Time, organic matter, and patience. I think you can change almost any soil.

Lovely post, Melissa. Making a garden is like raising a child ...and yours is going into adolescence. But hey, isn't your daughter too? All those hormones, rampant growth, wilful, wild, fully authentic. Extreme.

Pam, here, too? Yes, here too.
I read in another post about your massive rambler planting, and all I can say is, it sounds magnificent. Congratulations!

Suzy, not sure if the garden has entered its adolescence, perhaps you're right. DD is delightful, but still hanging on to childhood in some ways. I rather wish she would enter into full-blown adolescence and work through it while she's still at home and has her parents to keep a helpful eye on her in her difficult moments. She's in her third (of five) year of high school, and her teachers in her school work are also telling her, "Grow up!" She's serious about school but immature in her thinking. Lately we've been practicing part singing with Christmas carols, made possible by DD's being a fair musician, since I can't read music. This is good home entertainment in this period of incessant rain and fog.

Melissa

P.S. Suzy, are you getting the same weather pattern? I have the impression it's coming from your direction. And how are things going in general with your land and transfer there? Have you posted a progress report recently?

This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 1:48

I now have brand new beds with plain clay. I will be trying to amend them as much as possible, but I know it will take years really. I'm not going to bother doing the double digging, I now think that's a waste of time and energy. I'm just going to get a dump of organic material, amend holes for the roses and other plants and try to wall in the bed a bit so I can just keep dumping organics on it every year.

Melissa, I have bermuda as a lawn grass. As you know, it can be terribly invasive. I was working on the existing side of the bed which is attached to the 'new' bed (the junipers were dug up as part of the construction). We've had rain recently, so the ground was soft. As I was pulling up the bermuda that had invaded the bed, it does loosen the soil. Of course, if the soil is dry, it's much harder to pull up the grass. Just be careful to not let the bermuda get too much of a foothold because it can create such a thick thatch and then you have to dig it out. That's why it makes such a good lawn. And since it grows by rhizomes, you need to be careful to remove every last bit so it doesn't come back (if you don't want it to).

I'm realizing more and more that my soil, as much as the drought, is responsible for the poor growth and overall condition of my roses. I've done the best I could given my suboptimal health and vigor, but it's just not enough. I'm wondering now if just dumping store-bought compost on top of the leaf mulch and watering it in would do much good.

Ingrid

Ingrid,

I think that is a wonderful idea. If I were you, I would pick up just as much as I thought I could handle in a day, pick a plant to start with and do a good thick layer and keep working at it on my own pace. I try to put down the layer that I want even if it means that I can only do a few plants rather than try and spread a tiny bit to all.

I like the EB Stone products, mostly because I buy them at locals rather than box stores, but they have a variety of products.

I wonder if the 420 mix for "the cut flower industry" would be good as a topper?

(of course you may get some looks if you are buying 420 mix by the trunk full)

Here is a link that might be useful: 420 mix

In Florida there are some very lush natural habitats that grow on plain sand. The continuous feed of organic matter from the plants already present, plus abundant rain, keeps the cycle of growth going. Ingrid, what you're talking about is a similar strategy: relying on organic amendment to feed your garden and treating the soil as a medium for the plants to get their roots into rather than as a source of nutrition. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Buford, too late: the Bermuda grass is there and my efforts aren't going to be able to get it out. I'm putting my hopes in a hypothesis of competition. When I look over the garden and see that it's not ALL Bermuda grass, I understand that there are conditions in which other plants are stronger than Bermuda grass. So what I need to do is create those conditions. This is what's going on in the area of good soil that I first wrote about: a variety of factors improved the soil until the shrubs could grow well, and the shrubs then began to outcompete the Bermuda grass. In this other area I'm not going to try to get rid of all the Bg, just pull it where I conveniently can. If the Bg is thriving, the bed is probably not ready for anything else yet anyway. And if the roses and shrubs are ready to grow well, they'll help me get rid of the Bg. It's a hope, anyway.
Good luck with your clay. I actually regard mine with a semi-benevolent eye: it may be hard as h*ll to get adequately amended, but once you reach that point, you never have to amend again (at least with the kinds of plants I grow).

Melissa

Hi Melissa, the only thing I have found that will get rid of BG is shade. So if the shrubs and other plants can cast enough shade, that will stop the BG.

The interesting thing about clay. When my yard was all dug up and piles of the clay soil were all over, we had a big rain. Afterwards, I could see all this sand on top. Apparently the clay washed away, leaving the sand. I hurried and packed up as much of it as I could. I put a lot of in on the bottom of pots that I have plants in and I'm going to try to add it into then new beds.

Bermuda grass is the bane of my gardens. I recently found a full size shovel with a serated edge and a short handle. I can get on my knees and use it to cut through the root systems horizontally. It's my new best friend. After working for an hour or so...wine time for sure.

Regarding the Bermuda grass, rather than pulling it out, would it be possible to put a shovel underneath, turn it upside down and leave it in place? The decomposing grass should enrich the soil.

Kippy and Melissa, I appreciate your input. I'm going to try this, and now would be a good time since we're supposedly going to have substantial rain next week. I may not get around to all the roses, but maybe I can rope in my non-gardener husband to help. He never says no but I hate to prevail on his good nature unless it's something I absolutely can't do, like digging holes. Melissa, I've always thought your husband is an absolute jewel, and I can't imagine there are too many men of his age group who could accomplish even a fraction of what he does.

Ingrid

ingrid, BG never dies. When I take out BG, I make sure I don't leave any little bits because it just starts growing again. And I don't compost it unless it's definitely dried out and dead.

I'm seething the calf in its mother's milk: pulling up great armfuls of Bermuda grass and then piling them on top of where I pulled them. The ground can't get fuller of Bg roots than it aready is, and it discourages regrowth (shading them out as Buford says). I don't dig them out until I'm ready to plant something.

We haven't seen the sun since last Monday, and it was a pallid ghost then. I'm hoping the forecast will hold and this rain will ease off in a couple more days. I want to get back to my plants. We have another month to plant (and take cuttings! I haven't yet taken cuttings!) and then it's time to start pruning.

Melissa

I find pulling out BG very therapeutic especially if I'm upset or stressed about something. The extra energy is great for pulling up the tough ones.

Earlier this year, I had to reclaim one of the edges of a bed where we had allowed the BG to creep in. There is was so thick, I had to use a shovel to make a new edge and then remove anything beyond that. Luckily it was sunny that day, so the pieces that I dug up I just turned upside down until they dried out, then shook off the dirt and put the grass in a bag to throw out. I used to compost it, but I had a bad problem with BG growing in my compost and that was a pain to get rid of.

I hate BG! I have a Cara Cara orange that is growing backwards I think due to the BG coming over from next door.

Once it rains, I am going to dig up my orange and move it so I can wage war on the BG and I hope the neighbor will let me spray his side of the yard with BG killer. I hate to use herbicides, but BG needs it. The neighbors want to do something with that corner so hopefully they will be happy to not have to remove the grass too