Columbine self-seeds all over my garden, but it only the purple ones. I love, love, love delphinium, but never have much luck with it.
What I do have growing very well, it’s a perennial not an annual BTW, and I think is just so much fun are balloon flowers. I love the way they look before they pop. http://flowers-desktopwallpaper.blogspot.com/2011/01/balloon-flowers.html
Columbia is perennial here and sprout easily, only have problem with delphinium but I’m like a moth still buying tons of delphinium seeds just to see if I can grow one from scratch.
I went out shopping at a garden center and bought a nice purple Clematis. It’s so beautiful that it brings me joy every time I look at it. Let’s hope I don’t kill this one like I did the last 5 clematis. Luckily Lowe has a policy to refund money if the plant die within a year.
On the vegetable front, my scarlet runner bean plants are finally blooming with tiny little orange flowers. I think the hummingbirds will come. I can’t wait.
Went and turned over half of my raised bed last night. Put down some radish, lettuce, spinach seed and threw in a couple of broccoli and cabbage plants. Covered back up with mulch so hopefully it will all fare well next week when the weather cools down to mid-upper 30’s at night.
I went to Costco and decided to buy some potting soil there. We didn’t read the bag carefully, oh boy was it bad as in very smelly. I guess I have to return them. Does anybody have experience with Costco potting soil? I don’t like cow or steer manure, no chicken manure either. Nothing that smells bad either. Bad mistake.
I bought some there recently. It was a huge bag of Miraclegrow (organic, with no fertilizers) that is called moisture control or something. They say it has coir and other fibers but it seemed like regular potting soil with a lot of peat moss added it. Not bad for $9.99 and definitely not smelly.
I think that’s the same one. I saw somebody bought it a few weeks back and i thought I gave it a try. My husband is the one that touch with bare hands and he said it smells so bad that he had to clean the car. Plus it has the following printed outside the bag, made with compost diverted from landfills.
Well I went out and bought some planting mix from EB Stone, it only has bat guano, alpha meal. Does not smell as bad. I’m now no longer “dirt” poor, I’m “dirt” rich. Haha! Hoping to saw some more seeds tomorrow. Bought tons on bush beans and Swiss charts. Haven’t growing Swiss chard in years.
That is the same one, with compost diverted from landfills. That probably just means composted yard waste and leaves. I didn’t notice a smell but I’ll check when I open my next bag.
I’m jealous. No planting here yet. We can still get hard frosts. I have gotten the bed ready. We had a local farmer drop off a load of cow manure last fall and I have finally gotten it all spread out. Now I can at least get my onions in!
I got the same Miraclegro potting soil. Planted my tomato and eggplant into bigger containers filled with said soil. No issues. No smell, really nice texture. DrGoogle, maybe you got a bad bag or something?
Oh yeah, I forgot! I’m growing onions for the first time! Wasn’t sure how soon I could/should get them in the ground, but I’m in zone 6 and I planted a couple days ago. About an inch deep, 4 inches apart. Anything else I should do to them? They are red onions.
I think my husband must be sensitive to the smell of the potting soil bag. He often sits out in the California room enjoying our yard and he doesn’t want to smell anything.
Regarding onions, I had planted 2 bags of onions in Jan but they only just came up, not great. The reason I planted is because I’ve read it’s good as companion planting with strawberries. But neither strawberries nor onions did particularly well.
Ordered rose campions and sun drops. Planted 30 lavenders and 15 liriopes, filled the window box with geraniums and 2 hanging pots. I am sore all over. Now I have to find a place to scatter 1/4 LB flanders poppy seeds. Would they look good on the patio or would it look too informal?
Wow, Igloo, you are industrious! I love poppies, so it would look good to me, but they might also be great in an open area, maybe where they could brighten a spot without color.
Spent the whole afternoon getting soil ready for plantings. Also planted a few herbs that I got from the garden store–rosemary, tarragon, and lavender. Didn’t realize that sorrel would come up again–I was really happy to see it.
Getting veggie plants next week. For the last few years, we’ve been ordering plants online and it’s worked out well.
In years past we have had compost/dirt delivered and dumped in our driveway for planting. It’s a mess and we have to move all the dirt quickly. ugh. This year we went to the Atlanta Home show. We bought a cubic yard of dirt(show sale) from a company that delivers it to the house in a huge big yellow bag. They were able to put it in the garage. It’s working out really well. Especially because it’s been so rainy here . We can take out dirt when we need it.
I don’t think we will ever go back to delivery of a pile in our driveway.
@abasket - onions are pretty easy. You might want to supplement with bonemeal (for calcium and phosphorous) once or twice but that’s it. I would put it a few inches a way from the row, in a little parallel row, and dig it in a bit. Cut off any flower stalks if they show up.
As they grow, they’ll push themselves up out of the soil until it almost looks as if they’re sitting on top of the soil. Garlic doesn’t do that. You can harvest them anytime, even just after all the foliage dies.
Make SURE you let them dry out before you refrigerate them. If you live in a warm dry climate, you can hang them under your patio umbrella for a few days. Just drape them over the ribs so air circulates well. Don’t cut the tops off until they’re dry.
Next year I might order Maui onion. I want them sweet. Anyway I had a productive day in the garden. Planted my shade area with astilbe and cyclamen with baby tears. Baby tears are growing like weed in my garden and hide multitude if problem. I also planted more strawberries and bush beans. They go together well. I also moved my fox glove that I sow a few months ago.
Somehow full sun in California is too much for some plan. I have to do some relocation like lilac. My Korean lilac looks like it’s suffering. Oh well that would be next week. I’m worn out and now getting ready to go swimming.
Spent much of Friday night watching various people on YouTube give their opinions on homemade potting soil. I have purchased azomite, coir and bone meal for my mix. But now I wonder if I should buy some dolemite limestone for the mix because I intend to include peat moss. I had already purchased the coir online when two days later a local discount shop had peat moss at a very good price. Should I save the coir and use the peat moss, but not both? If I have bone meal for calcium do I really need dolemite?