Everyone seems to look at the above picture and admire the thriving plants, but seem not to see that most of the area is bare soil. Will it remain that way or what additional planting will be required to finish this off and stabilize the site? I'm not familiar with that area of the country, but it seems that stabilizing the surface is really not a big deal due to lack of erosive forces and growth rate of invasive weeds. It would be very impractical to use a lawn there. It is an alien to that environment. In much of the country, grass is a normal naturally occuring part of the ecosystem - not monoculture turfs, but grassy fields. I think it is possible that people from arid regions may not appreciate what happens when soil is left exposed to the elements in the not so arid regions. Stabilizing soil is a high priority for the protection of the environment. It needs to be covered to keep it from eroding. In these regions you need pretty close to complete coverage or you will have erosion. That means having small patches of groundcover or spotty shrub plantings is not going to get the job done. You could have large areas of mulch, but this is subject to erosion and weed growth. The weed growth reintroduces "high maintenance" and the possibility of pesticide use. You have to plant the whole thing or mother nature will be working on that for you as she also tries to erode it away. Lawnless in non-arid areas has to overcome erosion by having some kind of surface that resists it. That can be trees, shrubs, herbacious plants, groundcover, pavement, or mulch (mulch will have the least resistance to erosion). It has to succumb to or overcome mother natures desire to reclaim it with a succession of weeds and grasses to thicket and eventually a forest. Going lawnless is fine, but you have to know that in most of the country it is not a matter of removing grass and planting a few drought tolerant plants. Most of the attempts that I see are done by well meaning people who do not complete the job in stabilizing the soil - I'm not even going to go into aesthetics. The result is usually spotty plantings and wood chips everywhere (the well meaning folks who tend to go lawnless tend to like to recycle wood chips as well). If you are going to do it, think it through and make a commitment to an end result. Don't remove the grass and then try to figure it out later. There is a sizable investment of time and money to do this up here in the northeast. I suppose wood chips might make some feel that they have recycled and removed lawn at the same time and they can sleep better at night. Again, is matching what you value to the conditions of the site. Don't under estimate Mother Nature. She won't treat you any differently just because you have her best interests in mind.

Thanks everyone for all of the good info! We just dug up the stump, and I am sorry to say that "We have met the enemy, and he is US!". There was not any sign of galls on the roots or anywhere else. However, some of the main roots were completely rotted, and there were fungus fruits 1-2 inches under the soil all over - they looked like small squashed grey mushrooms - yuck! When we took out the jade plant, we put in irrigation, which was part of our automatic irrigation system. I am guessing that that bed was WAY too wet, and basically that rose just rotted. When my DH cut up the 3 inch in diameter main canes down near the bud union, they both were dark brown in the center. So, we dug up the soil, and replaced it with new soil, and I went to look for some sort of fungicide drench to pour over the new soil and the rest of the bed. Then I plan to leave it until next Spring. I went to my nursery (it is the one described at the Sac Cemetery rose symposium as "the oldest continuously operating nursery in California" - the West End Nursery in San Rafael). The owner is very knowledgeable about many things, although they do not specialize in roses. He recommended "AGRI-FOS, which is a systemic fungicide that can be used as a spray or a drench, and kills many different fungus diseases. You can also use it to soak new plant roots in before planting. He said that anything else that might work is illegal in CA, as they have made most of the chemicals illegal. He laughed and said that they cannot make this one illegal, as it is the only thing that works to prevent sudden oak death! So, we got some and drenched the area. I disconnected the irrigation, which is turned off now anyway. We will see what happens to the little polyantha rose - if it is still OK next Spring I am planning on planting a Reve d"or to replace the GS. Jackie

Much less than the manufacturers suggest. As almost every plant no matter how large has roots no deeper than 300mm (or 12") when there is a lot of extra depth under this I fill it with anything---old buckets, bricks, rubbish soil, plant pots etc. The pots need to be wrapped to stop soil entering via the drainage holes also both these and buckets must of course be upside down. Don't use anything that would rot down. Second tip; why only partly fill pots? You have enslaved them to a life of a smaller amount of soil width, there is always settling and no, they don't need a deep recess "for water". Mine are always planted level with the pot rim. ANY water running from the bottom of pots or hanging baskets has a similar effect to rinsing dirt from washing.

Re-post the info. I posted in June. Today Old Port is a BS-fest & doing nothing as of today, August 30. Last month I scraped off red-lava-rock, and replaced with horse manure plus high-phosphorus NPK 4-10-7 (blood meal, fish bone meal, sulfate of potash, and kelp meal) . I should had done what I did in spring: chicken manure NPK 5-3-2, plus red-lava-rock for potassium. Lesson learned, I find that minerals (in rock dust, or Azomite, or red lava rock) is great to INCREASE the yield in crops. The problem with MG-potting soil is it's not rich in minerals like clay or rock dust. Here's an excerpt from below link: http://remineralize.org/2007/11/soil-remineralization-and-the-climate/ " Remineralization also enhances and speeds up the process of composting, so if you are composting for your garden, consider putting on some rock dust. Remineralizing by adding rock dust to compost is a very practical way to apply it to soils. For Forests The results of long term experiments released in 1986 showed that in a forest where pine seedlings were remineralized, after 24 years the wood volume was four times higher than in the untreated area. Remineralization trials of a dying forest on Mt. Mitchell by Dr. Robert Bruck, Ph.D., showed that twelve weeks after application of rock dust, height of growth of red spruce was increased by 27% over non-treated controls, and height growth of Fraser fir was 19% greater than the untreated controls. (Forestry Research packet) The Men of Trees organization in Australia is doing remineralization trials with many species of trees in Australia with phenomenal results, such as five times the growth of trees seedlings of one variety of eucalyptus, over the untreated controls. (See Forestry Research packet) For Agriculture The best source of soil minerals is simple crushed gravel dust. In 1976 John Hamaker spread gravel crusher screenings on part of his ten acres in Michigan. The following year, in an area of sparse rainfalls and dry summers, with no irrigation, his corn produced 65 bushels per acre, compared to yields of under 25 from other local farms. Moreover, when independent analyses were done, Hamaker’s corn was found to contain 28% more protein, 47% more calcium, 57% more phosphorus, 60% more magnesium and 90% more potassium than the same type of corn grown with chemical fertilizers nearby. - See more at: http://remineralize.org/2007/11/soil-remineralization-and-the-climate/#sthash.3RNlqfTo.dpuf Here's the result of my top-dressing Old Port with red-lava-rock, the free-sown snapdragons go beserk. Old Port got winter-killed to 4 inch. tall early April. Pic. taken June 8: