9ft)

Description:

These evergreen shrubs have attractive spiky leaves which are loved by flowers arrangers. In winter, they bear scented, yellow flowers which are followed by bluish fruits. 

Camellia, Camellia 

• Latin name: Camellia
• Common name: Camellia
• Type of plant: Shrub
• Hardiness: Frost-hardy
• Flower colour: White to pink or red
• Leaf colour: Dark green
• Height and spread: 5m x 4m(17ft x 13.1ft)

Description:

Well known for their colourful flowers which brighten the garden in spring. They need acid soil to thrive. Can be grown in containers of ericaceous compost. 

Helleborus foetidus, Stinking hellebore

• Latin name: Helleborus foetidus
• Common name: Stinking hellebore
• Type of plant: Hardy perennial
• Hardiness: Hardy
• Flower colour: Green
• Leaf colour: Deep green
• Height and spread:     30cm x 30cm (1ft x 1ft)

Description:

Easy to grow, even in dry shade this tough evergreen perennial bears green flowers in winter. Cut out stems 

BBC

Thrips Management in the Home Garden

Diane G. Alston, Entomologist

Daniel Drost, Vegetable Specialist

Thrips will infest onions, garlic, and other vegetables in the home garden, but small-sized plots are generally not at risk for significant yield loss. 

Thrips in the home garden are best managed with cultural practices and natural biological control. 

The following are generally adequate to keep thrips from noticeably reducing onion growth and bulb size in the home garden: 

• add compost to enhance organic matter and soil tilth; use mulches;
• plant onions and garlic in small plots surrounded by a diversity of other plants, including garden crops, herbs, and cultivated and wild flowers;
• apply a stiff spray of water from a hose to wash thrips from plants when they are observed;
• and avoid using broad-spectrum, toxic insecticides to preserve natural enemies that keep onion thrips populations low.

Tips on growing strawberries in the home garden

By Roy Lee Carter

Gulf County Extension Director 

Strawberries can be grown in home gardens throughout the state.  Temperatures between 50 to 80° F (10 and 27°C) and day lengths 14 hours or fewer are required for the development of flowers and fruit on most strawberry varieties.  

In the U.S. these conditions occur only for a short period in late summer or fall, and again briefly in spring.  In our area, however, this combination of day length and temperature exists for much of the fall, winter and spring.  Single-crown (stem) strawberry plants are planted in Florida during the fall, from late September to early November.  Flowering and fruit production generally beings in November and continues into April or May.  Fruit production over this period is not constant, but occurs in two or three cycles, and can be interrupted by freezing weather.  Because the highest quality fruit are produced on relatively young plants with not more than four or five branched crowns, plants are usually tilled under at the end of the fruiting season, and new plants are planted the following fall.

Currently, we suggest three varieties for the Florida home garden:  Camarosa, Sweet Charlie, and Festival, all three varieties produce attractive, flavorful berries suitable for eating fresh or for freezing.  Camarosa has been the most productive variety in North Florida, while Festival has been the most productive variety in Central Florida.  These varieties are capable of producing 1 to 2 pints of fruit per plant over the season.  Strawberries grow best in a location receiving at least 8 hours of direct sunlight per day.  If a full sun location is not available, try to choose a spot that is sunny during the morning and early afternoon.  The soil should be well drained and slightly acidic (pH 5.5 to 6.5).

IFAS specialist recommends planting strawberries on raised bed which are two feet wide and spaced two feet apart.  The beds should be mounded so they’re six inches high along the edges and about eight inches high in the middle. 

In preparing the beds you begin with fertilization.  For a ten-by-ten foot strawberry patch, broadcast about two-and-a-half pounds of 8-8-8 fertilizer and till it into the soil.  Then from the beds and apply another two-and-a-half pounds of fertilizer this time in a narrow band about six inches deep down the middle of the beds.  If you’re just starting to grow strawberries you should also include a complete mixture of minor elements in the first season fertilizer application.

