Central Midwest Gardening: May Rains Bring More Colors, 1 by dyanisme

dyanisme wrote:
I need to ask for some help...... My plants are doing fine. Surprisingly, good in fact. :) However, the overall look to my flower beds are not good. It's the soil. I'm almost certain that I have clay soil, and I've been doing a little research about what to do with the rock hard clumps that make up most of the ground in my flower beds. And the answer I keep coming up with is that I "should" have prepared the soil before planting anything. Well, it's a little late for that as I already have thriving plants that I don't want to disrupt. (Besides, that whole process is pretty overwhelming and I can almost guarantee that I would never had planted anything if I knew I had to do that first.)

So I'd like to know what options you guys suggest. Or should I not do anything? Here are the ideas that I've come up with:

1. Mulch. I don't like it, but I did give up last year and put down a layer. It has benefits like helping to keep roots cool this summer; I'm not doubting that. AND it would have the benefit of an immediate improvement in the overall appearance. But ........ I don't like the way mulch looks. Plus, I know that later this summer I'll be right back in the same place once the mulch bleaches out, dries out and generally spreads into my lawn where I don't want it.

2. Ground cover plants. This is the option that I like best, but it's also the one that will take the longest to achieve. Maybe even a couple of years. Plus, when I look at my ground, I find it hard to imagine that anything will want to spread and thrive. Also, assuming I stick with the plan to use ground cover plants, is there anything that I can do now to make things look nicer? Or to help make the ground more plant-friendly?

3. And that brings me to my third idea....... Adding topsoil. I've been wondering about the benefit of doing an overall clean up to get rid of the clumps, old mulch and left over debris. Then laying down a layer of topsoil. Maybe even using a hand rake to break up the surface of the ground and mix the two together.

4. Do nothing and trust nature to resolve the problem as my plants continue to grow. If this is the best option, doing nothing is pretty easy. But it means that I'll have to accept that for the foreseeable future, I'm going to be a little sad at how cruddy my garden looks. But I'm a big girl, and I can handle it.

Here are some pictures. I don't think that I'm overstating things. What would you do if faced with this?