How do I clean up an old flower bed and start new?

Question

I have a small flower bed in front of my house with an existing rose bush and flowers planted last year. There is black paper down and bark on top to keep out weeds. Most of the flowers are dead and the bark is now full of leaves and debris. How do I clean up the flower bed, and start over but keep re-use the bark. I live in CA so it is very hot and dry and I'm scared of coming across spiders in the bed. We've had 3 black widows this year. And I know nothing about gardening or plants. I would like to do most of the flowers in planters or stick to some kind of shrubs. And I need something easy to take care of, since I don't have a green thumb. I plan to get supplies this afternoon.

Answer 1

The rose bush would need pruning if u wanted it to bloom for extended periods of time. otherwise it will only bloom for a short season once a year. To prune it means clipping off the blooms as soon as they fully open. like the flower starts to open, takes a couple of days to open. but as soon as it fully opens, you have to clip it off during the next 24 hours. clip it right above a leaf node that has 3 - 5 leaves on it.

pruning roses:

http://gardening.about.com/od/rose1/a/Ro...

To clean the bark, you could try a leaf blower..but of course u do not have one since u are new to gardening. maybe a fan turned on high would give you a bit of the same effect. Or maybe u could toss the bark up in front of the fan. like you maybe have heard of separating wheat from it's chaff with wind? so, depending on the weight of your bark and leaves, it may be quite easy to do that. like toss the surface materials in front of the fan and hopefully the heavy stuff drops straight down and the light stuff blows off to the side.

u could try using a leaf rake to lightly skim off the top leaves before you use the rake to lightly toss the bark. You might need two implements so you do not have to touch the bark (and possible bugs!), like you could use a the broom and dustpan method. scoop the bark into a shovel or cardboard box.

to guard against bugs you can tuck you pants into your socks and wear gloves tucked into sleeves (tape works besides tucking). wear light colored clothing so it is easy for someone to inspect u for riders before u go in the house.

the broom might even be cool to use broom-like on the surface of the bark to brush away leaves.

^^^all of those suggestions would work depending on the size of your bark and the size/postioning of the leaves. The ting is with that situation is that each bark/leaf scenario is slightly different so u have to play with it and figure what physics work for your materials.

you can expect the same clean-up chore to recur as long as there is debris that can blow into the bed. I only say that because although decorative bark can be pretty, taking care of it without a leaf blower can be a real pain.

If you end up pulling up the bark to clean it or scraping it to the side, then go ahead and augment the soil beneath the paper if you have the resources. like maybe work the leaves into the soil. or add compost, manure or worm castings...whatever raw organic stuff you have. Working 2" - 4" of stuff into the top foot of soil is okay.

augmenting the soil could be done every year. If you had permanent plants in there then the augmenting can get done sheet style/spread on the surface and allowed to feed from above; worms and water help take the nutrients down into the soil.

if the soil is not fed every year, then the plants may need supplemental feed, like those time-release pellets i mentioned. check the package for application amounts/frequency.

the only plants that are likely to survive without food are natives.

here is a tool to help you select native plants for california:

http://www.mynativeplants.com/

there are a lot of "plant selector"s around. some let you search by different criteria (bloom color or season, etc) and each database will have a certain limited number of plants in it. some databases specialize (like the one for ca natives).

other plant selectors:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=shrub+p...

if u got a plant u are curious about but no pic, then search with the name and the word "image". maybe try the common name and then the scientific name. Using the scientific name can get you better cultivation advice sometimes too although only sometimes. to get the name, use the common one plus the word "classification".

a place to get cultivation advice:

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegar...

to know what plants will grow in your area, sometimes you need to know your zone. like u will see a plant can grow in zone 4 - 9 maybe. u can find your zone here:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzma...

once u know your zone, you can find plants that live in your area by searching "zone __ vegetables" or "zone ___ flowering shrubs".

if you want to talk about this more, you can go to a gardening forum:

http://www.dmoz.org/Home/Gardening/Forum...

if u put in stuff that will need water, then consider getting a timer to automate it. also be aware that soaker hoses can clog. or the hoses with emitters/the emitter can clog. so if u see anyuone starting to wilt, start taking a look under the mulch to see if your hoses are clogged. if it clogs, then plug in a new emitter onto the hose (the emitter is a little barb shaped platic piece that easily pokes into the hose, costs .10 - .50).