I have had alot of trouble from moles, and voles(field mice) tunneling under the roses and eating the roots, I have lost many a bush. I have tried everything,from covering the top of the plant beds with mesh,sitting out mole poison to the mole/vole motion beepers. Nothing seems to stop these creatures.
In my front landscaping instead of mulching we rock everything(we like the look). I noticed that the roses are growing wonderfully,no holes from the moles/voles. So in late august we decided to rock the raised plant beds, what an improvement with my roses, they grew better, ones that I thought were dead started to break new canes. I figure the moles/voles cannot dig down through the potato rocks. But because of the rocks we donot mulch anymore.
so I wanted to know if the rocks would serve as some sort of winter protection for the roses?