Are you adding new plants this fall around the house?  Do you need to invest in good preparation for your shrub beds?  What do you do, what do you add?  Don’t get confused, do the prep work before you plant.  How many times have we gone to the store and purchased that awesome looking shrub only to later realize that we don’t have a place for it, so maybe we just squeeze it in someplace?  Guilty.  Before you plant it, make sure you set up the plant for success by digging a good hole and making sure you use the right soil amendment. When I plant a group of shrubs together in a shrub bed, I use a gas powered tiller and make sure my planting area is tilled a minimum 8” deep. Checking for proper drainage using a drainage hole helps insure drainage is adequate. I usually add soil conditioner to the native soil about 1” thick and repeat the tilling process to work in the soil conditioner. I then set my plants out in the prepared bed area and adjust plant spacing to give room for future growth. Once my plant spacing is complete, I dig planting holes to place the plants in. Don’t be the person who skips the prep work and wonders why the plants die or don't thrive. I hear fairly often, "I have bad soil". You may, but most of the time it's poor prep work and poor planting technique that are the big issues. Here is a money saving tip:  Don’t put soil over the root ball of the plant or on the trunk of the plant.  Over time, 1 to 5 years, the plant can actually start to decline and even die. As the wise Benjamin Franklin often said,  “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” I look forward seeing  photos of your success. Jeff P.S. Are you signed up to come to the October 17th Brown Thumb to Green Thumb Class?