My lemon trees always attract plenty of bees, so I would guess you could expect the bees to come from somewhere and find the plant's blossoms. (Citrus blossoms have an amazing aroma.) They key is that you have to have bees in the general area to begin with, and you can encourage them by having other blooming trees and shrubs, and by planting flowering annuals or perennials that they like.

Thanx! That was fast! I guess I want bees, to help, so I will definitely keep that in mind. The yard I have has 1 crepe myrtle (spelling?) and that's it!!

Also, the bermuda has been established since the 1930's I think!! I tried digging some beds last year, and I had to dig down over 6 inches to find no roots. Is that to be expected? If that's true, I should get my flower beds around the year 2020!!

I have noticed lots of earth worms and grubs and my soil is very dark (I live in Beckham Co.), so I think it's ok, but from reading all the posts here I need to test?

Renee,

With well-established bermuda grass, the roots can be so thick, twisted together and overgrown that they are like concrete. You have several options, and there is no easy or "quick fix".

1) You can rent a sod cutter from an equipment rental store. You set it to the depth you want and it will cut and lift squares or rectangles of sod (they will look like the pieces of grass sod you buy in stores, only thicker). I don't think the cutter will go down as deep as you need, but it would be a good start. Once you get the grass runners and stolons out, add organic material to the soil to improve boths its ability to hold water and to drain well. Plant, mulch, you're done. (You will have to watch carefully for signs of infilitration by bermuda grass or weeds.)

2) You can cover the area of future beds with very thick heavy black plastic. If I were doing it, I would get either 4mm or 6mm and lay down a double layer of it. Before laying down the black plastic, soak the ground thoroughly to get it really wet. The moisture plus the heat will start killing the grass. Leave the black plastic there for 6 months to a year, using bricks, lumber or something similar to hold it in place. It won't look very attractive, so you can cover it with a layer of bark mulch if you want. If you can't stand the sight of an empty mulched "bed" place a few large containers of flowers there. Eventually the bermuda will die under the plastic. You may still find some runners or stolons there when you lift up the plastic, but then you can hand-dig them. Then, improve the soil be adding organic material and plant. Mulch to keep weeds out.

3) Spray the bermuda grass with a non-selective herbicide like Round-up. The grass will brown out and die. Based on my experience with the bermuda grass in our yard, it can take several applications to kill all the grass. (You'll think it is dead and then, in scattered locations, it will green up and start to grow again.) This might be especially true for you since you've dug into the ground and already know it has a very dense, deep root system.
Once the grass appears dead, dig up and remove all you can. Improve the soil, plant and mulch.

4.) Give up on the idea of having in-the-ground flower beds and build raised beds. If the thought of doing that seems overwhelming, plan to build one bed per year until your yard is the way you want it to be.

To build a raised bed on top of bermuda grass, spray the area with Round-up. Wait a week to allow it to work and then lay down a layer of something on top of the dead-looking turf. My favorite thing to use is heavy cardboard. You also can use newspaper (I'd lay it down 30 or 40 pages thick with bermuda grass. As you are working with the newspaper, wet it down so it won't blow away.) You can use thick black plastic too. In your hot and dry part of the state, the thick black plastic would help keep the bed's moisture from draining away too quickly. Appliance boxes are ideal for this because their cardboard is thick and in large pieces.

Build your bed edging, using wood, manufactured lumber like Trex, stacked stone (like Windsor stone), flagstone, concrete blocks, etc. Choose whatever fits your budget and gives you the look you prefer. Make your raised bed about a foot tall. If you go shorter than that, the roots may grown down through the cardboard, paper or plastic before all the bermuda grass roots are decayed.

Fill your bed with purchased soil. For a large bed, you might want to order and have a dumptruck bring you a load. Or, for a smaller bed, you can purchase bagged soil, peat moss, compost, etc. from a place like Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot.

Put a fabric-type cloth mulch (not the cheap plastic type that has millions of perforations to let water through--it lets weeds and bermuda through too) on the surface of your raised bed. Use landscape staples or pegs to secure it. Cut X-shaped openings in the fabric and plant your plants. Water them well. Cover the fabric with a couple of inches of bark mulch. Sit back and enjoy.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. However, if you prepare the beds properly to begin with, you'll have 1000% less problems with bermuda grass and wees later on.

As far as your soil goes, the fact that it is dark and has earthworms are both very good signs.

First, I'd do the soil jar test explained in the link below. That will tell you what your soil is--clay, sandy, silt, etc. Ideal soil is sandy loam. You can turn clay, pure sand or pure silt into sandy loam by adding organic materials (compost, peat moss, finely shredded bark, manure, etc.), although improved clay will be more of a clayey-loam than a sandy loam, unless you add sand as well as organic materials. After the jar soil test, add organic materials and till them in well (or mix in well by hand). THEN it is time for a soil test. It will tell you if your soil is missing any essential elements that you need to add, or if a particular element is excessive in your soil IF the plants already grow well and seem healthy, you probably could skip the soil test.

Good luck with your gardening venture and keep us posted on how it is going.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Jar Test Article

It wouldn't hurt to get a soil test.

One thing I would recommend if they are still available is the Soil Survey of your county. I got the one for my county and love the info in it. It's published by United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. Should be available from your County Soil District office. Mine was free, but that was a few years ago.

Hmmm. Things that bloom deter bees huh? We won't hold that against them, will we?

Bermuda roots can go that deep in good soil.

randy