When the bed is properly formed, fertilized and moistened, cover with a sheet of landscaping mesh fabric which will block weeds and allow water to penetrate.  The, cut slits in the fabric where the plants will be inserted.  Plants should be set in double rows, one row on each side of the bed about six inches from the edge.  Plants should be spaced 12 inches apart in the row.  Be sure that no plants are set directly over the fertilizer band down the middle of the bed because this can lead to salt burn.

Be sure to use certified, disease-free plants.  Keep them moist before planting and plant in moist soil.  Spread the roots in a fan shape, set the plant at the correct depth in the soil, and pack the soil firmly around the roots.

For more information on growing strawberries contact the Gulf County Extension Service @ 639-3200 or visit our website:  http://gulf.ifas.ufl.edu  or www.http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu  and see Circular HS 1154

Stop Consuming, Start Producing

$30 Billion is wasted each year on landscaping. Foodscaping can be extremely beautiful.

Aloe Vera Plant Growing & Usage Tips

When Buying:

• This plant usually grows slowly inside a house–purchase a large, more mature one if possible. If a young one is your only option, you can still use it for first aid treatments but know it will take a few years to get large.
• Young aloe is potent enough to use for first aid treatments, but the more mature one offers a stronger potency, strength does increase with age.

General Care:

• It can be grown indoors or outdoors, but will turn brown in harsh sunlight so choose a location in indirect light.
• Will freeze, make sure to protect it during frost dangers. Not suitable for wintering over in cold weather zones.
• Will thrive outside better than inside, but definitely makes a good indoor houseplant.
• Use well-drained sandy potting soil, a good quality commercial mix with extra perlite, granite grit, or coarse sand are added is recommended. Cacti and succulent mixes may also be used. Source: Wikipedia.

Watering:

• This is a succulent, don’t overwater.
• Allow the soil to become fairly dry before watering. Lightly water during winter months since the drying out will be slower.
• If potting, make sure there is a drainage hole so the water can drain easily.

Repotting:

• When it is rootbound, it will be top heavy and will send out more new shoots or pups, repot.
• Remove new shoots when they are 3 to 4 inches high and replant in their own pots. If you don’t, they will suck life from the mother plant. Signs of this happening: The mother will get bright green and spread its leaves horizontally rather than vertically.
• Water the pups well when repotting then don’t water again for about 3 weeks, forcing the new roots to get strong and seek water. They may turn grey or brown initially, this is normal. These make great gifts so give freely!

Symptoms Of Poor Care:

Leaves lie flat instead of upright: usually because of insufficient light.

Leaves are thin and curled: it’s not being watered enough and is using up its own liquid.

Leaves are brown: too much direct sunlight.

Very slow growth: High alkaline soil or water; too damp for too long; not enough light; too much fertilizer.

Removing Leaves:

• Harvest leaves as you need, the wound is quickly sealed and healed. The leaf will not grow back, choose those closest to the ground as they are the most mature and most potent.
• Using For First Aid Treatments

How To Cut A Leaf:

• Cut away with a sharp knife.
• Trim the thorny edges from the severed leaf, then slice across its width. The inner transparent, gooey gel is ready to be applied directly to the afflicted area. Use generously, it will be absorbed by the skin within several minutes.
• After the gel from the first layer of ruptured cells has run dry, scratch the surface with a clean knife to rupture more cells, releasing more juice. This can be continued until there is nothing but green skin left.

How Long Will A Cut Leaf Last:

• Wrap partially used leaves in foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate, it will last for days.

To Consume:

• The colorless pulp is tasteless, but first rinse off the bitter yellow sap. Peel the green skin from the pulp, then rinse off the sap with cool water.

Source – More complete notes & tips can be found in the booklet:

The Ancient Egyptian Medicine Plant Aloe Vera Hand Book

Author: Max B. Skousen

Aloe Vera Research Institute (1982)

US gardening industry to see large gains following the recession

By Mike King

Companiesandmarkets.com

As the economy continues to slowly recover, the US gardening industry has started to once again see large gains following the recession, with some categories returning to their pre-recession sizes.

When the recession took hold in 2008, the industry suffered, facing drastic drops in revenue. A rising number of home foreclosures, escalating unemployment and little spending cash diminished downstream demand.

