Denice and Bev what beautiful beds!!!!! I wonder if that Bayer tree and shrub would work. They were talking about it over on the daylily forum.

A lot of the ones available for systemic use are in granular form and instructions recommend working the granules (at least the one by Bonide did) into the 1-2 inches of soil. Well when I have a top dressing that sits on top of the soil...that's a lot of rocky top dressing to scrape away section by section to work the soil...
Guess, I will continue looking for a systemic that can work just as effectively placed on top of the dressing and watered in...???

Thanks all for liking my semp bed. I've been combing thru it so that I can figure how much space is left and thus how much semps I can indulge buying at PO and at Canby Fair in May....

Denise, your plants are doing well - very exciting!

Your bed is really filling in nicely Bev. That sounds like an awful lot of work applying the systemic that way. I agree, not something you'll want to keep doing. Hope you're able to find something else that will work for you.

This is not going to be a semp bed like the one already pictured above, but it is one that's new and will have a variety of plants (some semps and maybe some agave and/or euphorbia, agapatha, sedum, etc). Anyway, hubby's been working the layers of dirt and rock and sand and this is what I collected just within an hour's turning of soil medium:
Look familiar, Kate @Eviesmummy?

Two level beds and after searching while turning the soil, the bounty count is >64 so far. (Yecch!)

Eeek! Nasty!

Good heavens. Wonder if there is something you can add to the soil before you plant?

Time to bring out the bad stuff to get rid of those hummers.

Wonder how much they eat in a days time?

I'm going to see if diatomaceous earth will help. Am going to add to soil and if it takes care of any kind of unwanted critter, then that's good enough for me. Don't want to use too much chemicals. Having to add a systemic to my other established semp bed was already too much work...

Those are some nice looking beds, Bev. But wow, can't believe how bad the grub things are. G R O S S

Hubby and I decided to add another layer of pavers to each side and so the bed looked like this for 2 weeks while it rained:



Bags were finally moved off and then we went trolling for the cutworms (the above 64). Now the bags are open and will be spread tomorrow. Hubby says we should take advantage of his turning the soil once more and troll again for more critters...gee, looking forward to tomorrow...

I think you deserve one new semp for every cutworm you find. At least that would be a good incentive!

What a great idea! Too bad nobody's gonna sell me a semp in exchange for cutworms..."...Let's see, one Niphetos and one Pacific Magic Night...that'll be 8 cutworms, please...will you need a box?"

I know there are lots of robins up here that would gladly pay for a bug to eat right now!

I can freeze all 64 of them and send to you, Chris...

Gee thanks..... I'm sure once it warms up I'll have plenty of my own critters crawling around.

Bev I LOVE your new beds, they look fantastic!!! Big hugs on the critters though, I hasd a similar problem last summer, it was horrible! Although I must say that it was very satisfying digging them out and getting rid, my evil streak came out ;)

Nice looking bed Bev!! What a nice DH to help you fix a new growing space. Sure hope you kill all those bugs, I remember the destruction at Kate's place.

But...they... look.... delicious...

ew