Question
Dear Henry,
Do you mean I can directly put coffee grounds around roses? leave them on the surface of the soil surround my roses? No bugs will come? No harm to rose?

Lena
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Dear Henry,

Thank you for your advices. My roses look healthy and need less care now.

I digged "a big peanut shape place" before getting your last answer, therefore, they got full sun rather than BIT SHADY. They will have around  10 hours sun everyday (if it is a sunny day ;-))I hope it will not kill them in summer.

You mentioned organic matters for my old rose moving. Can I bury some fresh banana peels, onion peels, orange peels around it? Will they bring worms? Banana peels bring tiny fly bugs very soon. Will onion peels kill bugs? The bugs don't like onion smell.  I don't have materials already decomposed.However, I produce fruit peels everyday.

I saw some earthworms when I was digging. My soil is quite good. Dark and soft. Of course, I added more gardern soil on top of it. Do I need to buy pine tree leaves to mulch them? I have many leaves but don't have pine tree leaves.

Sincerely
Lena




-----Answer-----
It would be preferable Lena to compost your fruit and vegetable scraps before applying them to your Roses.  These attract slugs, which are not your run of the mill Rose pest and help to break them down.  The trouble with directly burying those scraps is that they consume a lot of Nitrogen as they decompose, and that is especially for bad Roses.

I would consider a compost pile somewhere far in the corner that you can screen from public view, and put all your vegetable/fruit scraps there.  Grass clippings and dead leaves, as well as any local manure you can find, will contribute to the compost and you will have a first rate fertilizer in the spring.  It will feed your lawn and Roses everything they need.

Fruit scraps attract fruit flies and flies.  These are a real nuisance but not bad for Roses.  This should be placed in a compost pile so that they disintegrate efficiently.

Earthworms are not attracted to the unbrokendown organics matter.  They do like coffee grounds.  Those can be added directly to your Roses as a mulch.

Glad to hear your soil is so healthy.  I don't think you need pine trees for this.  Regular leaves will be great.  There are other things you can purchase if needed; let me know what you decide to do.

Answer
Coffee grounds should be scratched into the soil around the Rose up to the drip line, and not too deep -- you don't want to injure the shallow Rose roots.

With respect to bugs, they're out there and it's a good thing too.  Without them we'd be in trouble.  Earthworms are most attracted to them, however, and they are worth their weight in gold.