Straw and pine needles make good mulch also. I'm thinking of getting some straw this year but need to compare prices from farmers to what I have at work. We have real straw this year but it's almost $8 a bale and for that price I can get triple ground mulch and it goes further too.

I'm in the same shape here with weeds. Between having the busiest work year I've ever had and the long spells of hot and/or rainy weather, it's been impossible to keep up with. It has been dry the last few weeks, making digging and weeding more of a chore too. Thankfully its raining now and today remained cool all day, I think the high was 68F. I've managed to get little spots here and there through the garden cleaned up- areas where I planted new bearded irises. I stupidly obtained 130 varieties, mostly single rhizomes but several doubles and triples too. It took me 9 weeks to get them all planted! I held off ordering bulbs fearing I may not get them planted before frost, but I may break down and order a few since I should have a break from work in November.

Wow Neal that's a whole new garden!
My irises from the PNW sale came today and I had them all in the ground an hour later. My lilium order from Ramona at Faraway Flowers will be here in a few weeks, so I wanted to be caught up before those arrived. Palatine roses come mid-November, and usually we add tulips and daffs if I find them cheap.
See why I need gardening help? Our incredible rains are what made the weeding go so fast.
The weeds were the worst ever in July and August when pneumonia had me knocked down. I wish I could come help others! Lyn, I'm not a good supervisor. I much prefer to put my head down and work until I drop.
Sharlene, it may be a while before my daughter finds out where she'll be for sure. There are a few places I hope she doesn't go..
Re: mulch, today I discovered one area of mine is full of centipedes! Yikes!

For me, straw seems to be my best mulch because when you add in my high summer temps, it stands up to the heat the best and doesn't decompose as quickly as leaves and pine needles. Wood chips are OUT. It is also better than other mulches at inhibiting weed growth in my climate.

However, because my beds are small, it's kind of awkward to use. Since it comes in bales, it's already matted and has to be pulled apart. I can't just put the flakes down because they don't fit, so I spend a lot of time cutting the straw and then poofing it up and laying it down in kind of criss-cross pattern so that water and air can get through. The good part is that if I do it right, it last for two seasons in my climate. Up here, it cost $11 per bale, and I only need two bales for one season. That's a lot less than what I would pay for other bagged mulches.

Cindi ... if you want to be the worker bee and have me supervise, you are still invited ... Besides, I think it would be fun to have you here. I know more about roses than I do about gardening ...

This is National Coffee Day, and I just happen to have three roses with coffee in their names that are among my very favorites, so the Roses of the Day are Coffee Bean, Coffee Country, and Spiced Coffee:

All three are lovely! Coffee Bean could be made of velvet, Coffee Country is a striking blend, and Spiced Coffee is a color that is delicate and very appealing to me.

That beige-ish color is very appealing to me too. Reminds me of a florist rose I often work with called 'Quicksand', a gorgeous rose. Another florist rose that is similar but with some warm gold toward the heart is called 'Mother of Pearl' and it is really striking too.

Lyn, I was thinking straw may be your best bet since it is lighter and stays fluffier. I like the look of it too, especially as it grays and darkens. I recall an article about using alfalfa hay as mulch but have never seen it sold. I need to check a feed store but I suspect it would be pricey.

Alfalfa...ugh. I finally gave up trying to pull alfalfa plants that sprouted from mulch. They grow deep deep roots and hang on for dear life. I let the plants grow too long because I thought it was a flower I had planted. Hay always ends up sprouting and once in a while I get some stray wheat from straw. In a rainy year, straw will mold, too. Here, it would break down in one summer. I wish I had access to bulk pine needles, because they look neat and shelter fewer critters.

I trust the alfalfa sprouted from hay not pellets...?

How appropriate, sitting here enjoying an espresso only to find out that it's National Coffee Day
Those are lovely roses Zuzu - I only know Vidal Sassoon (aka spiced coffee).

Neil - Quicksand is truly a lovely rose and I agree, Mother of Pearl is warmer. Have only seen pictures of both but if I ever come across them in a florist I would snap them both up.
For now I will have to console myself with these two similar roses
Stephen Rulo...........................................Crème Caramel


A couple more from today
Alte Liebe ...............................................Julia's Rose


Stardust..................................................Florist Rose Blue Gene


Not much going on in the garden at the moment. All my weeding is done and it is too early to start cutting back. Actually feels like the first time I can take a breather I might pop out and get a couple of new daffs especially after seeing all the lovely ones you have Neal

Have been keeping my eye on my crosses - the hips are starting to get ripe but I will leave them until the first frost hits us - hopefully that's only in November. Black Baccara has made really giant hips!

Well, I'm very happy today and ready to get some work done in the garden. The ridiculous heat of September has broken, and today's high is only 73 degrees. September is our hottest month here in Sebastopol (it was 105 degrees on this date in 2010). This year we hit triple digits only once (100 degrees one day last week), but even all of those temps in the 90s were hard to take after a fairly mild July and August. Now I can go outside to do something other than watering. Everything seems to have survived the heat wave, except for two young Weigelas and two old Azaleas. I was so busy concentrating on keeping the roses alive that I must have neglected the other shrubs.

Sharlene, keep an eye out for those florist roses through the fall- I can see them both being appealing for autumn arrangements. Fall is when I see a lot of terracotta and rust colors available too. Fantastic photos!

