My New Free Knockout Rose Garden!

I didn't get any deals posted today because I spent the entire day working outside. A few days ago I noticed someone offering free Knockout Rose Bushes on a local on-line yard sale site. I claimed them and made arrangements to go and dig them up.

I should note that I know next to nothing about gardening and even less about roses. However, I have been envisioning a colorful garden oasis in my backyard since we moved in 4 years ago. Luckily I had my two teenagers (Jake, age 17 and Bridgette, age 13) to provide some free labor!

We started out about 9:00 am by heading over to Southern States for supplies and advice. Then we got to work. Two of the rose bushes were next to the side of a house, which made it difficult to get behind them and dig.

It took about 2 hours of hard labor before we got them out and loaded them into the back of the truck.

We took them to the back yard and inserted them on our pre-dug holes, added layers of peat moss and dirt, then watered them well.

After a break for lunch we went back to tackle the other two. They were even more difficult to dig out, as they were in a small space without much room to maneuver, by the front porch.

We finally got them out by towing them out with the truck!

Then, back to the house we went and carried them to the back yard.

If my husband hadn't arrived home from work about this time to help, we never would have gotten the job done.

 

 

 Finally, we laid mulch around the roses and finished the job about 5:00 pm. Boy were we exhausted and dirty. I spent $16.00 on 2 bags of fertilized peat moss and 1 large bag of mulch, so my roses weren't completely free, but they were pretty darn cheap!!

You are supposed to transplant roses in the winter when they are dormant, but the donator wanted them gone ASAP. Moving during the growing season is a big shock to roses, and we lost some of the roots when we hauled them out of the ground with the truck. If they survive, I will prune them down very short next spring, put in a flower bed, and post more pics then.