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What can I do this time of year to prepair my rock garden for next spring?

I have a large overgrown garden around a rock ledge. the soil is very hard and the plants are very old, many do not bloom any more. I'm lost what can I do?

Public Comments

1. get to working.
2. you got a lot of work to do. Pull out all of the dead plants. Pull out anything you do not want anymore. Dig up the ones you do want and redig them into the ground in the areas you want them. Buy liner to lay down for weed protection. Then lay at least 2 inches of potting soil over the whole garden. Then next year, you will have room to replant beautiful plants and flowers in good soil without weeds getting in the way.
3. right get to working but let compose do all the work put down as much compose as you can afford just let it sit on the surface of the ground till spring then plant right through the compose it will soften your hard soil
4. Start by NOT fertilizing and NOT disturbing the soil. A sudden influx of fertilizer can "fool" your plants into postponing dormancy and ultimately be the cause of your plants dieing. Loosen the soil, fertilize, and water well in early Spring. To get your plants to bloom again, get bananas. Instead of trashing the peals, put them in a blender 1 part peals to 2 parts of water, puree and then pour the water/banana peal mix around your plants in the loosened soil. That adds potassium to the soil - which is necessary to enable the plants to bloom. In one summer I turned a large 400 bloom Pole Star rose into a large 1,800 bloom Pole Star using this technique; right now my roses are in their 3rd bloom cycle - which is amazing because our summers aren't very long here in Alaska. Preparation for winter: Put a layer of mulch on each of your plants, then cover the entire rock garden with a sheet of plastic. Finally: put another layer of mulch on top of the plastic. The layer under the plastic protects the plants from frost and keeps the ground slightly warmer. The layer of mulch above the plastic further insulates your plants and holds the plastic in place