Notes From The Potting Shed #8

I went to the nursery the other day to beat the weekend crush as all the independent greenhouses seem to have their grand spring openings this weekend.

The pickings were still kind of slim in the basket stuffer area, but I managed to find a boxful of plants that I 'needed', as I begin to stockpile for all my baskets and planters.

I had to get the lime green ipomea while they had it, just in case. It always seems to sell out so quickly! Also a deep purple sweet alyssum, some petunias, verbena, and tall, spikey salvias in pink and blue. But... what I really wanted to share with you all is this lovely little white flower! Isn't it lovely?

It's a Bidens! Can you believe it? We always think yellow (light, dark, double.. but always yellow) when we hear Bidens, but check out how super cute this white one is. I am sad that I only picked up two of them, need to go back and get some more. Am thinking this may become one of my new favourite basket stuffers! I never really loved the white bacopa much so this will become my replacement, if it does well this summer. I love the blue and pink bacopas though. I have no idea, don't ask me why they white doesn't do it for me ~ no clue.

Inside the greenhouse, the min-max thermometer shows that it is just 19.6 °C (66°F) right now, during the day, and it went down to 2.8 (36°F) last night! Brr! Luckily, I don't have much planted in there yet though.

I had those basket stuffers and other flowers in the mini-greenhouse, the one that sits within the greenhouse in spring (later goes onto the deck). Everything in the greenhouse is just fine. Onions in the ground are fine... and check out this tester...

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Yep, a tomato seedling. Actually, 3 of these Gardener's Sweetheart tomatoes are planted up in that pretty green new raised bed to see how they fare.

I had a few seedlings left in my tray that I was just going to toss in the compost. I know that hurts some of your hearts, but I always start more than I need, plant up a few packs of extras, then toss the rest.

I decided to use a few of the extras as sacrificial tester plants. The soil in the bed is nice and warm, all 3 seedlings look awesome, despite the cool overnight 2 C degree temp. What a win! This new bed is going to be worth every penny. Now that I know, I will plant out more next spring, maybe using cloches from the dollar store to cover them... push the limits even earlier. My motto is that you never know unless you try.

In the yard, all sorts of things are starting to pop up. This spinach was sown last fall, the day before our first snow. I have a feeling it will go from little to bolting in short order, but am trying to think positively. Hoping to get a few pickings before it does. It's in a part shade bed, so am cautiously hopeful.

Neither a pretty, nor an inspiring photo. However, it is going to be! This is the before pic, if you will. This is where my new pollinator strip garden starts from. It's about 2.5 feet wide, not huge, but will be covered in blooms all summer, planted up with bulbs in fall so that there will be colour from spring through fall next year.

That very sad pile of sticks is a honeysuckle vine... it is going to need a new home, a much better home. The little low growing green things are crocuses, not yet in bloom.

We will be amending this soil. It is very poor, very sandy, the water just goes right through it. We'll incorporate a lot of compost, build it up into a mounded bed. Pick up the rubber steppers and make a proper walkway... or a hopscotch game pathway. Our 2 year old granddaughter has been learning all kinds of things at 'school', including how to play hopscotch.

I found another hardy climbing rose (see how tall it is already?) and this gorgeous clematis to go somewhere in the yard. Perhaps in the pollinator strip? or maybe climbing up the front of the potting shed? I have no idea yet. I just stockpile plants in spring, knowing I want them in the yard, but not exactly where they will go. I do know that the creeping campanulas will be planted at the base of the clematis, as it does not like bare soil.

I'm waiting on the bare root strawberries from the 4H to arrive. Whenever you are planting anything bare root, usually sold in small plastic bags at the nursery, don't forget to soak them in a warm water/liquid seaweed or kelp bath for an hour or two. It rehydrates the roots so they all take off nicely.

Here are this week's Q&A's...

Question - I have read that I can put 2 peppers in 1 pot, that they provide support for each other. Have you ever tried planting 2 different peppers in a pot together?

Tanja - I have often planted 2 peppers in a pot together and they do just great. Twice the peppers in half the space. I have always planted 2 of the same variety though, so I can use just one plant label (hahaha, totally serious) but to gift someone a pot with 2 peppers, like maybe a hot and a sweet for salsa making, would be a wonderful gift! They will love living together.

Question - Good morning, Tanja. What premium potting soil do you recommend?

Tanja - I use either Sunshine #4 with Mycorrhizae or Pro-Mix of some sort. I prefer the organic one, if I can get it. I never use seed starter mix and nothing with moisture beads or other stuff like that added to it. Just a good porous potting mix, add in some compost or manure, and you are good to go. If you are planting up flowers in hanging baskets, I would add a slow release fertiliser, something like this one. It just helps to keep them happier for the whole summer.

Question - Can you comment on both the traditional wooden raised beds vs the metals one? I am partial to wood for esthetic reasons, knowing that metals ones are probably better for the pocket book.

Tanja - This is my very first metal bed so I am going off of what I have read, and heard from my customers back at the ngp greenhouse. On the island, many of my customers used troughs and such for their gardening as they lived on a cliff, on shale, or hardpan. They loved them. One customer bought a couple more each spring to break up the cost.

I also shared this a bit ago, a trial that another blogger had done with wood versus metal beds. She liked them.

I think the one think that I like best is that I will get less ants and pill bugs eating my veggies. Pill bugs are attracted to the wood as it starts to rot, and then often will eat the strawberries, or whatever I have in the bed, as well. Anything touching the ground as they are the clean up crew, they break down organic matter into compost. And, ants... well, what can I say, they are a constant (pain in the patoot, lol).

So, for what it is worth, I am a big fan. I love the green one in the greenhouse and too do it again, I think I would have put up these white metal beds in the yard, too, had I thought of it at the time. I will now have to wait till they rot down... and by then will probably be too old to garden ; )

Have a great week, see you soon again.

Thank you for the questions! Tanja