Do it now. There is a full moon. I just replanted a bunch of seedlings last nite into larger containers and left them to get the full benefit of the full moon. If you have the room, start a compost pile. When I go to Menards I usually stop by the 25%off torn bags section and buy one or two bags of manure or potting soil. I mix this in with the finished compost bin or in the fall in the bin that is cooking. Mix it well and after adding a small amount of clean sand, I use it for containers. You can use a wheelbarrow or a tarp on the ground and mix what you have with regular dirt from an area of the yard and make a mix that should be ok. If you are container gardening you will be adding some nutrients later anyway.

There are upright and prostrate forms of P afra, and only the upright lends itself willingly to the formation of a heavy trunk. If you don't have the upright form, remind me come May, and I'll make sure you get started cuttings if you'd like them. Determining whether a soil is good or bad depends on what you're contrasting them with. MG isn't so bad when compared to all the other commercially prepared soils as a group, and that are commonly available and used for houseplants; but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect and 1 being almost unusable, I'd rate it at about a 3-4 - LOTS of room for improvement. When you think of potting soils and what to use as your base, think of larger particles, like pine bark or other inorganic particles much larger than peat particles. In your mind's eye, picture a soil made of particles the size of BBs, and see all the healthy air spaces between the BBs. No matter how much water you pour on the soil, those air spaces won't fill with water. Now imagine a soil based on peat, compost, topsoil, sand ..... The air spaces between particles are very small and tend to fill up with water when you water - like you said the peat your plants are in does. If you mix the peat and BBs 50/50, the peat just fills in around the BBs, robbing the BBs of their air space, so a soil that has mostly larger particles and very few fine particles so the air spaces stay open is going to be much healthier for roots than a soil with all the little air pores filled with water. The primary difference between these two types of soils is that because the more open soils hold less water, you need to water more frequently. You'll need to decide if the extra effort is worth greater promise for your plants to grow to the potential they were genetically programmed for. There are 2 sides to that coin. Some feel the soils that I and many others grow in hold too little water, and robs them of the convenience of longer intervals between waterings, but since we build these soils with the plant's well being in mind, I know without doubt that soils that offer extended intervals between waterings hold too much water to NOT be limiting in their effect on growth and vitality. One of the most important considerations is that well-aerated and fast-draining soils are far more forgiving and much easier to grow in. They forgive your watering mistakes readily, as long as you don't FORGET to water, and make fertilizing easy. Because they promote such healthy root systems, they have the potential to produce much healthier plants with robust metabolisms that make the plant better able to resist insects and diseases. I'll leave you a link below to some information that explains the soil/water relationship. An understanding of the concept it defines almost automatically puts you far ahead of other container gardeners as a group. It shouldn't be too difficult to see what other growers that have read and applied it think. There are other threads similar to that one about other aspects of container culture, like nutritional supplementation, when/if you're ready to move on ..... or you can just not respond & I'll take that as a 'not interested'. The comments I left on YM's thread today might also be of interest. What my houseplant's feet are in: Al Here is a link that might be useful: I'd like to see you put this in your tool box!

I am adding to an old thread here but I have a similar dilemma... I am painting my new bedroom walls silver chain /harbor gray.. I was going to use simply white on ceiling and trim but I questioned the lack of brightness in simply white on my ceiling .. I have northern and eastern light and some southern but it doesn’t make it in due to a farmers porch. I was advised due to this I might want to try Chantilly lace on the ceiling and that simply white trim could work but it’s doesn’t seem so ? Maybe the gray is causing my dilemma .. i am used to working with two colors not three... I also have vaulted ceilings and a tray... on top of it I need to come up with a complimentary color for master bath.. or stay the with the same ?Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

“you should measure your sink an inch longer than the vanity itself” makes no sense. Do you maybe mean the vanity counter or top? The reason for having the vanity top longer than the vanity box is that you will have a nice drip edge. That means that when water gets to the end of the vanity, it will dangle there and form a drop and drip to the floor instead of running down the side of the vanity. This is only a problem if you are planning to have water sitting on your counter top. That is why I asked how many sinks it will have. It may be an issue if you have sloppy people with a sink close to the end of the countertop (like when you have two sinks), but is no problem at all if you have one sink in the center of a 60” vanity. You would have to be pretty messy to have water dripping down the sides with one center sink.