Second attempt submitting a post. Marquest, Wow, you weren't kidding when you said Petunia seeds germinated..Your 'denia plant is filled with beautiful, purple Petunias. One year, Petunia seeds dropped in my citrus. The seeds germinated in winter, but nowhere as nice as yours. Or filled as yours. Mine had three pink blooms. Do you add dry or fresh fir needles in your plants? Where is the Gardenia trunk??? PM, The Fragrant Forum has a ton of information on hardy and tropical Gardenias. Some threads are passion-packed...when a member is having problems with their 'denias. PM, don't get me wrong, I love computers. Electronics in general..Example, light bulbs. :) But, I feel our society is too dependant on the net. As a child we 'walked' to the library. I do admit researching online is much easier than dressing, walking, then sorting through a zillion books to find information on one particular subject. So, guess I'm a little old-fashioned. lol I love reading, but refuse to get Kindle. Amazon emails weekly, reminding me this electronic device exists. My dh makes fun when another email comes in. Especially since I spend so much time online. Guess I'm a hypocrate...lol Logee's! In the mid-90's, I ordered from Logee's religiously. Back then, plants were shipped in 4" pots, well-rooted, and shipping wasn't all that much, though it was higher than other nurseries. Problem was, I didn't know of other nurseries. Don't know if Logee's sold my name, but I started getting catalogs from other nurseries. Two of my favorites were Stokes Tropicals and Mellinger's. Nowadays, you'd have to get a loan to order from Stoke's, and Mellinger's went out of business, in the early 2000's. Back to Logee's. In early 2000's, they changed. Plants were shipped in 2"-2.5" pots, barely rooted. Shipping outrageous. Via one order I bought a citrus. If you ever saw a photo of Logee's citrus, you'd be placing an order. What arrived was a 3" stick. Oh, crap happens. So, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. A couple orders later, plants were arriving in awful condition. I finally phoned. Customer Service Reps are very nice and helpful. They sent a replacement plant which arrived large, well-rooted. Why didn't they send a plant that nice in the first place? After another order or two, I said, heck with this nursery. Their over-priced plants aren't worth it. I can get the same plant on Ebay or most online stores, for half the price, and much larger in size. I will admit. I ordered a Thanksgiving Cactus, 'Aspen,' that's impossible to locate. A seller on Ebay sold Aspen cuttings. He made a small fortune. One buyer paid $94 and change plus shipping. So, I ordered the TC and a Begonia from Logee's. My bill was over 30.00. Anyway, that's the Logee's story. lol You sure are experienced with plants. Perhaps, one day, you can give me some outdoor garden tips. Because of back/knee problems, the last two years our garden has been duds. Weeds do fine though. lol. Well, let's say I've been growing indoor plants at least 25-yrs. I first got hooked as a child, when we'd go to my aunt's farm in MI. My MOTHER didn't allow plants indoors, but I managed to sow veggie seeds at 11-yrs. My first house plants were given to me as gifts when I moved out of the house at 18. They died..too much lovin'. PM, it's really nice talking to you. Mike...here you are.... Gardenia's are like the old saying...a watched pot never boils..Mike,, you must stop watching. :) Oke-e-doke, once your 'denia produces, you owe us a photo or two. Hugs, Toni PS: PM, please don't take offense regarding Excel. :_

Without getting too technical, the best thing you can do is to use organic fertilizer as often as you can afford to. The one I have been using for the past couple years is alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). If you're like most people you think I must be thinking of something else, but here is a picture of how well that stuff works... This was taken by mrmumbles in June of 2011. He had applied the alfalfa pellets in mid May. The result after 3 weeks is improved color, density, and growth. If you could use that monthly until August, your soil will be much improved. Then if you want to get more technical, be sure you send your soil test to Logan Labs instead of your local agency. There are people on the Internet who can read the Logan Labs tests and tell you where to get the specific chemicals to improve YOUR soil. The local agencies will only give you NPK advice. Logan Labs will give you micro nutrient advice to really tune up the lawn. If I was to take a wild guess I suspect you have a Kentucky bluegrass lawn and trees which have gotten bigger and provide too much shade for KBG to survive. There is some negative value in seeding right now. The watering regimen to establish new seed is exactly the same regimen needed to establish crabgrass. Also the new grass would be subject summer heat which will kill the young grass. Crabgrass thrives in the summer heat and will expand to take over all the newly seeded areas - as long as there is enough sunlight. Dethatching should not kill the grass unless you have St Augustine. Other grasses rebound right away. It is not common to see both thatch and bare spots on the same lawn, but it is possible. In the rotting stump areas, be sure you get all the woody debris out of there and mound it up with topsoil. You should have at least an inch higher of new soil so that it will settle back down to be even with the old soil. Aeration is one of the things I think you can avoid. When you have moist soil, is is hard? Can you stick a screwdriver down into it? If hard soil is your concern, then I would suggest using baby shampoo instead. Sorry but I don't have a great picture to show you I'm not crazy on that topic. I have seen a picture of a tree limb embedded 25 inches into the ground which had been treated with baby shampoo, but you can't tell it's that deep. Apply 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet and follow up with 1 inch of water as measured by tuna or cat food cans placed around the yard. The next week just apply the water. The week after that, reapply the shampoo at the same rate and the water again. That should soften your soil for years to come. You have to admit it is cheaper and easier than an aerator. Give it a try. Everyone who has tried it swears by it- me included. Nuking is not necessary unless you want to have the lawn of the month for the next several years. Really, the same is true of the Logan Labs soil test. If you just use the alfalfa pellets or something like Milorganite on a fairly frequent basis over the summer, you will be most of the way there. Please do not confuse this advice with chemical fertilizers. Using those monthly through the summer will kill everything. It's only organic that will work in the summer.

