Keep the new layer away from the 'crowns' of the exsiting plants. Depending on whether your exsiting plants are deep, or shallow rooted, you may wish to loosen the soil and and mix, or top dress. Then add your new plants/seeds. Cheers. - and no, you are asking the correct questions!!! Someone e;se may have other answers.

This is a very useful post. I still find the best way to lay amendments is the old labor-intensive way, one handful at a time. I can consider the plant requirements as I go. My heavy feeders get more and my light feeders get less. My California natives get nothing at all. If I know I'm not going to disturb roots, I use my Garden Claw to work it into the soil a couple of inches. If I'm in a sensitive area such as where spring bulbs are coming up, I don't dig at all and let the worms do the job for me. However you go about it though, adding amendments is going to pay off for you in spades (no pun intended).

Steven

I find this is a useful post, too. I add compost (cow manure) to my flowers every few months as in my climate, things do not go dormant and need constant feed.
Like Steven, I normally do it by hand. I use my hands to remove the mulch and a small folk-like garden tool to loosen the soil around the plant base. Then I add a handful or two of cow manure to the area and re-cover with mulch. At first, the area around the plant base is higher than other areas but after a few watering, things get settled down and the bed looks normal again.
My plants seem to like it a lot as they send up new shoots and blooms, especially my roses and hydrangeas.

BTW, Steven, have you started work in your garden for this season yet? I'm eagerly looking forward to see your blooms! They looked stunning last year.

Xuan

Thanks so much. The only way that I could see doing this is one handful at a time and carrying a bucket to the back of the flowerbeds and working to the edges.

We got 3 scoops of a compost mix for our veggie garden, which is new this year. It looks so nice, I want it for all of my gardens!

Xuan, is your cow manure compost aged well or do you keep it away from the plants enough?

Thanks! LC Grace

Most of my garden beds are three years old or less... I'm so glad I went through the trouble of digging and amending the soil by hand before planting anything... it makes such a difference!

If you possibly can, and have the space, start a compost pile! It's a great place to get rid of all the garden waste and trimmings, and within a short time you can begin to reap the benefits! I've already pulled several wheelbarrows of beautiful compost out from under a modest sized pile, and it's very obvious that the plants love it!

I do want to have my husband build a square compost bin with the wire. I got a black garbage can style composter from a seminar from Penn State. I had it completely full and rotting down a few times over this past year. I emptied it and things only "settled", they didn't make compost. I was pretty disappointed but it all went in a lasagna layer anyway!

I want a pile that I can add water to when it's dry & turn/stir it to make it happen. I've got plenty of things to throw on the pile. I've been a big fan of the soil & compost forum also. Maybe this weekend!

I just had 10 yards of compost delivered today. I was so excited because it was supposed to rain but it didn't so I got to go out and like Steven, I do it all by hand. I kept filling up my big garden bucket with compost and bringing it to my plants. I pull out the old mulch aside and dig in around my plants, throw in a bunch of compost around the plant and take my claw rake and spread and mix it all in. The plants love it. When I am all done I put on the mulch for the entire bed and they are all set.

I do agree that amending the soil before planting is the best way to do it in the long run, but even when soil is amended, I add more compost every year. Compost is gold and I love playing in it LOL. To me this is the fun part of gardening and I am addicted to digging in the dirt!

LC Grace, the cow manure I use is well-decomposed, so I just put it close to the plant roots.
In addition, I apply commercial inorganic and organic fertilizers alternatively every month to the flowers. I want to have a compost bin too but have never been able to do it. Maybe soon LOL!

Xuan

I'm lucky in that I have the space to just choose a spot and begin dumping yard waste in a pile... I currently have two large wire fencing rings set up, and over the gardening season, I just continue to add waste... in spring, I unhook and remove the fencing, set it up a couple of feet over, and begin pitch-forking the top of the pile over into the empty fencing ring.

When I get to the center of the pile, it's usually good and composted, and this I shovel into the wheelbarrow to be taken over to the raised beds and other garden areas.

Msscarlet is right... compost is gold! Black gold, that is! It never ceases to amaze me... that in such a short time, yard waste is turned into something so precious and beneficial!

Besides the two wire fencing rings that I move around, I also have a small square plastic coated wire contraption I use... it has four sides and four wire poles that connect the sides by sliding down into a series of loops. I simply pull out the wire poles and move the four sides, setting it up in another spot, then forking over the top of the pile, as I do with the other piles.

I've wanted my husband to make me one of those barrel composters that you turn... supposedly, they make compost in a lot less time. But I'm content to let nature take its course... and with the amount of yard waste we have, there's a never-ending supply of black gold!

This is a great thread; I was wondering about the topic myself. I didnt know much about gardening when I first started out. Looking back now I really wish I would have amended the soil first. Usually I just put compost in the holes of the plants as I plant them, and once and awhile put some around them if I think they need it. Ive never put a top dressing on the whole garden before, but ive been thinking that ill do it this year. Im planing on buying few bags of compost and manure and mix it with the stuff thats already in my compost pile.
CMK

Many years ago, I read about a gardener who composted a bit differently than we're all used to... she had no room for a compost pile, and so, she would save kitchen waste and take it to the garden... she would dig a small hole, dump in the potato peels and banana skins and bury them, place a flat rock over the spot, and by the following spring the rock could be removed and a perennial planted. She did this quite continuously, and eventually had wonderful loamy soil!

The first few gardens I created in my younger days were simply dug and planted... I knew very little about gardening and composting and amending soil first... I wish I had. But as the years have gone by, I've learned that a green thumb is nothing more than applied knowledge. I read quite a bit, and have also learned through trial and error.

This time around, I began all my beds by stripping sod and adding it to the compost pile! Then I amended the soil before planting anything! It was a lot of hard work, but so worth the effort! Now when I turn over the soil or plant anything new, it's a lot easier... and the plants thrive instead of just survive!

This is a good thread... I think we can all benefit from each others' ideas on how we use compost!

Jodik,
I think you're referring to Trudi Temple. She has an amazing garden.

-e

I love compost so much whenever I see a pile of compost or cow dung in the countryside where I visit... I just can't go away. My DH often teases me... why don't you get some and eat it that you say it looks delicious...!!!
I visited the Soil forum and learnt how to make compost. But I didn't do it right so my piles didn't "age" properly. Now, I buy composted cow manure to add to my beds. Here they sell it for $1 a bag of about 50 lbs.
Compost is definite a garderner's best friend.

Xuan

If Trudi Temple gardens on the north side of Chicago, and was featured in a gardening magazine, although I can't remember which one, then that's exactly who I'm referring to! I thought her method of composting was ingenious!

You know, I have never paid too much attention to the "proper" way to compose a compost pile and how to "make it right". I just throw everything on as it accumulates and let nature do the rest. The only thing I do is turn it over once a year, in spring.

Compost is a gardener's best friend... and it's free!