Our backyard has a lot of roses. Something 15 or so. I’ve tried counting them but I keep losing track. We think most of these are 10 to 20 years old and in bad shape. They all needed to be fertilized and the ground worked over. There were a lot of roots, weeds and even lawn encroaching on them. It’s taken a couple of weeks to get them to this state:
Heather started working on them, but after a couple of mornings she asked me to help out. With the heat we’ve had here we’re only able to work an hour or two early each morning. We’ve had one blooming of roses this year and hope for a second. Sadly, we think a few of these will need to be replaced next year.
I got around to fixing the irrigation line, but it turned into a bigger issue than I wanted. A buried valve was leaking and I had to trench through mud to find it. Then I found that the main cutoff valve for the line won’t full turn off the water so I had to do the repair with a small trickle of water coming out so end up with this:
Normally I prefer to glue in buried pipes but because of the bad cutoff valve and the curve in the 1 inch line I opted for one glued fitting and using a compression splice. I worry that the compression splice might fail at some point. Fixing the cutoff valve isn’t a project I wanted to tackle right now as that valve is buried 4 feet down and would require digging a 4x3x6 foot hole to get to it. Not happening anytime soon.
The real problem with the cutoff valve is that in the winter I need to completely turn of the water and drain the line. It gets cold enough here in winter that irrigation lines can freeze and burst if there is water in them.
My solution for this year is to locate a new cutoff valve somewhere else on the line where I don’t have to dig as deep to do the work. We also need a couple of new irrigation watering zones so the next project is to cut into the line, install a cutoff and new irrigation valves. This looked like the right place:
It will be a few more weeks before I get to that project as I’m still doing drywall in the shed. I’ll have pictures of that next week.
If you need me, I’ll be digging a trench.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I can’t imagine working the garden in heat. Our northern rose did terrible because we topped 99’s too early. They like the cooler weather.
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We just get out early and come inside before it gets too hot. And I bring a big bottle of water with me.
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The roses will be a challenge, but how rewarding if you can nurse them all back to health! It is a worthy challenge. 🙂
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We’re going to give it our best shot. Hopefully some will do well, but there are a couple that aren’t likely to make it.
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war of the roses .it’s irrigating , still it’ll be worth it and your wife might make turkish dellights as spoils of war . 🙃 or you could prepare her a rosewater bath. 😇 .all the best bg 🙂
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interesting read, and I enjoyed the explanations and photos. When you are resting, pop over for some refreshing watermelon.
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After a morning in the garden some nice watermelon would be most welcome.
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We stopped through Vegas a couple days ago and I must say, if Reno’s temps are similar, one or two hours of outdoor work is impressive. 114 degrees is downright oppressive heat. Felt like a hot blanket pressing down on us. The 98 degrees we woke up to the next morning seemed mild by comparison.
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Well, here it was only 105 … we get up about 6 am when the outside temp is below 70 and only work until the temp gets to 80 or then area we’re working in comes into full sun. Then it’s breakfast, showers and spending the rest of the day in the ac.
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Wow, you’ve done wonders rehabilitating those roses if they were that neglected. I bet they’ll recover even more next year. And the pipe repair just makes me shudder. I hate dealing with water lines. Better outside than inside, though… 🙂
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At least outside there is less to worry about when the line breaks. The roses are looking much better and I’m hoping they’ll perk up some more.
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Roses are difficult, aren’t they? How’s the quilting going?
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Not much progress there. That’s more of a winter activity.
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Ah. Yes. That makes sense.
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Well, Andrew, you certainly have been busy working in your retirement, haven’t you? Just reading what all you’ve been doing makes me feel tired…I think I’ll go take a nap now. 😉
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Me too. Nap.
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😉
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I try to keep busy. 😉
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Wow, having roses in the garden must be amazing 😊
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I like the roses.
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Watch the back with all that digging Andrew. You’ve certainly been busy with those roses. I hope you can get away without replacing them next year.
Hugs
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Strangely enough, my knee hurts more than my back, but yes, I’m careful.
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Wow! I thought retirement was supposed to be less busy! You’ve certainly been busy and made a lot of progress.
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Some how I got this retirement thing wrong. 😉
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I’m exhausted just reading about all that work!
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Best to rest a bit before my next post. 😉
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