However, as other areas of the economy, such as housing, fully rebound, the home and garden industry has seen remarkable growth as consumers finally purchase pricier items they had been holding off on.

Weather conditions play an essential role in the cultivation and proliferation of garden products. Cool and moist weather is a bane of any gardener, as it helps promote the growth of troublesome weeds, grass, and insects.

However, hot, dry conditions or even stormy or humid weather is definitely no better. Such kind of climate tends to either slow down the growth process or severely restrict any kind of outdoor activity.

Outdoor power equipment, such as land mowers, occupies a huge market share in the US, while their market share in Japan is very insignificant. This is mainly due to the fact that US gardens are large and allow the use of huge equipment, while at the same time Japanese gardens are smaller in size.

Speciality retailers were particularly affected by the recession, as many of them sell their products at a premium price that consumers could no longer afford. Garden centres lost the majority of their share during and for some time after the recession.

In 2012, however, these channels appear to be slowing down migration and are poised to start regaining lost ground as consumers appear willing to pay for the specialized selection and expert advice these channels offer.

In the coming years, declining unemployment rate will lead to higher disposable incomes, spurring demand for home improvement projects and purchases.

Nevertheless, budget-minded and time-pressed consumers will continue shopping at lower-priced, one-stop-shop retailers like the Home Depot and Walmart, sapping revenue away from nursery and garden stores.

Growing Carrots in Soda Bottles

6 Tips to Do Gardening on Tight Budget

A lot of people are into gardening but those people end up losing all of their money because there are a lot of things to buy

For people who are highly interested in improving the looks of their garden, all you have to do is be creative with how you work on it. Gardening on a tight budget may have you thinking that it’s impossible, but you’ll be glad to hear that we have tips for you to get started while saving.

If you naturally have a green thumb, you can easily make something out of your garden with the help of other people’s garden. Buying pots of plants in shops can be quite expensive and you may even end up using your credit card for it

Ask your neighbors if you can get a few cuttings from their plants  Putting them in a glass of water will help it grow. Just make sure you replace the water regularly, or around every 2 days.

· By putting up a few things in your garden, you can easily update its look. Water features can make a huge improvement for your garden but of course, fountains and those water items can be expensive. Save all of your old cups and glasses and be creative with it  Glass bowls would look really fresh in a garden. You can just look for ideas in magazines or online.

· If there are a lot of things that you have to buy for your garden, you can go to flea markets to get cheaper prices for the items. You can even haggle for it to get even better prices and sometimes, the seller will give you a better discount if you are going to buy everything from them or in bulk.

· Lighting can also make a huge difference on your garden Remember you don’t have to put a lot in order to make it beautiful. You just have to strategically place everything so that they are blending in

Try to attract the natural pollinators as well such as bugs and other insects. This will help you garden grow faster

Leave a few cracked items in your items for them to hive and you will attract those little critters in no time.

· You can also plants bulbs in your garden because they are quite easy to grow and are low maintenance. As soon as they’re big enough to be cut, plant them all around your garden so that by the next season your garden will be blooming all over

You can plant snowdrops in your garden, they look pretty even if they are just scattered everything.

Follow these tips and avoid using your credit card that may end up hurting your credit score and credit report  Be creative and look for ways to save money Make use of the old items in your house to save even more money.

5 Steps To Successful Indoor Fruit Trees

The keys to successful container growing are:

1. Select the right size pot with adequate drainage holes (we recommend a 16+ inch pot)

2. Use a soil mix that is lightweight and drains well.

3. Develop a watering schedule so the tree stays on the dry side of moist. Usually once a week is fine but it will depend on the soil you use and the dryness of your indoor environment. Err on the side of watering less as opposed to watering too much ...

4. Provide 6 - 8 hours of direct sunlight (or a grow light) per day.

5. Plant the tree so the root collar is above the soil line and the top of the root crown is barely below the soil. Do not cover the trunk with soil at all.

Garden Self-Watering Cone

Starting your gardening journal

If you're someone who has trouble remembering when you used fertiliser on your plants or when you watered them, it's time you got yourself a garden journal. This will help you keep track of your greenery.

