Before I head outside for the day, I wanted to ask a question about transplanting bulbs.

Do you dig them up and let them dry out before dividing them and replanting them ? OR Do you have the planting holes prepped and divide the bulbs and plant immediately ?

For now I am talking about tulips and hyacinths and a mystery bulb.

Smiles,
Lyn

In my past experience, they have been divided and planted again promptly.

I am no expert, so take this with an appropriate skepticism. What happens with me is, I dig up bulbs, go "Hmm! Wonder what these are? Look like tulips..." I then put them somewhere out of the sun while I consider where they should go or if I care, then when I get to it, which may be that day or some days later, I put them in the ground where I think what I think they are could do well.

It usually works out okay.

That works too, Kyla!

I've been amazed, actually, at how forgiving bulbs are to that kind of ill treatment. Well, most of them anyway. Iris rhizomes seem almost indestructible. Keeping them out of the direct sun seems the main thing needed for all of them, in between digging them up and replanting them.

Oh, good. When I first read Cat's answer, I thought, "Oh, well. They will have to wait until after the mulching is done." Now, I can just work with them as I go through the beds with the mulching.

It's that domino affect hitting me again ..

I haven't figured out where to put them, yet, and they are looking very "done."

Smiles,
Lyn

I need some help.

I used some of that awful compost from Ace where they changed to formula to include a whole lot more peat as my mulch in the front tier rose bed last year. I thought I was feeding the soil in the whole bed.

In high temps, once it has dried, it is like concrete and does not let any moisture through and altho' I am deep watering the roses, they are not getting sufficient water to get through the high temps we have been having. I have to go into the bed each time I water and break that stuff up before I water to get water down the root zones of the plants.

What material can I amend that stuff with so that it doesn't matt ? I think I only need to go down a few inches and get it broken up and then I can put different mulch on top of it. Just adding different mulch on top of it doesn't seem like it would do the job. It would be like mulching concrete.

All suggestions are welcome.

Lyn

Manure? Can you get composted steer, cow, or horse manure, enough to cover that area and chop it into the peat a bit? It's what I would try if I had access, and had that problem, I think.

Lyn, so sorry you are facing this and the drought and heatwave and all.

Any kind of organic compost will work. What I would do is remove as much of the peat-based mulch as possible and pile it up somewhere. Then, spread compost, manure, shredded leaves, anything that you have, anything organic...wood chips...whatever.. over the bed (best if you can deep water it first). Compost (as long as its well rotted) is the best mulch you can find and it will help the soil. You could try mixing the removed peat-based mulch with the compost, either before or after you spread it, but I'd go very lightly with the peat stuff. I know just what you mean: I did the same thing and after the peat dried, the water beaded up and rolled off! I removed it all, tossed into my general compost heap with leaves, grass clippigns, whatever etc. and let it all rot together for a year before I was able to use it.

And same here, what Kyla says: We're hoping and praying for rain for you all every day.

OH, this just occurred to me. I read that in drought conditions, laying large pebbles or flat rocks over the soil around the base of plants will help conserve moisture. The rocks can also act as "dew catchers".

I agree with Annie -- about removing the peat and all -- but thinking of how labor intensive that is and imagining it is a pretty large area, I was trying to propose a less labor-intensive solution. What Annie says would be most effective I feel sure!

Also the rock dew catcher idea is worth considering also, but I would put those on top of whatever mulch you end up with.

Lyn, I've found leaf mold to be the most water-retentive and non-matting of all the different composts. It doesn't crack or get hard.

Is leaf mold something you could get easily where you are?

Thank you all for the suggestions. I had not thought of removing the old compost. I've just been breaking it up before I watered.

Kyla ... I probably won't add manure to any beds until after the temps drop. There is a lot of salt in them and that can stress any plant in triple digit temps, also I don't want to encourage any new growth right now.

I usually use leaves that I go out and gather and bring home and shred for my mulch, but I've found that during the drought, the leaf mulch dries up way too quickly and does not perform the function of holding moisture in the soil, so I've been using wood chips gleaned from the base of the utility company's chipping pile for mulch last year and this year because the chips are larger particles and don't dry out and disappear during the heat and do hold moisture in the soil. In non-drought years, the leaves are my first choice.

I made the mistake of using the compost in this bed because I had just gotten tired of hauling wood chips and got lazy.

The wood chips I haul home are already partially decomposed, you can see the fungus threads in them, and I don't think they are robbing the soil of any nutrients as they continue to decompose.

I have several bags of leaves I've already gathered and can mix them with wood chips and put over that bed as mulch after I've removed the compost stuff. I have been saving the leaves to put down over the wood chips in fall.

Don't laugh too loudly, but I had two bags of the compost stuff left over and I have been using it under the base of my river rock borders as a weed/grass deterrent up on the house pad. It's actually working ! I can take the stuff I take out of this rose bed and use it under more of the border rocks.

I think the roses survived my mistake last year because they are budded and their root system, Dr. Huey, extends under the small lawn above that tier. Mrs. J had them planted in a tier that was only eight inches wide. There is no way she could have deep watered the roses. I widened the tier to three feet, but I still think their roots are in the lawn above, so in spite of my mistake, they got watered well when I watered the lawn.

Thank you for the good thoughts about my getting rain, but even in normal years, there is no rain during the summer months in my climate. That's why the deep watering and moisture retention is really important.

Temps are supposed to drop for at least 10 days, so I think I'll be able to replace the compost stuff before it gets hot again. It has been impossible to do anything in the garden except water for the last two weeks.

Thank you all for your support. At least now I have a plan.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, it sounds like you know exactly what to do! Good luck with it. (I didn't know about salts in manure, so you taught me something.)

Kyla ..

You know the only thing I really know how to grow are roses ...

I would have never thought of removing the compost stuff.

I have been concentrating on the house pad level this year, so I wasn't as observant as I should have been with the roses out in front.

Smiles,
Lyn

@Newyorkrita -- Hey, Rita, I have a question for you -- and for anyone else who might know. I have several healthy cardinal climber plants here and there in the garden, and so far, I don't even see any buds on them! Am I just being impatient? Or do they take this long to bloom? I can't imagine why they wouldn't bloom but it seems like by now I should see something!

kylaluaz said:@Newyorkrita -- Hey, Rita, I have a question for you -- and for anyone else who might know. I have several healthy cardinal climber plants here and there in the garden, and so far, I don't even see any buds on them! Am I just being impatient? Or do they take this long to bloom? I can't imagine why they wouldn't bloom but it seems like by now I should see something!

That sure is a nice healthy looking plant. It seems to me that they do take a long time to bloom. Even so I would expect to see buds at least by now. They are not a difficult plant so I don't know why no blooms.

Are they getting the right amount of sun? When I have things that don't bloom it's often related to amount of sunlight. Aside from that, all I can think is that sometimes plants don't bloom for me their first year but then do the next

But it's an annual. They do self seed sometimes but of course you need flowers to get seeds.

Newyorkrita said:But it's an annual. They do self seed sometimes but of course you need flowers to get seeds.

well, that does make it more challenging then... :-D

Lots of sun, yes! I think it's just early still.