Preparation for a New Brug Alley . . .

Only have another 48 hours here and need to come up with a quick solution.

Hopefully tomorrow the gardener will remove all these old shrubs. Over the years these beds have settled so there is about 6-8 inches where I could just haul in a good planting medium and put it right on top of the old hard stuff.

Any suggestions of what I could buy locally to throw in there?

Also was looking at this stuff and thought about ordering it from Gardens Alive.

Gardener's Gold TM Premium Compost

They say it is two years old and one can plant directly into it.

Need to get the brug cuttings into the ground as I will not be returning until mid-January. There is an automatic water sprinkling system so they will get watered consistently.

Thank you for any and all suggestions.

If possible I would try to till the new compost or planting medium into the old hard dirt to give it better consistance for the root systems.
Where are these plants going to be. It shows you are in z4b.

Hi Snow,

This is my house in Southern California. I do not know its zone. When you look at the zone map it is a scrambled mess.

SoCal, for instance is nearer to the beach so her climate is different from mine as Orange(10 minutes from Micky Mouse and Anaheim)is a little more inland. Yet it is not as hot here as, say, Riverside where it gets beastly.

It was nice talking to you today Arlene. Hope your yard man and you have time to get all the work done before you come back home.

TwinLakesChef, I am confused, of course I guess that isn't new. Anyway I have been pretty much out of touch with you all as I have been out of town for two weeks with a few days inbetween. Are you preparing to move back to IA for the winter. As I understand the picture is of your
Cal. home, which you have 48 hours to decide what you are going to do where the shrubs are coming out. My inclination would be to use as good a compost-soil as you can find on top of what you have. Anyway good luck. Donna

Hi RuthOlive,

Came to CA from Iowa for a week; went to the SoCal Round-Up on Sat, and will be back home in IA by Tue night.

Want the gardener here work this bed and hoping to get the brugs received at the round-up in the ground before leaving. They are sitting here in water rooting and cannot wait til January when I return to be put in the ground. They need to go in NOW!

Really only have tomorrow for him to pull out all the old shrubs and to add about 8" of SOMETHING to plant them in.

The soil that is in that raised planter has been there 30 years, nothing ever done to it as far as I know. Hard clay.
Just want to put something in the top of it . . . maybe the gardener could locate a rototiller to work it a bit.

I don't know what everyone else uses to build raised beds but I order by the truckload a planting mix which consisted of top soil, compost, and sand plus horse manure. We did till the ground before putting this on top. After planting we added 3-4 inches of pine bark mulch. My large garden area has very few weeds that come up in it. It takes time to prepare but it is worth it.

BrugNanny,
That sounds just right. . . thank you

Brug,Brug,Brug,Brug,Did I mention Brugs?LOL!

Gardener said, "We're just cutting them off at the GROUND, Right?" Noooo . . . Noooo . . . roots and all!

After thinking on that a bit he promised me he would put two guys on tearing out all that stuff at 7:30 tomorrow morning.

But even if he can get that done . . . we still have to bring in the fill. I will but at Home Depot's door at 6 AM just to see what they have and then down to another place that has more bulk type offerings. In addition to that, there is a good chance that the in-ground water sprinkler line will get torn up in the process of getting the roots out. Will have to cut our losses and just replace it.

Might see about renting a rototiller to work it a little bit before putting the good stuff in. We don't know at this point what those 30 year old roots will look like.
May need a lot of fill to replace them.

There are 17 brug cuttings in water in the garage and many of them already have roots. Tomorrow will be a race against the clock to get it done . . . even with three men working on it all day.

If I can't get them in the ground because he couldn't meet my deadline, I will probably have to ask Donna to come up and plop them in.


This message was edited Mar 4, 2005 5:20 PM

Arlene,

I told you yesterday that I would be glad to plant them for you and also to take a look at them once in awhile. Don't try to hurry to get them planted. That ground needs to be taken care of first or your going to lose every one of them precious brug cuttings!!!!!!!

I'm not KIDDING about planting them.

Donna

Thanks Donna! Will let you know

Arlene has been a very busy lady today. She had her gardener take all of the plants out and last time I talked with her, they were on their way to get the soil. She will be leaving Calif. tomorrow morning early, so hopefully she will post more here about her ventures when she gets back to Iowa.

BYE Arlene,

Donna

I bet she's darn tired! Let us know how you did, Arlene. I can just imagine it all planted up with brugs :)

Waiting to hear from you, TLC....I hope you got most of it done!!! :)

Job is done; here is all the stuff to be hauled away.

Two very tired gardeners in 90 degrees plus heat.

A blank slate for SoCal and Jul to work with . . .

Edited to add that we should have been able to finish in time for me to put in the brug cuttings before I left for Iowa.
They had to quit at 2 PM because of the heat and there is still that trunk of a pine tree down in the far corner.
That root system was 2 feet wide and at least 2 feet deep.

