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How to revamp the garden at my new home

2 years ago

I recently moved into a beautiful home, and the front garden area was horrible.I have been trying my best to remove all the weeds and such sprouting. The goal is to plant new flowers, and re organize the hostas.

Now there is old mulch on top of the dirt, that I'm not sure how to handle. Do I try to remove and get rid of as much old mulch as I can, before I dig holes and attempt to put new plants in the garden, and then add new mulch? Should I put preen everywhere and fabric? Just Preen? Just fabric?

The pics shown are what im working with. Please help!!!

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Comments (5)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
2 years ago
Keep the old mulch and no fabric. In fact, if there is old fabric buried there, get rid of it.

tj
HU-230097092
Original Author
2 years ago
Should I till The dirt and old mulch together? Then plant then put new mulch down
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At this time removing spent blooms to make the plant look better and prevent seed production is probably all that you would need to do. When the weather cools in the fall and the foliage yellows I remove all the foliage down to about 3 or four inches for the winter. Al
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
2 years ago
Is the soil compacted? If so you could fork it over. If it’s not compacted just put the new mulch on top. Don’t remove the old mulch and don’t use fabric.

There appears to be a box stump there which is sprouting. If you want a box bush just leave it to grow back.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
where are you.. big city name ...

i would remove the plants .. big clumps of hosta can just be lifted and stored in full shade of a week or so ...

rework the soil ... add edging of some kind ...

and then replant the hosta intact ...

its probably too late to strat cutting up the hosta .. etc .. you can do it.. but they will look ugly for a long time .. do it in fall imo ...

btw.. undulata albomarginata .. [or the other albomarginata... lol ...] ..... you can confirm that in the hosta forum if no one comes along and agrees with me here ...

NEVER USE LANDSCAPE FABRIC ... most weed seed is wind borne.. and will start accumulating on top of the fabric.. and once the roots go thru such.. you cant pull them out

rake the mulch aside ... and put it back after you fix the soil ... and then add new per below .... or put it in a compost pile out back.. but never throw it away ...

if you want design ideas.. you will have to give us a pic of the whole front of the house ...

if this were my project.. with my one man work crew.. me .. lol.. if i got this done by end of next summer... i would be happy ...

and what ever you think of planting.. use images in a search engine.. to see FUTURE POTENTIAL .... dont buy some tiny babe plants from bigbox.. and plant them a foot from the foundation.. never to realize they are 10 foot shrubs that need to be sheared 3 times a year ...

never forget.. foundation plantings are planted to hide the foundation .. NOT ON THE FOUNDATION ...

what direction does the front of the house face???

and preen is a PRE EMERGENT ... stops new weeds.. WHEN PROPERLY USED ... it will do nothing for what is there now ... and rather expensive to use if you do it properly ....

and after you are done.. add 3 inches of good mulch over it all.. and skip the preen.. and weed what few weeds you get by hand ... [we want 2 inches after it settles...]

ken
HU-230097092
Original Author
2 years ago
Wow thanks so much for detailed info and advice. I’ll try n send a photo llater of whole house

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