Good suggestions. I don't cut my milk jug all the way around, leave a little hinge just under the handle. Then when I open them up, I peg them to the ground. If it gets cold again, it's easier to tape it shut again for late frosts and you probably don't have to tape it as thoroughly as initially. I save my containers and use them again, and the right kinds of tops are with the right jugs. What I'm wrestling with is that I decided I want to sow a lot of seeds in oversized cell packs. I have the trays that match but no holes in them. Anyway, I don't want to preset anything to hold plastic up and over them now, and the ground will be frozen when I set my jugs out in about Feb to poke anything down in. I've been looking around and the only thing I have to keep the plastic a couple inches off (or just an inch might be ok) the surface of the cell packs to keep from crushing the new growth would be some bricks, some old glass blocks. Can anybody think of what might work better that is easy/free/cheap? I think saran wrap would be too thin for those and have some clear plastic in a roll that is probably too heavy, maybe w/slits in it heavy would be ok. I can get something in between. The reason I want to sow in cell packs is for some of my seeds that resent transplanting to have a better chance and save me work later. I sometimes start in those trays you talked about w/covers (from McD's salads, KFC etc.) They work great. Sometimes I plant directly into the ground but some I like to transplant individually into cell packs so they can grow on, very tedious. Sowing directly into cell packs would save me that step. One trick I learned for spring sowing but should work equally well for winter sowing is to plant in the deli containers, then fill 16 oz plactic cups w/drainage holes punched in the bottom partway up with potting soil. Then use a spatula & dull knife and work a chunk of seedlings out of the tray and just set it on top of the soil, the roots will find it easy to work on down. Then I let grow on for awhile and plant with a bulb planter. That would work well for people whose gardens are crowded or whatever. I have to make things as easy on myself as possible or it won't all get done.

