Originally Posted by Shiva (Post 88076)

I have a friend who hacks her roses down to stumps every year. I just
cut off what looks diseased. I have blooms now and she doesn't even
have buds.

She spends hours scraping stuff out from under her shrubs, and cutting
out parts of them that she "doesn't like the looks of.". I stuff
leftover oak leaves and other yard garbage under all of them and never
look back. They get lots of water and some food, and always look
great.

She calls an exterminator over any insects that show up in any numbers
anywhere in her yard. I spray my roses with systemic insecticide, but
leave everything else alone. If she sees a spider she kills it! I have
those huge, bright green orb weavers and all manner of other spiders
all over. I hardly remember to get the abandoned "cob webs" out of the
corners of the windows and doors.

She frets over cats, swears bumblebees are really carpenter bees,
tells me the squirrells are ruining her garden, constantly rakes and
bags any waste. I feed the cats, and love watching the squirrels and
chipmunks. Every other year or so the big oaks at the back of the
property drop millions of acorns, and I never pick them up. They rot
right there unless the squirrels bury them, then they sprout. I mow
the forest twice and that is the end of them most years. But the
squirrels have a Fabulous Buffet, and never touch my roses!

When the leaves fall, I shove them under shrubs, use them as mulch,
anything but taking the time to rake and bag. If all the beds are
overflowing, there is an area under the trees where I blow the leaves
with the blower. Thrushes are always back there flipping up leaves as
they do, looking for bugs. Voles and moles have built cities under
there, but I plant my "must haves" in holes lined with scratchy rock,
and they eat the roots of the unprotected weeds, not my precious
plants. Yesterday I saw a BIG rabbit in the back, eating the abundant
weeds in the patch of green that might pass for a lawn--from an
airplane! The rabbits have never bothered my roses, gardenias, etc. A
former owner planted liriope as a border EVERYWHERE, and I know I
should have dug and divided it. But it is unstoppable! The rabbits do
eat it, but who could tell?

Because of the vole population, we have our very own Neighborhood
redtailed hawk who patrols the area and perches in tall trees staring
down at the messy yards. There are lots of sloppy gardeners in my
neighborhood. Not much is neat, but everything is lush. Flora and
fauna. The choice usually goes like this: there is just enough time to
water deeply OR pull up weeds and bag them--or there is just enough
time to rake and bag leaves OR spray or feed my roses--or "god those
weeds look terrible but I just have time to cut some flowers for the
table."

It is hard to see why I should change my ways. For once, the lazy
person is rewarded!