Question: Can you recommend something other than Compro to amend a planting bed? Do you have Compro available? And, can you tell me of an article or publication that gives specific instructions on how to build a bed line?

Answer: Compro and a similar product Chesapeake Green are alkaline and are recommended only for beds that will include no acid loving plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons and hollies. These two products were developed specifically for lawns. But they are rich and if you know what you will be planting, they seem to make most plants really thrive. If you are going to be planting only a few acid-loving plants, you can counteract the alkalinity by adding iron sulphate at the time of planting. We regularly stock all of these products. For vegetables gardens I recommend Chesapeake Blue for a soil amendment.

The best general purpose soil amendment is Leafgro (made by the same folks who make Compro). It is made from composted leaves and grass clippings. Leafgro can be used with acid and alkaline loving plants. It is also the least expensive of the 4 composts. In general in a new bed, you should spread about 2 inches of any of these composts on soil before tilling; more if the existing soil is poor, less if it is better.

I cannot recall any specific publication on cutting an edge on a new bed. However, my landscapers mark the line with marking paint and either run a power sod stripper along the line, or for small scale projects, repeatedly drive a flat shovel into the soil moving along the line with a slight overlap. Then they remove the sod up to the line by holding the flat shovel almost horizontal to the soil surface and digging from the inside of the bed up to the line. For beds of any significant size, I encourage you to rent a sod stripper. I suggest you avoid tilling live sod into the bed; some of it will re-grow. Till as deeply as possible and in addition to the compost always till in a root stimulator, such as Kelp Meal, and a natural organic fertilizer at the time of bed preparation. If you are not going to be planting for a while, mulch the bed immediately to help prevent weeds. Before you mulch, sprinkle Weed Screen granules---also to help prevent seedling weeds from germinating.

I am always in our store on Sundays. Perhaps I can be more helpful with a face to face two-way conversation.

Many people are ripping out high maintenance hybrid teas and replacing them with low maintenance shrub roses like Carefree Beauty, the Knockout series and the grandiflora Earth Song.

Question: Our ground is now frozen and I didn't get all my bulbs planted. Can I plant them in the spring?

Answer: If you keep your bulbs in the refrigerator and plant them as soon as the ground un-freezes, they will probably do okay. But they will not bloom normally the first year, but should be fine in subsequent years. Another option is to pot them and keep them in a cool (not frozen), dark place. Once the shoots get an inch or two long (which should be about 2 months depending upon variety), you can bring them indoors and set them a warm sunny place. They should bloom a couple of weeks after coming indoors. Or you can leave them in the cool, dark place and re-plant them outside as soon as the ground un-freezes.

CAUTION: Even though they have remained cool and dark, if the bulbs became so advanced that flower buds are showing before the ground un-freezes, you cannot plant the bulbs outside until the danger of a hard frost has passed. In this event, you might just as well bring them indoors and enjoy them.

Question: We are going to be re-landscaping the front of our home in the spring. We have some idea of the plants we want. We are thinking about coming to Carroll Gardens one Sunday with a picture and to take you up on your offer for free design help. Meanwhile are there any general rules you can share with us so that we can start to sketch out some ideas?

Answer: Each house is different. But there are some guidelines that I have developed through the years and which tend to support my own particular style of landscaping. These are not principles that would be taught in landscape design school, but rough rules I have developed that I have used in many (but not all) situations and seem to work well for me.

1. Except in very large properties, trees should not be planted directly in front of the house, but slightly off to the side. Trees can be placed diagonally in front of the house, but not directly in front of the central portion of the house.

2. Tall plants belong on the front corners of the house and should not be planted on either side of the front door. As my dad always said, "Keep the entrance low and inviting".

3. On one corner of the house try a cluster of three of the same variety of tall growing shrubs. If you are using only a single tall growing shrub or tree, surround it with lower growing shrubs like boxwood, dwarf spruce, dwarf crape myrtle or winter blooming heaths, or use perennials.

4. In front of windows, in the lived-in part of the house, plant shrubs that naturally mature at window sill height or use plants that can easily be trimmed to window sill height. In some situations, it's okay to cover up to half of the lowest window pane with shrubs. Garage windows are the exception; often they can be covered up to half of the entire window.

5. About 40% of the shrubs should be evergreens. If the evergreen proportion is less, the house looks naked in the winter. If it's more than half, there's usually insufficient flowering seasonal interest.

6. Many varieties of Azaleas have foliage that turns reddish in the winter and they really don't look like evergreens. So I don't count them as such.

7. If the house has a walkway that is close to the house, leaving a bed that is less than 5 feet wide, adding a bed along at least part of the outside of the walkway is usually called for.

8. Try to include a few plants that look particularly good in winter.

9. Where the bed must be very deep (almost square) because of a house set back, instead of trying to stagger several "rows" of plants with the tallest in the back and the lowest in the foreground, consider one large spreading plant such as a Japanese Maple or a mass of some low-growing shrub.

10. The only way to have lots of color in all seasons is to include early spring-blooming bulbs overplanted with annuals or perennials. Devote about 20% of the planting bed's square footage to these.

11. In order to mature handsomely and not overcrowd, a double row of shrubs has to be especially carefully planned.

12. Hobby gardens and seasonal gardens such as herb gardens, perennial gardens and rose gardens usually belong in the back yard. The front of the house should be landscaped with plants that never look bad. Every plant doesn't have to look fabulous at all times, just never look ugly. Examples of bad performers are French lilacs, with their mildew-prone foliage in late summer and early autumn, tall growing bulbs where the ripening foliage won't be covered with perennials and Liriope with its ugly brown foliage in early spring.

13. Plant in masses for impact, rather then lots of different plants scattered about.

14. Consider the situation. Windy exposed sites, heavy shade and sites heavily populated with deer all require extra careful plant selection.

15. Devote as much time to plant selection as you do to the design. A plant that will thrive in a location is a much better choice (even if it is not your first choice) than your favorite plant which may only exist in the site, and not thrive or mature to handsome perfection. Flexibility in plant choices is the key.

Design and plant choice is an interactive process, but at each step design precedes plant choice. Preconceived plant choices can be a dangerous thing—sometimes they work out; more often they don't. Try to develop at least 3 plant choices for every spot.

16. Double check the ultimate plant height. Most important (and perhaps most difficult for the homeowner), try to envision how the landscape will look in 10 years. The average front yard foundation planting takes 5 years to mature, looks good for another 5 years and then starts to decline until it is ripped out at about the 15th year. On the other hand I have seen carefully planned foundation plantings that were 25, 30 and over 50 years old that still had not overgrown.

17. A sure recipe for failure is what I call little red wagon landscaping. Go to the garden center; fill up a cart with everything that looks good on that particular day, bring the plants home and arrange them as if they were curios in a cabinet. This landscape will look best the day the plants are planted, but will not mature handsomely. With each passing year, it will look worse and worse.