Krista, I think Bon and Larry covered it all just fine. I love how we all work together to answer questions. Now, about the peat moss. Peat moss is an odd duck, you know. When peat moss is very wet, it can stay very wet forever, but then once it dries out, it is almost impossible to re-wet it. Knowing this, I was sort of surprised that they recommended it for use in the trench, but the Fall Garden Guide likely was written in a wetter decade when mid to late-summer weather had more rainfall that what we've had in recent years. So, to use OU's recommended trench planting with peat moss, all we have to do is keep the trench and replace the peat moss with something else. There's several options....home-made compost would be preferable, if you have finished compost available. However, if your pile has been really dry and your compost is really bone dry (lots of us still are in various drought stages, so there's plenty of dryness in plenty of places), you might need to put your compost in a container of some sort and soak it down good before you add it to the trench. If you don't have compost, you could use a good-quality soil-less mix. I think that the Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil-less mix would be great for this use. Still, even it can get really dry so you need to start out with it being good and wet before you put seeds in the trench. You also could use the pre-sprouting method where you pre-sprout seeds indoors in a coffee filter or paper towel inside a zip-lock bag and then sow the pre-sprouted seeds into the trench. Since they are pre-sprouted and you're putting them in a trench with a non-crusty soil-less mix, you ought to get little plant sprouting quickly. The screen is for shading the soil. Do y'all remember how we go into so much detail in spring about how warm the soil needs to be for each individual vegggie's seeds to sprout? Well, guess what? The opposite is true as well. Many of the veggies we want to plant for a fall harvest will not germinate in our hot soils, not even if you use the trench and a nice moist soil-less mix when you sow seed. You sometimes have to shade the trench and the ground around it. By shading it, you can reduce the temperature of the soil surface and the soil at seed-planting depth by 20 degrees or more. Most cool-season seeds will sprout better indoor in flats. I like to use bathroom sized cups. I think they still come in 3 oz and 5 oz cups. I tend to use 3 oz in spring and 5 oz in fall because larger cups hold more soil-less mix that won't dry out as quickly when you're hardening off seedlings in July, which is very different from hardening off seedlings in March or April. I cut the bottoms out of the cups so they are bottomless pots, line them up in a flat (I use aluminum roasting pans, as anyone who has seen my plants at the Spring Fling likely remembers) and fill them with pre-moistened soil-less mix. I sow the seeds (at least 2 per pot), put them on the light shelf and wait for the seeds to sprout. Normally, as soon as they sprout....and I mean while they are still just barely sprouted, I move them out to the front porch where they grow from day 1 in morning sun and afternoon shade, but with some protection from the plentiful supply of summertime insects that are out in the yard and garden. Once they are a week or two old and have just a couple of true leaves, you can harden them off to full sun and heat and transplant them into the garden. I like to transplant while they are fairly small because they suffer less transplant shock. Using plantable paper cups with the bottoms cut out also means less transplant shock. It doesn't have to be paper cups. It can be the cardboard tubes from toilet paper, paper towels and gift wrap. Just cut the tubes to the desired length and line them up in your flat and fill them with a moistened soil-less mix. I tend to shade newly transplanted fall plants for the first few days. Shading is easy---a couple of lawn chairs, with one at either end of the area to be shaded, and a piece of shadecloth, an old bedsheet, etc. and you've got it done. Be sure the shade cloth is a couple of feet above the tiny plants for good air flow or they can roast beneath it if you have the shade material just a couple of inches above them. Not only are we really dry here at this time of year, but we tend to be really, really hot and that heat is very hard on tiny young seedlings, so in a lot of ways, it can be harder to get the new plantings established in the heat and the very intense sunlight. Of course, there are some things that are best seeded directly---like carrots, radishes and spinach, for example. My favorite way is to use a soaker hose to get the ground really wet, then sow the seeds, cover them to the appropriate depth, pat the soil down firmly, mist it lightly to help settle in the soil you just patted down and put a board on top of it. My beds are 4' wide, so I normally use scraps of plywood left over from various projects, but any sort of board would work. In the absence of wood, very thick cardboard could serve the same purpose. The wood or cardboard serves several functions--it prevents wind or rain erosion from washing away the small seeds. It shades the ground beneath it and keeps it a little cooler. It keeps small animals from digging up the seeds. It serves as a sort of mulch that helps maintain the soil moisture level. While the soil beneath the wood will dry out, it will dry out a lot more slowly. You need to lift the wood every morning and every evening to see if you see tiny green sprouts. As soon as you see them, you have to remove the board so they don't die. Once you remove it, you need to watch the soil carefully and make sure it doesn't dry out. Then, don't forget the pests. Fresh, young, tender foliage will be very attractive to all kinds of insects, and even to thirsty little critters like field mice, birds, squirrels etc. Remember how very hot and dry everybody and everything is during the months of July and August. So, you can use the lightweight form of floating row cover to protect plants, cheesecloth, tulle netting, or sheer curtain fabric---whatever you can come up with that will keep your young seedlings safe. You also can provide a diversion for thirsty beasts and birds---a flat pan of water (aluminum pie pans work fine for this) so they can find water to drink without sucking the life out of your plants. Once you uncover those tiny seedlings that were beneath the board or cardboard, remember that they aren't used to any sunlight so if you shade them, remember to do the hardening off routine where you remove the shade for an hour the first day, two hours the second, etc. It is really easy to assume that a fall garden is easier for various reasons, such as having fewer pests and decreasing pest levels. That is true. However, getting plants to sprout and grow in July and August can be tricky, so we have to work a little harder at the planting and establishment stage. We usually have a lot less rain falling in mid to late-summer than in spring, but if we just spend the extra time to get the seeds germinated, the transplants planted, and keep the young plants well-protected from pests, we'll have happy, healthy plants going into autumn. Sometimes, depending on how brutal the heat is, you may notice that the plants grow pretty slowly at first, and they do, but they are having to fight the effects of the heat. As the weather cools and the autumn rains begin, the garden will thrive. If you have a lot of trouble with birds eating seedlings, bird netting will work. Or, you can hammer stakes into the ground around the perimeter of the bed and then randomly run light-colored fishing line back and forth in a random pattern (pretend you're making a spider web). The birds won't be able to see the fishing line very well and will sort of fly right into it as they are trying to get to your plants. They'll hit it, it will spook them and they'll go away. Got any more questions? Dawn

Raised beds are a great way to grow just about anything. Of course, the weeds will also enjoy it! But if drainage is your main concern, raised beds coupled with the addition of well-made compost or other organic matter, will create beautifully draining soil. I've done that many times in our display beds here at the city I happen to work for, and also for my own home veggie gardens. Really makes a difference! +oM

Hi, kimmsr, Thanks so much for replying. I got a soil test in 2012, but I've added some organic matter since then. The pH was 7.7; the organic matter was 3.2%. When I dig a hole to plant a tree and fill it with water, it drains at what I imagine to be an average rate. I can't remember exactly, but it didn't seem super fast or slow, I think a hour or two to empty. It holds water pretty normally too. If I water 1 to 1.5 hours one morning, the next day the very top of the soil looks bone dry, but just underneath or within a half inch there's plenty of moisture. There seems to be an earthworm under almost every weed I dig up. Once the lupines get going there are bees everywhere, and I see ladybugs, ground beetles, and little spiders every so often. The soil smells great, in my opinion. It's good-looking soil, nice and black when wet, with a good texture, not too crumbly or too sticky. A layer of reddish-brown clay becomes prominent about 10 to 12 inches down. I haven't noticed hardpan. In the soil test, nutrients were (in ppm): nitrate-N 8, phosphorus 45, potassium 167, magnesium 294, calcium 2099, sodium 25. Soluble salts 0.2 mmhos/cm. Per their recommendations, I added elemental sulfur to the vegetable garden, but I haven't amended the flower beds. By the way, there's an underground irrigation system, and I just paid a guy to come out and replace the heads along the fence with "shrub heads" 16 inches tall and move some of them closer to the fence. Thanks This post was edited by myrmayde on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 14:30