sujiwan:
1)What type of soil do you have Clay,Sand, Silt?
2)Is there any rock mixed in?
3) What salvias are you looking
at growing?
You will need to do some liming especially with the penstemons.Wardda is on the east coast so he should be of some help as well.We will wait for you reply.
Art

Hi Art,

I assume you are talking about the native soil since I don't plan to build the raised bed in the exact spot I am using now.
SIlty loam
Ph 6.8
No rock unless I add it (added a bag of grit to the area where my hardy salvias are)
I'm wanting to the grow the more xeric types of salvias that are zone 7-8 and aren't hardy to my zone 6. At the very least I'd like to get the strongest possible growth during our warm season if I can't winter them over in a raised bed with protection.

Thanks for your advice.

Suji

Suji:
Yes your native soil.That will be the building blocks
for your Salvia garden.
You will need to do some liming(Garden or agricultural lime)another lime is dolomite but it also has Magnesium in it to raise the ph to 7.3(slighly alkaline)Most of your Xeric Salvias are groing on limestone based soils. No rock
needed just wanting to make sure you have good draining soil.
Art

Make sure you have well aerated soils. That's what sharp-edged crush rock and coarse sand will do in a raised bed.

To tell you the truth I dont see how anything grows in my ground. At least in my front yard as it is rock heaven and Im talking sizable rock not pea gravel. Its no wonder that when I first moved here and on this virgin farm land the builders put in a tree that died soon after as I know they removed not nearly enough rock. When I removed that tree which shouldve been root heaven. I just levered it out of ground mainly just a rootball[get the picture] I left it there to hang feeders and hummers to roost. When I decided to plant a new tree I dug out all the big rock I could plus 2 1/2 ft piece of 2x4 and put in all the good mix I could top soil, organic peat , potting soil plus some of the regular dirt, then 3-4 inches of pine bark mulch, now we will see. Ive had to do the same thing in all my flower beds etc. as far as the rock goes not minding some of the small rock.

Hummersteve: Setting aside issues of climate and weather, your original "rock heaven," as you've described it, would have been "heaven" for any of several Calif. salvias.