You need 

• A large diary
• A ring-binder
• Coloured tabs or dividers

   

Design matters

Gardening is a stress-release activity. So, make sure the pages are light, colorful and fun. Each section can have a vibrant heading, information spaceholders and borders. You can add photos of your own plants to decorate the pages.

Info to include

The journal has to keep a track of all your plants — when you bought and planted them and how to take care of them. Write each plant's common name as well as its botanical name, its light and water requirements and a record of seedlings and cuttings.

Make a garden compulsory for everyone, urges (gardener) Don

Having a garden or allotment should be compulsory, Monty Don has argued, as he advocated a sharing scheme in which the elderly, disabled or those who are too busy let others tend their land.

Don, the television gardener, said having a “stake” in the land was essential to ensure a new generation was interested in plants and flowers.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he argued that everyone should have access to land they can tend, saying all houses must come with a garden, and all flats an allotment.

Failing that, he said, he would like to see a “sharing scheme”, where people who can’t manage their garden, or are “simply happy to share it” could work with those without.

Don was speaking to publicise his latest book, The Road to Le Tholonet: A French Garden Journey. When asked how best to inspire the next generation, he told an audience: “It is a problem. There aren’t enough young people coming through, there aren’t enough young people working as gardeners. And you need to get people interested.

“It’s very easy to get people interested in primary school but by the time someone’s 13 or 14, they don’t want to be thought of as a kid.

“We have a huge drop-out rate at about the age of 10, and then they come back to it about the age of 30. There is a real gap. And yet, whenever I give a talk or go anywhere, the most knowledgable, the most passionate, the most interesting — as well as interested — people are usually somewhere between 22 and 32.

“So why aren’t we tapping into that reservoir? I think it’s partly to do with home-ownership and access to a garden; access to the land.

“If you don’t give people a stake in this land, how are they going to develop?

“I would like to see a garden or an allotment compulsory, so if it’s a flat, it comes with an allotment, and if it’s a house, it has to have a garden.

“I’d also like a sharing scheme, where people who can’t manage their garden, can’t manage all their garden or are simply happy to share it in some way could do so with people who register.

“It does happen where people dig up a garden, grow veg, they have all the vegetables they want and so do the household who owns the garden. Also the grass is cut.

“It’s by doing it that we get interested in gardening. Nobody is going to get interested in gardening by reading books and learning Latin names.”

The Telegraph

10 Tips for Planting Roses

Planting roses isn't actually complicated, as long as you have some good advice and tips to start with... 

1. Check with your local gardening center or florist for the best type of roses to grow in you climate. If you are a novice, you should look fo? disease resistant types of roses because they require a lot less maintenance. 

2. When planting roses, you want to pick a spot that is well lit in the morning. You also want an area that is sunlit for at least 6 hours a day. Roses need a great deal of light if they are to grow properly. If you live in a really hot climate though, you'll probably get the best results by not planting your roses in direct sunlight. 

3. Pick an area that has plenty of well drained soil. Great soil has a PH level where the amount of acid in the soil is at about 5.5-7.0. You can get a testing kit for your soil at any garden center. 

4. Organic matter like manure or lime helps to nourish the roots of your roses. You should soak the roots in water or puddle clay for many minutes, and cut off any root's ends that are broken. 

5. The first 3-4 weeks after planting your roses, you should water them often. Usually this is when the top 2 inches of soil is dry. Roses need a lot of hydration and food to remain healthy. 

6. Four weeks after planting, you should start soaking the bed every 2 weeks or so. You should do this in the morning for the best results. 

7. Begin fertilization approximately 3 months after planting. Use 3-6 inches of mulch to control the moisture, temperature, and to stops weeds from coming up. Mulch also helps to lock in the vital nutrients your roses need in order to remain healthy. 

8. Planting in the Spring is the best. 

9. You want to plant your roses in an area that is well circulated with air. Your roses will not grow in an enclosed or tight area. 

10. Dig a hole that is two times bigger than the amount of space that your roses take up. It makes it easier to plant them and creates a spaced area for them to grow with freedom. Poor circulation for your roses can cause fungal diseases. Using a larger hole also makes it easier for you to pull them up later and pot them if you'd like