I asked my husband to grab a couple of bags of potting soil when he was at Costco. He came home with 12 (!) bags. It was on sale 
So now I have zero excuses to scale down my deck garden! Going to start my tomatoes this weekend.
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Just an FYI. Open ONE pack first and make sure you like it. I purchased some at Costco last year for my raised beds and some pots and I have to say, there was a lot of filler on it and potentially even some bugs. 
It was a name brand but I can’t remember which - sorry, I know they sell a few brands and different regions may have different types. But a cautionary tale!
It worked out ok - things still grew. But I am amending this year with some other soil and hoping it’s more rich and fertile.
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Good to know, thanks!
It is MiracleGro for containers.
I specifically avoided their raised bed mix in green bags because I tried it and did not like it.
It may have been the raised bed mix I bought - because I was filling raised beds!
Has anyone used Grandpas Weeding Tool?
I got pretty trusted advice today that it’s amazing. Should I pull the trigger?
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In other 
gardening news, it is April and here in Northern Ohio everything is running a couple weeks early - my everbearing strawberries are already flowering - in April!? 
I haven’t even removed the leaf much from them yet.
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My SIL weeds his “soccer field” with that tool! It works great to pull dandelions out of the lawn!
That was what I was thinking - the dandelions and those prickery thistle weeds.
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Amazing weather today and tomorrow! We will be cleaning deck containers and filling them with the good soil my husband brought from Costco a couple of weeks ago.
I started my tomatoes this week. Later than usual but I got tired of having an indoor tomato jungle until June when they finally can be planted outside. Then they sit outside miserable and shivering until July. This way I can manage them inside until it gets warm enough for them to be happy outside! I added a new variety to my usual suspects: Sasha’s Altai. It is supposed to do well in our PNW climate.
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Go for it. It is a great tool.
I’ve used a similar tool, a fiskars brand (a 34” 4 claws long handle weed puller tool) for the past 10 years. Very easy to use and makes weed pulling, esp. Dandelions fun (for me).
I bought mine from Home Depot when it was under $20. Now it is quite pricey.
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Do you think it would work ok in very dry soil?
I also got a late start on my tomatoes and peppers this year, due to travel abroad for a couple of weeks and thus an inability to monitor the seedlings. Everything else in my garden – potatoes, carrots, cukes, okra, basil, and cilantro – is in the ground; it will be a few more weeks before the tomatoes and peppers will be large enough to go in.
I also am adding a new tomato variety – Hillbilly, a large slicing tomato – and revisiting a slicer – Beverly – that I tried a couple of years ago. Other than those two, it is the usual suspects for the tomatoes. My hot peppers will be what I had last year: jalapenos, serranos, and habeneros.
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I don’t recall the exact price it was yesterday, but Grandpa’s Weeder (I’ve been told to get this exact one/brand, NOT a knockoff) was $35 today on a lightening deal so I scooped it up.
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If you can jab it in the dirt, it should work!
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It is hard for me to say as I live in the northeast and my soil, for the most part, is not dry.
The weed puller’s claws are made of stainless steel. I think those claws should be able to penetrate dry soil when you step on the foot pedal part (not sure what to call that mechanical part) of the tool.
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Grandpas Weeder is legit! Just popped about 30 dandelions. Our ground is on the soft side at the moment - time will tell as summer comes and the ground is much harder.
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Now that the weather has warmed up and there is no more rain forecasted, I just transplanted my tomatoes to their outdoor containers! I had two volunteer plants that popped up in one of the containers I had used last year, so it will be an interesting experiment to see whether those two volunteers are hardier than the new ones I purchased, and to compare the quality/taste if I can get the volunteers to produce.
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After planting tomato seeds last Saturday, I have 2 tomato seedlings poking out of the dirt! Both are Kahuku golden, saved in 2022 and in 2025.
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I spent the day cleaning out the planters and large pots that I use for my deck gardens. I’m just waiting for a few more weeks before I plant anything (Zone 6a). I usually get my deck plants (mostly herbs and a few veggies) from an organic farmstead and it doesn’t have much yet.
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