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maryl_gw

How to rejuvenate an established border.

My front border is full of shrubs, perennials and annuals. It's 20 years plus since I dug out the clay and put in the finest growing mix I could make. Now it's starting to peter out. I'm assuming fertility is low and root competition is high. I want to rejuvenate it without trying to remove mature plants. Soil tests indicate only nitrogen is low, and all others (including minors) are at high levels or are adequate. Any suggestions? ........Maryl

Comments (5)

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    9 years ago

    Yes, mulch with compost. In fact, had you been doing this routinely on an annual basis, your plants would be thriving.

    20 years is a long time in the life of a mixed border and it's quite possible that, in addition to the mulch, it could use some rejuvenation. Divide the perennials as appropriate and get rid of anything that has outlived its attractiveness or is struggling excessively. Do some rejuvenation pruning on any flowering shrubs. IOW, thin things out :-))

    Here is a link that might be useful: rejuvenation pruning

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    Maryl, (waving from OKC), I'm not sure how much bed you have, but I really like "Back to Earth" compost. It is cotton hull compost. When I need to use compost over a large area, that is what I use. I have also dug small holes and put banana peels/coffee grounds in. I have a cousin who swears by burying banana peels at the base of her roses. I am not consistent enough with it to prove it, but I don't see how it could hurt. I make compost too, but I could never make enough compost to cover all my flower beds! So, mostly I just let it renew the ground where it is sitting. Right now my compost pile is covering an area that had a 50 year old silver maple growing there.

  • subk3
    9 years ago

    +1 on "mulch with compost."

  • Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks everyone for your suggestions. The compost was a good idea (Lisa: thanks for the brand name.) I've used composted manure in the past but haven't seen much improvement. Two years ago I did a mini divide on some of my perennials and boy, did that bring up the weed seeds! They'd just been waiting for someone to disturb the earth and expose them to light - lol......Don't need the bananas as our soil tests excessively high in P,K and we need to avoid any fertilizer that adds more. I'm thinking that next spring I might scatter Urea over the area first and then top it off with compost....Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my question.......Maryl

  • toxcrusadr
    9 years ago

    Banana fruits are high in K but that doesn't mean the peels are. I have high soluble K and I still put my nanner peels into the compost. Somewhere around here we had a discussion on this recently. I shall look.

    EDIT: Here it is. Turns out the peel is rather high in K, based on the ONE source we were able to find on the web, and there were issues with other numbers in the paper so take it with a grain of salt. But the number was 7.8% dry wt. K in the peel.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Banana Thread

    This post was edited by toxcrusadr on Wed, Oct 15, 14 at 16:57