Kristin: Oh my; I always seem to get an argument, don't I? I should point out that there is such a thing as hot compost. There is a firm around where I live whose compost one year was a bit too hot and they sent warnings to people to be sure to age it a bit more before applying it. This is a professional supplier of compost which uses local grape waste and apple sludge mixed of course with other things. Compost does go through stages, you know. Yes, of course your sweet peas would do well in that area. There is nothing wrong with those dimensions and you are keeping them from being water logged. But if you want spectacular ones, which is the point of growing them; you might consider what I tell you. I have been growing them for years. Felix: most sweet peas do indeed have some scent. The perennial type do not; those that you see on the roadside that are fuchsia pink and purple or white, do not. The hybrids mostly do; but some are more strongly scented than others. I grow English ones which are superb for form and colour. I have put three stems in a vase on the table and had the room almost overpowered with scent with some varieties. There is a lot more to sweet peas than your local drugstore's litle packet. Should you be interested in these, which are developed for exhibition, please let me know. I will be glad to send you a few seeds to try out.

The source of my beliefs is research, practical experience, and observation. The application is borrowed from the science of geology, but physical laws of adhesion, cohesion, and gravity combine in container soils to govern its variable effect. The primary influence is the particulate size of container soils. You can prove its (PWT) existence in myriad ways. Hold a saturated sponge with its largest (in area) surface horizontal until it stops draining. Turn the sponge so it's smallest surface is horizontal, and more perched water will drain as the height of the PWT equalizes in a lesser volume of sponge. Grasping the sponge by a corner after it has again stopped draining, so one corner is down, further reduces the volume of sponge occupied by perched water and even more water will drain. Finally, with a corner down and no draining occurring, touch the corner with a toothpick held vertically (a wick) and even more water will drain. Or: Hold a toothpick to the drain hole of a container of saturated soil that has just stopped draining & watch its wicking effect drain more water that had obviously perched in the container. If you care for more details of how it all works, follow the link provided. Al Here is a link that might be useful: More information

I can tell you about the ones I've grown, though my climate is much different from yours. When you think about what to plant with rosemary, look for other woody, drought tolerant Mediterranean herbs. Lemon grass, being an Asian herb, needs much more water. I've planted mine (started from grocery store stalks) in between the artichokes, and here and there in places with varying degrees of available moisture. The ones growing best are in gallon hydroponics pots inside a trough that gets afternoon shade and an inch or two of bottom water a day. Lemon Balm very does well in shallower containers and full sun. This is another plant that I grew to the point of being rootbound, before dividing, and ended up with 4 or 5 plants from one start. It is drought tolerant, but like all herbs, it likes drainage, and grows better with regular water and haircuts. Lemon Verbena wants warm, warm, warm weather. I don't know how it overwinters in your zone, but probably not at all well. I keep watering my last year's (maybe dead) LV that i left in an unprotected outdoor container because we are still having cool nights and the plant SEEMS to be well rooted. At least it doesn't come up when I give it a hard yank, but it's not showing any life at all. This plant is so temperature sensitive that it will drop all its leaves at any sudden change, but will come back once the temperatures stabilize. If you have that problem, don't worry. if your plants are looking differently sick, then worry. If the root ball seems overly moist, try repotting to a dryer mix. If you want to keep the plant around next fall, do what I should have done and clip it down 2/3, bring it inside and let it redevelop as an indoor plant. Or take some growing tips and root them in smaller pots. But, alas, I haven't met Sweet Cicely yet. jan

More questions: mnwsgal - I'm curious about where you planted that winter-sown seed in your veggie garden last year, what kind of sun was it getting? Full sun? East (morning sun only), south (full), west (afternoon/evening sun)? It intrigues me that dirtbert's friend got his/hers to grow in shade (and got lots of blooms?) That's why I'm curious what kind of sun mnwsgal's got last year. I might try both winter sowing and starting them in a few large containers as well and put them out during the day and bring them into the garage at night. August blooms? Wow, has anyone had theirs bloom earlier than that? If that's the case, since they hate weather over 85 degrees, I'm surprised any made it that long to bloom. mnsgal - looks like you did the right thing by nicking them and having them in the paper towel. I tried seeds in early May - I nicked them, soaked them for a couple hours in warm water and put them in the ground. Nothing came up. I realize now I should have left them to soak for about 24 hours. I got pre-grown plants from Bachman's in Eden Prairie - that was the only place that was selling them. They almost didn't make it. I figured out the reason why was because the root system wasn't strongly established. Now it is and they are about 3 feet high. I could swear I'm seeing some buds - they aren't like the buds I was seeing for leaves which aren't tight and point straight up, these are tight and actually pointing almost down! Please keep me posted mnwsgal and dirtbert on how you (and your friend) are doing with growing them - I look forward to hearing what's working for you, even the nurseries can't really tell me and it does seem this plant is more finicky than most in how it must be done. Since I'm a beginner, I'm not used to winter or container growing yet, so I want to try to get a success first before trying the harder stuff. I'm just used to planting petunias and other annuals, clematis, and daylilies! So this is quite a stretch for me. Wherever possible, I want to avoid containers, however, with winter sowing of sweet pea seeds, how tall will the plant be in June and when do the flowers typically start blooming?