Cindi, I'd been curious about seedlings from alfalfa hay, glad I didn't find any! Legumes typically have deep roots so I can see how they must have been a real pain.

Zuzu, glad you're finally getting mild weather! Seems to have gone from air conditioner weather to heater weather like a flip of a switch here.

I agree Zuzu, loving the weather!

I picked a bouquet this morning to brighten up the drab office at work.

Today has been our first fall-feeling day. It is still in the high 80s, but the wind is blowing and the humidity is down! The rest of the week is expected to be cooler and still dry. Hurray! Some of the roses are observing the improvement with fresh blooms.

CindiKS said:Alfalfa...ugh. I finally gave up trying to pull alfalfa plants that sprouted from mulch. They grow deep deep roots and hang on for dear life. I let the plants grow too long because I thought it was a flower I had planted. Hay always ends up sprouting and once in a while I get some stray wheat from straw. In a rainy year, straw will mold, too. Here, it would break down in one summer. I wish I had access to bulk pine needles, because they look neat and shelter fewer critters.

Cindi ...

I think the hay is from the first cutting that has the seeds. The straw is from the second cutting and doesn't have many seeds. I don't have summer rains, so I think that's why it holds up for me. I haven't seen any mold. Maybe I am wrong, but wouldn't mold be a part of any organic material breaking down ? It wouldn't matter if it were leaves, pine needles or straw ... right ? I have never lived in a climate where I had to deal with summer rains, so I really don't know.

I think you're right Lyn, I've used straw and seen it mold a bit but it didn't appear to hurt anything.

Lyn, it may be a regional thing. Fields by me get hayed twice a summer, and different plants are coming up for each haying. This might be different if fields were planted in grasses specifically for hay. If we baled our field, it would have clover early and more bluestem later.
The wheat is only cut once, and a few wheat seeds do remain in the straw, and wheat is a royal pain to pull out of flower beds!
I have learned the hard way that hay gives me weeds, and straw gives rodents and snakes a shelter. I am horribly allergic to molds, so I try not to handle straw that has mold on it.
I am very glad I can get free wood chips for mulch. If I didn't have that, I would be buying cedar mulch in bags. Without mulch, I would be hoeing weeds and watering constantly.
Actually in most beds, I have planted so intensively that ground covers take the place of mulch. I use a low growing Sedum that doesn't root deep and doesn't require much water and that helps a lot.
Pork pal, I never thought about alfalfa pellets having seeds in them. I guess I assumed they were ground too fine. Most likely, the alfalfa I was fighting was from plants that were there before the bed was created. I didn't till deeply enough to get the roots out. The alfalfa from seed I hoed out with the the other weeds.

Cindi ... I didn't know you could walk on sedums, so I hadn't thought to use them as a ground cover. Of course, my climate is arid and yours is far more humid.

I haven't figured out the mulch problem yet. I'd love to use the free wood chips, too, but if they keep water from reaching the soil, that's not going to work.

So far, no snakes, but who knows ?

It's always something.

@zuzu glad for you that the temps have come down. Our hottest month is usually August. I can give the low down on Sept now because it is already Oct here
Average temp this year 23C - last year 18C
Total rain September this year 50.4mm - last year 53.2
Most of the roses that looked absolutely terrible in August now have leaves again and some have actually bloomed. Purple Tiger and Hanky Panky are the only two that seem to be having a hard time. La Rose du Petit Prince is still clean - GREAT ROSE!

@gemini_sage Thanks Neal! I love the 'different' colours too. Along with terracotta and rust, I like the 'Ox Blood' reds. Now with the cooler night temps the depth and intensity of colour in all the roses is just great.

@Calif_Sue love the bouquet! I keep on threatening to take some with to the office but somehow always forget

As far as mulching goes - I didn't get around to it this year. Last year I used China Grass (miscanthus sinensis) for the first time which they sell here specifically as mulch. Apparently doesn't delete the nitrogen from the soil like would chips are supposed to do. It is chopped into short pieces so it is really easy to spread and I didn't have anything growing from it. The only thing that irritates me with mulch is that if you do have a bad season with lots defoliation, mulch makes it very difficult to rake up the fallen leaves.
It was really easy to clean up the beds this season not having the mulch but I am also wondering if the increased black spot and rust are a result of not mulching??? Any thoughts?

Sharlene .....

For a long time I thought bs was a non-issue as far as being a problem over wintering in mulch, but I've since been proven wrong. I did some more research and found that Dr. David Zlesak said the spores do over winter in the old mulch.

Here's a link to an article where this is mentioned as part of the evaluation of the Earth Kind Trials

http://hortsci.ashspublication...

You will have to click the FULL TEXT link to the right and drop down to the Horst and Cloyd, 2007 paragraph I've copied below to see it in context.

Diplocarpon rosae is capable of infecting only the genus Rosa. Asexual spores (condia) overwinter on stems and fallen leaves and are transported to new growth in the spring through water droplets. If free water remains present, the conidia form germ tubes that penetrate the leaf epidermis. Lesions may appear in as little as 4 d as sub-cuticular mycelia radiate from the point of infection. Condia-bearing acervuli burst through the leaf cuticle followed by leaf abscission in susceptible cultivars (Horst and Cloyd, 2007).

I hope this helps answer your question.