Hi John, Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

The root system is much deeper than that of blueberries and consists of deeper structural roots but it also has shallower fibrous roots too so it is these shallower roots that I guess may be affected by competition? The traditional belief is that roses don’t like anything planted too close (but I am wary about believing this as there seem to be a lot of myths surrounding rose growing that just don’t seem to be true in my experience :)).

Perhaps I just have to block off some areas and trial different scenarios and see how the roses react (Ajuga reptens is another one that I could try). I guess I am thinking of ways to reduce the manual input of mulch and use the liquid carbon pathway to reduce workload and increase soil carbon. I really like the mulch and blow concept – unfortunately my set up is not really geared for that at the moment but if I were to scale up I would set up to enable me to do this (the podcast discussing this was really great btw).

Thanks again for all you do in this realm – the impact on my thought processes and growing has been huge.