Normally I'd ask if these are newly planted as you don't want to fertilize for the first year on trees. With the drought though, I think some of the plants will appreciate the boost.
I think I'd wet the area with plain water, then use a liquid like seaweed, fish emulsion, etc., half strength around the dripline of the plants only. Then water again with plain water to make sure it gets down to the plants and washes off the rock. I'm not sure what else you can do. I started out using weed barrier, but don't anymore except for new berms. It's a pain if you need to replace a plant. Good luck!

Barb

Thanks, Barb. No, the plants aren't new. We did the rock because foxes kept digging up the irrigation lines and we had to cover them with something they wouldn't get through, and it's too windy here for any kind of woody mulch, but now I don't like to dig around any more than the foxes do in the rock, and pulling back the rock and WB on each plant and putting it back is a daunting task. Weed barrier is pretty much ineffective when the green space down our slope is a weed factory; we'll never use it again either.

Thank you again. I'm going to follow your advice.

You're welcome!

Hey, it just dawned on me that about a month ago you posted for help on choosing an evergreen tree for the corner of your house. I was just at Lowe's in Brighton (on my lunch hour) and they had both Bosnian Pine and Concolor Fir for sale. They were small ones, 2 - 3 gallons I think. If you've not seen either tree in person you could check them out at Lowe's, if you have one nearby and they're carrying the same stock. I stay away from larger big box trees but on the smaller ones I'm more willing to take a chance. They wanted $15 for the Bosnian and $20 for the Concolor. They do have a 1 year return policy, so if you buy, hang on to your receipt. If nothing else, you could see if you like them and buy elsewhere.

Barb

treebarb, I've been in love with Abies concolor for decades; have never owned one. I'll go peek at Lowe's. We haven't made a decision yet, family stuff in Florida happened and we just returned home. Do you think the shallow roots would be a problem? We don't want it falling over in the wind and hitting the house (but of course on a 3-foot Lowe's tree we'd not have to worry about that for a while)! The neighbor's trees are not any wind protection. One is at the very front of her house and the other smaller juniper is between our houses. The prevailing winds are straight up the slope much of the time, so whoever's out back is going to have to withstand 50+ up to highest measured at 76 mph. Doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I'd say 20% of the year at least.

I just looked up Bosnian pine: "tolerant of severe wind exposure". I like its looks online, and it sounds like the ticket to me.

Thanks for your helpfulness. I very much appreciate it.

You're welcome, Robin. I have 3 Bosnians and I can attest to their wind tolerance. I planted 2 in the fall of 2011, 7 gallon pots, about 3 1/2 feet tall. The most recent is a one gallon I planted a couple of weeks ago. They're slow growers but haven't blinked with the drought. We are in the middle of farm country, open plains and the wind just shrieks through here.

I've tried the Concolor fir twice in the same time frame and both died. I think it needs a more sheltered spot than I have now. I love the tree and may try again once the forest everyone tells me I'm planting gets a little bigger. I have not heard they have shallow roots. That doesn't mean it isn't so, I just haven't heard it. I'll have to look into that.

I'm enjoying enabling a conifer enthusiast!

Barb

Thanks so much, treebarb. I'm off today to look at Lowe's supply of Bosnians here. DH thinks a juniper would be just fine; is there any drawback to a tall juniper? I wondered if they age well. I've searched onlinefor info but haven't found much.

treebarb, we just took loads of photos with me being a "tree", holding a blue tarp out to both sides of me while DH took photos from the road. We can now see the tree or bush won't do what we want in terms of making any kind of visual impact from the road. We spent yesterday looking at trees (No Bosnians in Pueblo yet), but now we're glad we didn't buy Harding Nursery's expensive version, which we almost did yesterday.

So I guess this project is defunct. Too bad we didn't think of trying this dry run earlier. Harding in Colorado Springs has beautiful stock, if you've not been there, might be worth a trip just to see the great trees and other plants.

Well, bummer Robin! But I'm glad you did the test run and discovered a tree wouldn't do what you need. It beats doing the buying and planting to discover it wasn't what you wanted or needed. It was fun virtual dream shopping with you, though! ;0)

Barb