Anyone still willing to adopt a zone 5 newbie? Just signed up a few days ago. This is my first post. Here's my story. I'm a single mom of 2 hyperactive, possibly autistic spectrum 4yo's. They are so hyper that they can't sleep and wake me 5-6 times per night. They are literally my miracle babies and the joy of my life, however, how I manage to function and keep a job is sometimes beyond me and totally a matter of faith. Their therapies and special therapy equipment are expensive & insurance keeps cutting coverage. I've struggled to find a daycare that will accept them and provide the individualized care that their disabilities require. I've fought the school district to get adequate early intervention services...it's a daily battle. My nearest family member is 1500 miles away so nobody I can count on for regular assistance...even to watch the kids while I go to the grocery store where I can't take the kids anymore because it triggers more hyperactivity. Gardening is one of my "keep your sanity" tools. In the summer I wake at the crack of dawn before the kids so that I can go out to quietly dig for just a few minutes. In the winter I dream through gardening books while the kids are watching their favorite video for the 1000th time. I've lived in my present house for 12 years, much of it trying to learn how to adapt my gardening from Western WA climate to Northern CO climate- experimenting to learn what plants survive here and so on. The house was an old farm house with nothing but prairie grass and 4 mature trees. I had to install a sprinkler system if I ever had a chance of buying a plant and it surviving in this dry climate. I had an old well on the property which is OK to use for irrigation. 4 yrs ago I finally had a landscape plan drawn up but when I priced landscape installation (mind you I just needed someone to do the heavy work or "set the bones" of the garden) the cost was astronomical. I'm talking $10k just for soil prep! $40k for the landscape w/o fencing or plants! So, I hiring a friend to work a few hours/week after his day job. He is trying to support a family of 7 on My next sticker shock...I went to the nursery looking for plants and shrubs....Holy Cow! I'm in the wrong business! Ever since I've been looking for cuttings, seeds, seedlings that have weeded themselves under shrubs, and anyone who needs help dividing perennials. I have a few things to trade...see my lists. I would joyfully welcome being adopted by a zone 5 gardener with lots of perennials that need thinning. And thanks emmaelice for being so thoughtful to start this thread! Blessings, Debra

tanya47, Oops! Missed the Santa Monica part... There is plenty of information available to you from your extension which is just as thorough if not more so than mine. How big should my seedlings get before transplanting? Page 14 of the California Master Gardener Handbook has your planting dates. Getting Ready for Planting by Seed Physiologist, Department of Vegetable Crops, University of California, Davis. Consult Table 2: Recommended Planting Dates for California Vegetable Gardening at a Glance: How to Plant and Store for recommended planting dates for the major regions of California. These dates are based on the average temperatures for each region; you may have to make some adjustment if your area varies widely from the average. Unless otherwise stated, the planting times given in the table are for seeds. In California, allow 6 to 8 weeks for seeds to produce plants large enough for transplanting. Does this help?

I ditto tiller and others. Good advice from all so far. The only thing I would add about chemicals...is that there is one bottle of stuff you really should have, and that is a water treatment for Chlorine and Chlorimines. Chlorine is not that bad if you add less than 10-20% of your total amount at once. The fish can get Gill Burn if they play in the hose spray so put the hose in a area they can't get to. The chlorine will hurt your bacteria colonies in your bio filter but won't wipe em out. After a day or two contact with the air will dissipate the chlorine (it will go faster if you have an airator or waterfall). Chlorimines though are baaaad. They will never leave your pond without being treated with an additive. You can call your water company and see if they use chlorimines. If they do, then you need to get in the habit of using a neutralizer every water change. If they don't then you can get away without, unless you notice your plants being hurt by chlorine when you change the water. "Bad stuff" on the bottom are organic compounds like leaves, fish poop, dead fish etc. As it decomposes it will create a layer of mud called "muck". It's black and smells bad. If your pond ever has a sewer odor that's a sure sign that your muck has run amok and the fish are in danger. When this happens oxygen levels drop and you start getting brown algae and your water will look like rootbeer. Anaerobic bacteria start to go to work in the oxygen free environment. This is a fish death sentence. You should regularly scoop out the majority of the muck leaving as little as possible on the bottom after it settles back down. "Regularly" depends on your pond. More trees, dust, pollen, weaker filter etc mean you need to clean it up more or less than others. There is no rule about how often to clean. To clean out muck, you just need to scoop it out. You can do that by hand, with a bucket or shop vac. One thing I like is this little attachment that goes on the end of a garden hose. The flow of the hose water creates venturi suction that pushes the muck into a little nylon bag. Keep in mind that with any of these options you will stir up the muck and it will take a day or so to see improvement. If you do it regularly, the stirred up muck isn't a problem for the fish. But if you have a deep layer of it you might want to do what destany said above, and move the fish into a container for a bit (filled with pond water!) as all those bad compounds will be spiked during the clean. If your depth is closer to 3 feet I would still think about either getting rid of the goldfish (donate them to a pet store or other ponder) or the koi. With either 3 koi or 11 goldfish you have about the right fishload. But with both, you have about double what you will need in a year or so when they get big. If you are dead set on keeping all of them, you need to plan on losing some to stress or plan on getting a heavy duty biofilter and/or doing regular muck sweeping.

From everything I've heard, you fill the tray with room temperature water (doesn't have to be exact! I just run the faucet until I get what I feel is not too cold, not too hot, and pretty close to room temperature. Some say to use distilled water, but I think it depends on your area and how harsh your sink water is. I've never had a problem with the water here though) and let the plant sit in it for no longer than 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour out the remaining water from the tray. The way I check to see if my plant is ready for more water is by wiggling my finger around in the soil a little to see if it's moist enough. If it's pretty moist, I don't water. If It's dry-ish/not really moist (don't let your plant get BONE dry, but don't keep it soaking either. I know, it seems so complicated, but you get good at judging fairly quick :) ) then I water. If your plant was over watered, I'd wait for it to get dry-ish/not really moist, and then wait one more day before watering. I don't know if that's what everyone else recommends, that's just how I judge it. As for fertilizer, I'm not really sure! I don't fertilize my plants (shocking, I know) because I'm afraid I'll end up over fertilizing. Plus, the soil I use claims to fertilize for up to x amount of months (I forget how many ahah), so I just depend on that. Charged soil is kinda frowned upon, because a lot can go wrong with it - but mine's an AV soil, and if I'm not fertilizing anyways it's all fine :) Good luck on your AV journey and congratulations!!! :) I hope I didn't ramble on too much in my post lol.