I've been watching this thread because I too am a newbie to lasagna beds. I see much helpful information. I do have a question, well many but I'm only asking one. I have rocky clay soil and thought I would try this lasagna thing. I actually scalped the bermuda from the area but added it back to the lasagna. I started with layers of newsprint. Then added things I already had on hand. I used the soil from the prep work, pine mulch, moldy leaf debris from the rock pile you see in the pic, leftover soil from planters including the deadroots in it, some shredded paper, had about 20 lbs of regular potting soil. Then I went to the frig and found some spent celery, lettus and some green onions. Chopped this up and added the salad to the mix. I tossed it all together and added it the bed. I soaked the paper before adding any of my mix and kept watering as I was adding the mix. It was rather soupy. Now, here's my question. I then covered it with black plastic and lined the edges with brick. I thought that baking the lasagna would speed up the break down process.I have read that others use clear plastic. Is that just to be able to see whats going on underneath or does it have to do with the sun actually getting to the mulch mixture? I finished the bed Wed. night (7-16-08) and last night I looked under the plastic which had lots of heat escaping but it seemed dry so I sprayed more water under there. Oops, Guess I had 2 questions. 1. Color of plastic to cover? 2. Should I spray with water to keep it moist? Before I started Bed with some soil mixture, I added more. Covered with the black plastic I don't mean to barge in someone else thread but I thought others looking for information may appreciate finding it in one location. Please advise. Happy gardening to all, Deb

Amna, I use those strawberry containers all the time, been doing so for 6 years now and never had a problem with them. Holes are fine, as well and my containers always go in in direct sun as well. Soil goes in, miracle grow, I don't fill it quite to the top, seeds go on soil. sprinkle some soil on top and press down to be sure it is good and moist. snap the cover down and out it goes. no tape no, baggies unless the containers are reused and the cover has finally broken off. As temps warm up I sometimes need to add vent holes to the top to get more water in. Covers come off the seedlings when the seedlings are really hitting the cover of the container. I have never worried about not enough head room with covers or with baggies on them and have never had a problem or any seedlings damaged from being a bit compressed with a cover or baggie. My hose is out back near the containers, so if they need some moisture, water is handy when needed. I am in MA as well, near the Nashua NH border and I don't sow my cosmos till mid April. to huge a risk of late frosts around MA that will get the tender seedlings. Cosmos are really hardy with early frost in the fall and will continue to bloom through those early frosts, but the tender seedlings will be history for you if they are zapped by late frost now. Picture 1 should be fine outside without the baggie. just be sure there are vent holes on the top. Don't leave the container inside the other one on the bottom. That will catch rain and could make the soil stay far too moist and soggy because the container will just sit in water. pic #2. looks fine. just be sure there are drainage holes in the bottom of the container and you have slits in the baggie for air to circulate and rain to get in. (hopefully we have seen the last of snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice for this year) Pic #3. looks like you used masking tape for labels. That won't last very long. it will come off when it gets wet from rain. You can cut up plastic covers from margarine, cottage cheese, sour cream, coffee, etc and use them for labels. you can use a deco paint pen to write with, that will last forever and put the tags inside the container. or use sliver foil tape as a label and write with paint pen. sharpies fade quickly when the heat and sun get on it. Be sure the containers have drainage holes in them, air holes in the top and when you put them outside, don't pile them on top of each other. Each one needs to have it's cover exposed to the elements completely. Some pics of my containers I have been using for 6 years A mix of those blue containers mushrooms come in, strawberry containers, take out containers, cottage cheese containers. I use anything that is at least 3-4 inches deep, but do not use gallon water jugs. I just find them far too awkward to use and I don't use tonic bottles either. We rarely drink any and the bottle return leaves no one with any to get them from. Fran