Although I had gone out and purchased the various components for the planting mixture, that root ball still needed to come out as well as mixing and putting the new plant mixture in.

SoCal offered to come put them in for me if I ran out of time and then Jul emailed and offered to help.

I am jealous I won't be there . . . they are going to have fun getting acqainted!

This message was edited Oct 22, 2003 10:46 AM

This is what I came home to . . .

brug cuttings rooting like crazy and my DH surprised me with a new tool . . a pruning saw! I'm gonna keep him!

Wow Arlene!! Or should I just call you "Wonder Woman"?
You certainly got that done quick! Now you need to take a breather & relax. You accomplished all this... & our RU in less than a week! Thank you so much for my hat. It will always remind me of our wonderful day at Donna's & of course of you.
Bambi

Well Bambi,
Remember I did not do the work, just sweated out there with them to be sure they were doing what was needed.

Had them pull out old lighting, tested to be sure sprinklers were working which they were but needed to be
raised to accomodate for the new soil mixture and even
found an old outdoor speaker that we had forgotten was there. Sure brought back memories of entertaining in that house.

Today, I have already spent 5 hours in the Iowa gardens.
Chopping down castor bean plants (trees?).

Just getting ready to go out and try out my new toy. Looks like a vacuumn but it picks up leaves and shreds them. They will go into trash bags and after the freeze comes we plan to sprinkle them over the garden.

You have accomplished so much. Can't wait to see those brugs planted because they will be beautiful next to that white wall. I think I will come for a swim next summer!!!

Thank you, BrugNanny!

Sure hope it turns out good; just such a long time to wait.

If I had only thought of it last spring! But I was so busy with relandscaping the Iowa property . . . didn't even give it a thought . . . that I could have my own brugs . . . year round!

Wow! You're lucky to have such good help :o) Looks like you got a lot accomplished. I'm sure it will be an awesome sight lined with brugs!

Hey Arlene, it is going to look great. Maybe Donna will be able to take a picture when the brugs bloom too. You have a couple of great friends out there that are willing to go over and plant for you. I'm glad you are back home safe and sound. Don't work too hard.

can't wait to see pictures!!!

Sweet Brugie!
Miss you!

TLChef, you really did get a lot done with your helpers and the heat. Looks like there wasn't a lot of room to work beside your pool. Glad you good friends could plant the cuttings for you.

Yesterday I cut as much of my large castor beans down that I could cut with pruners, that was up to about an 1 1/2, then had my hired man cut down the rest and dig out the roots. Mine (thankgoodness only three of the large ones) were from 3 to 4" in diameter at ground level. Al three were about 10 feet tall. I need the space to plant my bulbs etc. that are arriving each day in the mail. Donna

Wow Arlene, you weren't kidding about that big ole pine tree roots!! Hope they haven't gotten into the pool area.

Just have your daughter call me when she sees that the brugs have rooted good enough and the new bed will be planted.

I bet it felt good working in your own garden today, even though you were cutting down your castors. I like your new little toy. Isn't it great when our DH's buy us tools for our garden hobby? It's better than jewelry to me these days. haha

Brugie, I promise I will take my camera over there after I get it all planted up. You might not be able to see them very well, as they are kinda small.

So glad you arrived home safely.

Donna

Forgot to show you what I came home to . . . not a really good pic . . . guess I was in a hurry to catch it!


Sun setting on the lake.

This message was edited Oct 23, 2003 9:17 AM

What a beautiful setting that is Arlene. It looks like the trees have already lost all of their leaves back there. Brrrr, looks kinda cold to me, especially since we have been having this heat wave.

Donna

Gorgeous sunset picture!

I can't wait to see that pool pic next summer! It should be packed with trumpets!

Six months later

7 made it from cutting with no care.
They sure grow a lot easier in the Southern California climate than they do in Iowa. One even has two seed pods.

They must look gorgeous against that white wall when they all are in bloom.

I was thinking the same thing as Kell. I can just picture it now.....Beautiful!

Straight on from left
#1,2,3 are unmarked but there is a tag on the ground that says "Frosty"
#4 is labeled Rose Suaveolens

They all look about the same to me in the trumpets but
some of the leaves are a little different.

In the blank space to the left are new cuttings from MaryinLA:
Eric's White
Jam Yellow
Ins. Pink
Insg. Pink X Isabella

Then there is:
No Name from Switzerland (I think from Brugie)
SnowCone (took a cutting out of my garden in Iowa last Fall)
Rose Suaveolens (from Brugie)

Now I am running out for fertilizer and some sort of systemic thing to stop the bug bites. Collected 3 trash bags of spent blooms, dead leaves, and leaves with bug bites. These guys have done several flushes behind my back. (Haven't been here since Feb).

Will also try to find something to underplant with.

Now it needs some brugs in that empty planter to the far right.

Arlene, It's BEAUTIFUL!

Want a Tropical Sunset for your empty planter?

It's not very happy here. :-(

Previous photos were taken at 6 months later.
Here is one year later