I'm sure your neighbors were happy to see veggies, even bolting crops, over the weedy yard, Spaghetina. Here's a couple of suggestions I have from my time growing organically up in SF and Marin. 1) Most of those flowers of the bolted veggies are edible and tasty. While the leaf flavor has turned bitter through the winter and the taste change that comes with bolting, the blossoms often gain a very interesting taste that is great topping salads or lightly fried in certain dishes. 2) If like germinating your own crops from seed, remember which of your crops are heirloom (their seeds will usually produce true) and which are F1 or other hybrids -- it's seed is typically still viable, but may have very different characteristics than the parent. The GW seed exchange forum is a great way to get those exotic seeds you mentioned w/o having to pay catalog prices or drive all over the Bay area, but you need your own seeds to reciprocate. Some of the best plants & veggies in my yard are from trades I've made with other GW members. 3) To my way of thinking, your soil mix seems too heavily focused on decomposed organic matter and doesn't take advantage of the alkaline SF clay topsoil and it's associated soil flora. The compost/purchased soil is great for nitrogen and drainage and you can artificially pump up the P/K/Fe to grow good veggies & plants in it, but organic amendments like blood & bone meal, fish emulsion, seaweed and others need bacteria & fungi to free the nutrients for your crop's roots. That's generally not true for soluble inorganic amendments, which is why they are popular. There's definitely a risk of adding weed seeds by using your yard's topsoil in the garden beds, but that soil food web is necessary for growing good organic crops, IMO. For plants that need lots of N and like great drainage, I go 2/3 purchased soil/fully composted organic matter and 1/3 native topsoil. For tomatoes, peppers and others that suffer in N-rich soils, I use 2/3 native, 1/3 organic matter.

Thanks everyone, Kathy, Your in the San Diego area aren't you? If so I thought you were closer to the ocean with a nice ocean breeze.. I can't image you've never seen this species before, it is doing ok, I just wished it would grow faster. Nancy, the good thing about this snow is that the full Sun had no ill effects on it. Notolover,I think it is happy with the location it's planted in too, superthrive might be my next try , I'm always ready to try something new, and I sure hope your next winter has a heart for all the cacti & succulent lovers. Mike, I sure hope your winter is not as bad as expected, the weather man in our area always exaggerates on the bad side and after the storm it's like, that wasn't that bad after all.. they can really paint a bad picture. Greg

Is that blue fescue (sp?) between your rows of daylilies? I'm totally doing it! I just bought Happy Returns which has about 12 scapes and 2 blooms and plenty of buds and Strawberry Candy which has tons of buds. (hey, slim pickin's around here, but the Happy Returns looks awesome!). My daisies are all dying now in the front bed and look pathetic so I'll have to deadhead them and find something to put next to them for color. I can't put SC there because it will clash with my coneflowers and liatris. I could put Joan Senior or Happy Returns there, but they are too big for that spot. What to do, what to do...

"Thank you for the kind words folks. When I go out to outside with my critical eye, I can see lots of mistakes and/or problems. But for me gardening is one part creative oulet, two parts mental therapy and two parts physical therapy. If I start stressing about how each bed looks, I lose the mental therapy part." Michael, I think most of us here feel the same way about gardening. It is all about creating and nurturing something and losing yourself in the process. For me, it is a spiritual thing also. Love the wild petunia. It is really looking pretty. Silvia, thanks for your comments. You are too kind. I got out of the habit of coming here. I'm going to try to stick around more. I miss your posts and have learned sooooooo much from you. I still have a small veggie garden and always think of you when I have questions or when something is doing well. You are an incredible and generous teacher. Thanks for loving to give your knowledge!