I have a pretty good tester but I was just going to get a second opinion. My son in Birmingham borrowed my pH meter. It is kind of an expensive one and I am not sure when I will get it back (LOL, kids do that even in adulthood) and I was going to take soil there. I have been adding lime and newspapers in effort to bring it up.

How was it?

Hi, and welcome. There are some bay area GWers that visit the CA forums that can give you more specific local information. I'm in the southern part of the state. Generally a mature garden has had the plant material in the ground for a long enough amount of time (often measured in multiple decades) for the plants to be well established and near their maximum expected size, or at the latter years of their lifespan. Life spans vary greatly. The species matters--some trees are old and ready to die at 20, others remain strong for hundreds of years, for example. The nuance of speech, and more information about what is in the garden and how old it might be, would help to determine the true meaning of what they were saying. By referring to your garden as mature, they could be admiring the stately specimens that were planted long ago, and hoping like crazy you don't tear the beautiful, historic plantings out. A nicely designed mature garden can be a valuable asset. Or they could be really commenting on how those plants are so large and overgrown for the location in which they were planted, that the roots are lifting the walk and the branches are crowding the eaves, the mature trees are shading out the sun-loving shrubs underneath, and that they should be pruned or removed. Or they could be thinking the plants are at the end of their life span, getting diseased and are in danger of falling over in a storm. Growingwise, a mature planting will have an established root system and proven it's ability to take the growing conditions where it is located. New plantings require a more careful eye to how they are coping with the growing conditions while they are getting established. Younger plants are at a stage of their life when they have a quicker growth rate and thus require more pruning and training to help them mature into fine, mature plants. If a mature garden has been neglected for a long time, there may be some catch-up maintenance needed. But, generally speaking, a mature garden grows at a much slower rate and does not need as much time to maintain with pruning, weeding, etc. Too much fertilizer can be far worse than none. The nutritional needs of plants depends upon a lot of factors, including the plant species and your soil. Your plants may not need any fertilizing at all. Is there something about the color of the leaves of your plants that indicates there may be a deficiency? If so, it is better to get a soil analysis, or determine the specific deficiency that might need correcting, rather than just indiscriminately fertilizing. In fact, I have had some plants begin to show evidence of new deficiencies with a discoloration of their leaves only after fertilizing with an all-purpose fertilizer, because it threw the balance of soil nutrients out of whack. Finding a knowledgeable gardener is the tricky thing. In my area, the landscape maintenance field is awash with "gardeners" that don't know proper gardening techniques; topping, improper shrub pruning/hedging, and a lack of knowledge concerning fertilizing and pest and disease control is the norm. And sadly, most homeowners don't know the harm the maintenance crew is doing, because they see the same "look" all over town. Photographs of how they maintain their current maintenance contracts could be very telling. Some photographs of your garden would also help the forum give you better information about your particular garden.

I didn't know about a St. Patrick's Day planting schedule for other plants, but both my grandfather and my father always planted potatoes as close to St. Patrick's Day as possible. Of course you must take into account the weather and soil conditions. I watch the 10 day weather forecast closely, and plant accordingly. For instance, seeing that we have several above average temperatures ahead during the next ten days, AND the forecast for rain today, I spent a lot of time in the garden preparing beds for seeding, then planted my first batch of onions and potatoes yesterday (March 13). I also planted a new Red Blaze Climbing Rose. It seems that if the soil becomes saturated and cold weather returns, you can often miss out on optimal planting dates. Right now, my peonies are sprouting up to about 6 inches and my lilacs are full of unopened buds. Another thing I watch for is the leafing of Oak trees- I feel more comfortable in planting warmer weather crops when the Oaks tell me that warm weather has arrived. Ron Z