There's something called "Earl's Hole Method" I found this on another site, which I cannot link to: "I ran across Earl's (CHOPTAG Earl) method on the ville. I think I may try it on some in ground tomatoes. Earl's "hole planting method": Dig out about 1 1/2 - 2 cubic feet of soil into a wheelbarrow. Add: 3/4 cup TomatoTone (4-7-10) 3/4 cup Bone Meal (0-10-0) 3/4 cup Epsom Salt 10 lbs premium composted cow manure, or sheep or rabbit manure 20 lbs of soil conditioner (sandy soil full of peat, pine bark mulch, etc. to loosen up clay soils) Mix throughly and return all of this to the hole. Transplant deep so just the top leaves are showing. Lightly tamp down the soil and make a "well" about 1' across so water is retained. Mulch Sprinkle a bit more TomatoTone on top." Here is a link that might be useful: Where is 'Earl's hole method'?

Thanks for the replies and advice:) To Embothrium: In hindsight, the bedding used to soak up the pet urine most likely soaked up the water in the soil, wicking away water from the tree roots. That's my hunch since the trees deteriorated in the same manner as when irrigation is turned off in this desert climate that I live in. And you're right, if it ain't broke... but because the soil in that part of the garden usually runs really dry, I somehow thought the bedding would help retain more moisture. Duh, what was I thinking?!?!?! To rifis: In the desert where I live, it takes forever for anything to decompose if I don't water it. Hmmm, I wonder what mobster treasures have been found in the desert out here? :) Anyhow I agree with you. Manually removing 30 cubic feet of bedding with or without the soil will be a lot of work but it might be the most effective option (if the seeds don't grow per toxcrusadr's advice). It took me 30 minutes today to sift a gallon's worth of soil with minimal results. No can do but seeing the rate of (non)decomposition of the bedding and the time-consuming task of sifting, I might have to remove the soil and start over as Embothrium suggested. To toxcrusadr: I live in Henderson, Nevada, an extremely dry desert climate. The bedding contained duckling urine and feces, so I'm guessing it was high in nitrogen. The leaves turned yellow and brown and new growth stopped altogether by next season even after I hand-watered throughout the spring and summer months. I dug through the soil today- dry but bedding is still intact and moist (irrigation has been turned off for a year and last precipitation was 2 weeks ago). I will take your advice and do a test run of the soil with some seeds and will post the results. That's great advice, btw!

Wherever you have exposed earth, mulch is beneficial. It helps resist new weeds (but not kill existing ones.) If your plantings are thick and, more or less, cover the ground, then adding mulch is not necessary. I take care of a property that is zero percent lawn and 100 percent bed. As you can imagine, if there were a lot of weeds infesting the beds, it would take an entire team people to do weeding and it would probably be continuous. At the beginning, there was a period of time where it felt like that was the direction I was heading. I could pull a 5-gallon bucket of weeds every week. Now, I can barely find a pint of weeds in month. What made the difference is Preen, a granular, pre-emergent herbicide. Even though I am not averse to using herbicides properly, I want to use as little as possible. The beginning of a new planting is always the worst because there is lots of disturbed soil and a plethora of weed seeds that have been gathering for years. Preen will take care of a lot of these, and over time, since weeds are not going to seed, there will be fewer to be fought. In my experience, the first application of Preen has you wondering if it's working, so there is still a fair amount of hand weeding. But after the second application, there is a noticeable drop on new sprouts. Over a couple of years, I've noticed that some weeds which were prolific at the beginning, are now non-existent. I'm still following the schedule, but anticipate, over time, as whatever scars exist in the planting heal over with growth, that weeds will become virtually non-existent and I can use less Preen. I've also noticed in the early years, that if the schedule is missed -- like I'm a couple months late in applying it (and there are still a lot of disturbed areas) -- the weeds start festering up again. Now, I enter the schedule into my phone so the application date never gets forgotten about. It's working like a charm. If you decide to try it. depending on how much beds space you have, you might want to consider buying it in the large size, as it is a lot cheaper. The small size is maybe about like a 1/2 gallon, for almost $20. The large size is in the vicinity of 4 gallons or so for about $30 or a little more. I've only found the large at Home Depot.

Don't try and amend the soil. You can't add enough to make much of a difference and trying to work it into the soil amongst all those roots without damaging them would be a Herculean task!! Go to a local nursery/garden center and see what groundcovers they offer that fit your situation. A coupe of natives that come to mind are dwarf manzanitas, Ceanothus gloriosus or griseus or prostrate coyote bush. I also like creeping raspberry, Rubus calycinoides. And a variety of cranesbill or hardy geraniums or creeping thymes could work as well. Purchase in as small a size as you can find and then much lightly in between with your amendment mix.