July 22, 2013 by Born To Organize

Here’s the Dirt

Purple Bachelor Button

I finally got to the bottom of my Planter Box Failure. In a word, Topsoil. All dirt is not created equal.

I ordered planting mix from a local supplier, but they delivered topsoil instead. The otherwise healthy plants weren’t thriving and I couldn’t figure out why. In the end, it comes down to the basics: sun, water, soil. The soil delivered was far too heavy and ill-suited for my needs.

The supplier offered a refund, but they can’t or won’t pick up the unwanted dirt.

Freecycle to the Rescue!

One of my readers suggested I offer the soil on Freecycle. I posted the offer last night and woke up to half a dozen emails. Wow!

The soil is going to one or two good homes and the emptied planter box will soon be mine. It’s late in the season to start over, but I’m going to plant a bag of flowers seeds I have on hand and see what grows.

Meanwhile, I had to scramble to transplant the surviving plants. I filled in some bare spots in the triangle at the corner of the lawn. I pulled four spent sunflowers which gave me room to transplant the status. I transplanted snapdragons and several cosmos that were struggling to establish. The roots of the plants hadn’t spread at all. They’ll do so much better now in their new fertile soil. The one plant that seemed to be taking hold in the box was the chocolate mint. Each plant sent out foot long runners beneath the soil and were really taking hold. The mint will go back into the new and improved planter box, but for now they’re resting in a few plastic pots along the walkway wall.

What seemed daunting last week now feels like an adventure. I love planting, so enjoyed ‘rearranging’ the plants. I’m happy the mint is doing well and can replant accordingly. Most of all, it feels great to find a home for all that dirt.

Time to transplant; Mighty Mouse assists

Back to Basics: Ready for pick-up

Merging Flowers: Cosmos, Status, Bachelor Buttons, Sunflowers, Snapdragons and Forget-me-nots

July 17, 2013 by Born To Organize

Planter Box Fizzle: Failure to Thrive

I’ve been trying to swallow my disappointment at the sorry state of my flower bed. In my imagination (a rich and fertile place I might add), the bed is flourishing. Instead, the mint, herbs, annuals and transplants are all stuck in idle.

My husband lovingly built the raised bed along the sidewalk strip this past spring. It’s quite large (4′ x 16′) so instead of buying bags from the nursery, I ordered planting mix from a local landscape supplier. I wasn’t home to accept the delivery, and ended up with a lot more than I needed. My friend, Jazzy, helped me remove all the excess and a friend down the street took it by the wheelbarrow-full for her own budding garden. At last it was ready to plant.

Doesn’t this look pretty and full of promise?

garden bed front garden newly planted

Here it is several weeks later.

Even the ‘volunteer’ pumpkin plant that jumped ship is doing better growing in the grass (lower left).

Given the seasonal heat, sun and proper irrigation, along with a generous covering of mulch, the plants should be thriving. Instead, a crop of black mushrooms sprout along the surface each morning, eventually wilting under the mid-day sun.

Today, I got to the bottom of things. Or more accurately, the top. Instead of delivering ‘potting mix’ they delivered topsoil! It’s heavy, sandy and ill-suited for my needs.

The supplier offered a refund today, but they can’t remove the delivered soil. They suggested a few bags of high quality premium mix, free of charge, but I’ll need to amend it by half, so I still need to figure out what to do with over a cubic yard of topsoil.

Right now, I’m just overwhelmed. I’ll keep you posted.

April 27, 2013 by Born To Organize

You Say ‘Tomato,’ I Say ‘They’re Planted!’

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Life is busy lately, putting a crimp in my gardening vibe. I’ve been fitting things in here and there, but long for an uninterrupted day to catch up on a few projects. I started to worry that I’d never get the tomatoes into the earth.

Timing is everything when it comes to planting. April is prime seed-starting season in our neck of the woods so I needed to get to it. This week I did!

Once again, I started my crop in a pair of City Pickers. Much like the Earth Box, but double the size, the City Picker is an all-in-one planting system. Further, the boxes are portable, so they can roll from place to place for maximum sun.

My friend Doug, a nurseryman at a local garden center, gave me half a dozen Baker Creek heirloom tomato seeds a few months back. He received two sets of seeds from the Baker Creek rep and generously passed on one of the sets to me. I am one lucky gardener.

Of course I’m a stress case now, because the pressure is on. Will they sprout? Will they grow big and tall? Will the squirrels, birds, rats, mice, snails, etc., let them be? The seeds sat on my desk for several months, full of promise and potential. Now they’re out in the real world, no longer abstract. Grow babies, grow.

You say ‘tomato;’ I say ‘please grow.’ I’m thinking of changing the name of my blog to ‘The Worried Gardener.‘ What do you think?

Here are the steps for planting your City Picker:

1. Assemble as shown
2. Fill with potting mix (not potting soil) to about two inches below top
3. Add a thin layer of Dolomite (Agricultural Lime)
4. Create a two-inch trench down the center of the planter.
5. Add 3 cups of organic fertilizer.
6. Mound with dirt.
7. Plant
8. Cover with plastic mulch
9. Stake your tomatoes early. After a couple of hot days, you’ll turn your back and they’ll have grown like weeds.

November 11, 2012 by Born To Organize

Garden Planting Pots Get a New Lease on Life

If you’re a gardener, you tend to amass garden pots. They’re a bit like coat hangers or stray socks: they have a way of multiplying when your not looking. Occasionally I’ve had luck returning the thin plastic cell packs to local nurseries, but lately, not so much. The good news is that more and more pots are recyclable.

If I can’t return or recycle, than I try to re-purpose.

Here are a few ideas.

When planting shallow-rooted annuals in a large planter, use a small, inverted pot in the center to reduce the amount of needed soil. If the roots aren’t deep, no need to waste your potting mix. Additionally, the inverted pot reduces water and soil runoff while lightening the weight of the pot (see below).

Ready to pot Cyclamen

Inverted Pot

Potted Cyclamen

Sometimes the spare pot is pretty, deserving a new lease on life. I received this shiny gem with a bulb one Christmas. After transplanting the bulb outside, I re-used the pot near our garden fountain. I keep a small scrub brush in the pot for a quick fountain clean-up. In the summer months I add a pair of shears so they are always on hand.

Shiny pot with brush

When I cover our patio set for the winter, I use a large, sturdy plastic pot to elevate the cover’s center. It keeps the rain from pooling and aids with run off.

Patio furniture cover

I grow cat grass for my sister’s kitty in a couple of small plastic pots. As soon as I give her a pot of grass, I start a new one. When her batch of grass dies off, she returns the pot and we start again. We’ve been passing the same few pots back and forth for months.

KT Eating Kitty Greens

Other Practical Uses

Small pots are great for starting plant cuttings or seedlings indoors. Larger pots are great for sharing divided plants. If you have broken clay or ceramic pots, break them carefully into small pieces and use them to cover the hole in a large pot.

Let your imagination be your guide.

What creative ways have you reused a garden pot?