Freshening up beds

peadar76

I want to freshen up some beds before putting in some perennials and bulbs. I want to minimise disturbance to existing roots as much as possible.

Are these effective? -

https://www.woodies.ie/true-temper-cultivator-4-prong-wood-handle-1133769

https://www.thegardenshop.ie/cultivator/

fiacha

The pronged cultivators are great at breaking up heavy soil etc but they will pull out any roots they come in contact with.

If you just need to clear weeds and break up the surface before planting, you could use a push / pull weeder. You can easily control the depth it works at so there is less risk to any shallow roots / bulbs. I use the Wolf Garden one in a couple of sizes and find it great.

After that, I'd add a good layer of compost followed by a light raking to level it all out.

peadar76

Cheers.

Following on from that, how careful do you have to be when planting bulbs or perennials in the vicinity of existing trees and shrubs?

I started my garden from scratch, and concentrated on shrubs and trees initially. Now I would like to introduce some smaller, seasonal, colourful plants. Obviously I am not going to go chopping indiscriminately into the soil with a spade, but if careful is it ok to dig into an area where there are existing roots. Inevitably some roots are going to get damaged, but can a well established tree or shrub handle that?