"Cass" wrote:
In article , Mark. Gooley
wrote:


I got my 20 cubic yards of compost and I've already replanted
some Austins in little artificial hills, hoping to save them from
sickliness and perhaps death. It is a testimonial to my Gertrude
Jekyll (I'd buried the label and forgotten what it was!) own-root
that it's still alive after nearly three years of neglect, and
occasionally
even blooming.

Mark., will keep everyone posted on the results of replanting sodden
bushes in little artificial hills like blisters



Mark, you might do a google search of mediterranean mound. There is a
nursery near Monterey that specializes in Mediterranean climate plants
that recommends it highly. The mounds are no more than 2 or 3 feet high
and fairly large around, say 12 feet. In our drought, the
recommendation is to water them once every 3 weeks.

I should try that with my supposedly-cold-hardy agaves and nolinas and
such, all still in pots and growing poorly. The nearest botanical gardens,
it finally dawns on me, have theirs on a mound too...

You are mixing the compost with soil? I ask because my barn spread out
a lot of composted stable bedding all by itself and planted in it. It
has not been successful. Amended into the soil, however, and stuff
explodes.

This stuff has some soil in it already, but not as much as what I got
last time. It's hard to mix the soil with it, as the soil is at present
mud.
I'm afraid that you might be right, and that a mix of it with soil would
have been wiser. Then again, there's no animal feces in it, barring
perhaps a spot of dog picked up by a lawnmower. Some unrotted
bits of wood: better as a soil amendment, yeah. I suppose that the
damned stuff could resume composting itself, which might be a bad
thing as well.

The stuff I got last time was half composted yard waste and half native
soil, but they were out of that and this stuff looks to be maybe ten or
fifteen percent sand. One joint of one of my fingers is swollen up and
aching, but it doesn't look infected and a doctor I saw about it says that
it isn't. Also the left foot is acting up again: wearing a surgical boot
to keep the joint behind my big toe from flexing has given me a blister,
so for now I pretty much have to leave things as they are, as a diabetic
has to be very careful with his numb feet. Result: I don't think I'll add
to what I've done so far, replant six or seven sodden Austins in little
mounds. Meanwhile my surviving potted roses, over-watered and
over-fertilized, are mostly doing well: blooms and strong growth from
the New Dawn, some really fine flowers on the Romanticas (but the
bushes are so TINY), vigorous growth from the Meilland landscape
roses...it's amazing what I'll buy if it's 75% off.

I should try the growers in South Georgia for more old roses. Teas,
especially.

Mark., too damned delicate, I am