Heck, you can throw down some compost/soil and plant right on top, if it comes to that. No, really. I've got a whole shade bed planted on an old gravel parking area that never got used for parking. (So it wasn't compacted.) I put several inches of composted leaves/manure down, mixed in a little topsoil, and planted it up. You should SEE the hydrangeas this year! If I can find hte digital camera (it has gone walkabout again) I'll post some pictures. THAT said...I do feel your pain. I have that nasty white landscape rock down over black plastic in places in my back yard. I hate and despise it...and as soon as I have A Plan I'm going to dig it up and get rid of it. DH tells me I may not mess with it until I have A Plan. (Capitals and all.) melanie

I'm in the same camp as WG and Mentha. I think it's a GOOD thing when you need to water frequently. The more you're required to water, the healthier your plants will generally be. The need to water frequently assures that air is returning to the soil quickly enough between waterings to prevent suffocating fine hair roots. This helps to prevent the energy drain on plants caused by the cyclic death and regeneration of fine rootage associated with over-watering and extended conditions/intervals of saturated soil. Frequent watering is also beneficial because it regularly forces old gasses from the root zone and draws fresh air in to replace it as the water moves through the soil. When a high level of CO2 builds up in soggy, saturated soils, it becomes toxic to roots. So - anything that inhibits evaporation from soils and extends the interval between waterings probably inhibits plants from reaching their potential vigor and affects vitality to varying degrees. The heavier the soil you're using (the more water it retains) the greater the negative impact will be. In some cases, the effect will be marginal, and in others, severe. Al

I'm not sure I should write this for fear that I will be assailed by the experts! Having said that...here goes: I work at our local community college, and our grounds are exceptionally well maintained, lush, and diverse. I do not know what training the landscaping guys have, but I doubt that it is formal, in most cases. There is an entire bed of "Celebration Song," the Dykes Medalist from a few years back beside the building in which I work. This bed has about six clumps of "CS" growing in it--I don't know how long they've been there, but all are very well estalished. Our grounds crew mulches EVERYTHING. That is their answer to weed control. They mulch every bed at the College. A thick layer of mulch (appearing to come from branches and leaves) is the answer to weeds at each of our campuses. "Celebration Song," under a layer of 3-4 inches of mulch each winter/spring, blooms too early (as would be expected)--this year in February, with several stalks freezing. However, once warm weather sets in, the remaining stalks pop up everywhere, with flowers blooming consistently. The six clumps began blooming in February this year but continued on through March, April, May and June. Four straight solid months of bloom. It was spectacular. "Immortality" is in bloom now and has been for a month--with 115 degree heat indices two weeks ago. All I know is that mulch definitely does not hurt irises here--at least these two award winning cultivars (perhaps this is the secret?). I understand how rot can set in when moisture isn't alleviated--I have had it in my garden (in limited cases), but I don't see a correlation between mulch and rot in my workplace iris beds here in hot and humid South Carolina. Again, I know it's not the *right* answer based on all that I've read, but it's the truth, so I'm offering it up for information purposes/debate. Best of luck, Mike in Coastal SC, Zone 8

Thank you. I have been shy posting here because I kill more than I buy these days. Bad winter , bad wet years. I guess I might have posted in the wrong thread since I did not get rid of a lawn, but started out with raw hill country marl. I guess I was supposed to put a lawn in but I never got the memo. I wondered why I was supposed to make my beautiful hill country look like some place in North Carolina or Pennsylvania when I moved out here, because I thought it was beautiful the way it was. Things have to live in my conditions.. I had no choice with the water use and me living on Rainwater. Texas is a hard place to garden . It is either TOO hot TOO cold, TOO dry, TOO wet and it can go from too dry (right now my cistern is 1/4 full) to TOO wet (please I need the water ). Don't get me started on the soil. I have no soil so I have been bringing yards of Decomposed granite sand , gravel and compost in . The limey marl is about 1" under the soil in the area of this garden. Nothing really grew here very tall. It is ongoing. We are too hot for northern opuntias , too cold for southern cactus. I have learned to collect from southern New mexico and the northern Big bend area. I like their Eastern grasslands over the dryer points to the west, but mountainous Arizona has plants I can use. I also look for limestone soiled lands and not sandstone based lands. It isn't totally hill country. I guess I am not a purist about anything.