I Have A Question About the Soil in the Flowerbeds

Hi! I have a lot of flowerbeds that have tons of room to plant more stuff. Things are already growing in them successfully, but the soil looks lousy to me. I rake it and turn it every week when it gets all compacted and sandy looking. It's clay, if you go down about a foot or so. And when I rake it, there are tons of rocks in it. Just seems like not good stuff to be putting nice new plants in, don't you think? Although things grow fine in it now, do you think I should have the beds prepared by changing out the nasty looking soil for good stuff? Too much work for me, would have to have the landscaper come and do it!

Here is a pic to show you that things DO grow in it! LOL

Welcome DivaSharon. I don't know the answer to your question. But your yard is lovely.

Thank you, Elsie! I'm glad I found this nice place! I've already had my Wisteria questions answered and I only joined yesterday! LOL

Definitely worth the price of subscription!

your soil doesn't sound bad to me, but I'm gardening in heavy nasty cement-like clay. . . *sigh*

I'm no expert, but I think all your soil prolly needs is organic matter, as in compost, cow or horse manure, chopped leaves, rabbit pellets - stuff like that. Adding things like that adds nutrients, which is good, but also increases the soil's ability to hold onto water, and keeps it from compacting so much.

When you are raking, are you finding earthworms? If so, you are prolly in pretty good shape.

Cheri'

Welcome DivaSharon! As someone who is also "blessed" with clay soil, I've spent the past four years (since we moved in) working on several beds to make the soil better as organically as I can. The first two years, I added everything I could get my hands on (leaf mould, rabbit manure, shredded leaves, homemade compost, mushroom compost, aged cow & horse manure.....the list goes on and on.)

The beds I've had the most success with were those I didn't try to amend the entire bed, but simply amended each planting hole with a mixture of compost and "soil conditioner" (finely ground bark mulch, $2-something for a 2 yard/40 lb. bag from Home Depot), along with some fertilizer. This gets well mixed with the soil and the plant set in. When the bed has been fully planted for the season, I put down a thick layer of newspapers followed by mulch - shredded pinebark, cypress, or pinestraw.

In the fall, I spread an inch or two of shredded leaves around the perennials, topped off with a 1/2" to 1" layer of well-rotted manure or compost.

The next spring, I add more mulch as needed, and in the fall, more leaves and manure. Within a couple years, these beds have much noticeably improved soil condition: I can pull weeds and dig in it even when it's pretty dry, and the soil is considerably looser and darker in color.

Sundry, I haven't found any earthworms this year at all in the beds I'm raking! Hmmm.....that's not a good sign, I'm told!

I agree on the organic matter. Recently, we had a bunny problem in my yard and there were plenty of bunny beans to throw in the flower beds! LOL Only thing is, my little dogs liked them too! Argh!

Terry, I like your solution of just improving each planting hole, which would be far easier for me than trying to dig out tons of bad soil and replacing it. The only thing is, I don't think I want to leave all those rocks there! I pick them out when they're really large and annoying, but I sure would like to know a better way to sift them out.

When I planted my rose bush recently, I dug down to the clay, then filled it in with Azalea mix, then planted the bush, more Azalea mix and cedar mulch. I put coffee grounds on it too. The bush seems to be well rooted now and happy (although the black spot plague did come to it, poor thing!) Do you think that treatment would be good enough, or should I get fertilizer of some kind? I have plant food for the new Verbena I just got today and want to plant tomorrow. What else do you recommend?

Thank you to everybody for your kind welcome and help! This is a lot of fun!

Speaking of coffee grounds.....you might see this in other threads, but just so you know, you can stop at any Starbucks and pick up their discarded coffee grounds, all nicely bagged,which you can use as organic material to add to your gardens. I stopped twice last week, and the first batch I brought home was nicely double bagged in clear plastic, (the outer ones were clean so I saved them, cheapo me) and later that week, they had some in a box near the door labeled "free" in smaller bags. Smells good in the car on the way home too! Unlike some things I have hauled.....

I think if you start picking out the smaller rocks, you will have a lifetime career....

DivaSharon, don't be too quick to pull all the rocks out of your beds. Those rocks help with drainage, as well as help to minimize compaction.

Ah, drainage! I didn't think of it! Okay, I'm just as happy NOT to have to do that! What a job that would be! LOL

Yes, I knew about Starbucks, and there is one up the street from me. I should go there and ask! Thanks for the reminder! I just save my own little bits every day! Not enough, I'd say!

Thanks!

Sharon, I have heard about your soil. My aunt lives in Coppell and complains about how there used to be a rock quarry where her house is built. It sounds like you are in the same exact area.

If I was you, I would get a couple bags of Cotton Burr Compost and maybe one of composted manure, and add a few inches to the bed. Use a shovel and pitchfork to mix it in. You can probably add a few inches to that bed mounding it more towards the center and it should be fine. And remember to several inches, because it will probably compact to less than half of what you add in a few months. You might add a few other things like the Coffee grounds, some alfalfa and or kelp to help bring the ph and add lots of micronutrients.

There are quite a few places in the Dallas area that carry stuff like this so just let me know if you need me to point you in the right direction.

Oh my gosh, a rock quarry! I wondered why it was like that!!!! I just though the builders were careless and didn't clean out the mess when they built! Wow!

Hmmmm.....I will add to the beds, but I may have to remove some too. They're so darn full, they could spill over onto the paths and grass! I have to be careful when I turn them all the time that it doesn't go over! LOL

I'm going to Home Depot Landscape supply today and will see if they have that stuff you mentioned. I'll let you know! Thanks so much for the advice!

One other thing that makes it kinda difficult is that fact that there are already things growing there and I don't want to disturb them. We have Cockscomb that just seeds itself every year and comes back in new and improved forms all the time and some of them have already started! They are true mutants and I can hardly wait to see how they look this year! My landscaper said she never saw anything like it! LOL

Great thread! Really applies to my yard/wannabe garden. I'll be watching this thread to learn from your expierences. Please come back and let me know how your soil improvement projects are going!

edited to say: divasharon. I think earthworm activity is a great indicater of your soils "health." I find only a few right now and will be looking for a population explosion.

This message was edited Aug 2, 2004 11:08 AM

Well, soil seems fine, lots of earthworms....but it doesn't matter anymore because the rabbits have eaten all my flowers and they won't come back next year! I should just forget about it all and have a rock garden! Boo Hoo!

Hey, you can add earthworms and wabbits to your wildlife list! "Thats a good thing."

My method for getting the most out of poor soil is...
a) dig a trench and save the soil on a tarpaulin as if you were going to double dig the area.
b) don't dig down (unless you want to grow things like leeks or sweet peas to perfection), but when you dig the next row, put that soil on another tarpaulin.
c) When you are finished the row, riddle (sieve) the second lot of soil into a wheelbarrow (a ¼" mesh is fine) and throw the rough stuff that doesn't go through the riddle into the trench. (You should, obviously, discard large stones and perennial weed roots).
d) When the wheelbarrow is full (or you get to the end of the row if your soil is absolutely appalling or the row is very short), cover the rough stuff with manure or some other good water-retentive compost.
f) Fork this in and then cover with the fine soil from the wheelbarrow.
g) Repeat until the area is completely improved.
h) If you still have a trench, sieve the soil retained from the first trench and fill it with that as above.
i) If you do not have a trench you can sieve the soil, throw out the rough stuff and keep the fine soil as topsoil for making your own compost, etc.

I figure that is takes ~ 2 hours to tackle a square yard, but the results, for me at least, have been fantastic.