Being the onions are sprouting in one area only and lettuce pieces are starting to come to light, I'll average my temp is near 50 degrees. It's going to snow a few flakes tonight, so I'm putting a tarp over them, with 50 degree weather through out the following day. My yard stays green all year almost even rye grass never turned brown. I know it's not an evergreen, the clovers are still green, the hill I planted on is very high, maybe it gets more heat? I may have planted too deep, I'll wait for one more week, but next week I will replant if nothing else. The carrots should have peaked out, so maybe their is something wrong. It was so pretty outside, I thought I could get away with planting early. Root crops can grow all year round, so I'm not afraid for the turnips, carrots, and onions. I'll try to sprout them inside on paper towels or coffee filters next time, maybe do as the packets suggest by soaking them in water for 24 hours would have been better. I'll be watching for something until Thursday, then I'll start them in an inside garden on paper towels. Thanks for the input.

Joy: The seller's name on the LA is Wormman20030, his actual name is Marvin Wilkins and he is from Falkner, Mississippi. I bought from two different vendors in February and March. Remember, I am in Texas and in February I am out in the garden while some of the rest of y'all are looking at snow. I knew they could not dig daylilies in snow and asked when they did ship, and they told me mid April which was fine with me. The other vendor send a beautiful shipment in April but I heard nothing from Marvin. I believe is was the beginning of May I sent him and email and he replied that he was a one man operation and would try to get to it the next week. Weeks went by, and nothing. I sent another email which was ignored. I finally got fed up, left negative feedback, and later took advantage of the mediating service at LA to request a refund. It is extremely hot here in Texas, too hot to plant. I continued to hear nothing from Marvin and wrote again to the LA. They said that Marvin had written them (but not me) and told them he was going to process a refund and all I had to do is provide a Paypal address. (Let me put in a plug for the LA mediating service here, I was upset, they were patient and understanding) I sent him my Paypal address and again, heard nothing. No emails, no explanation, no refund. I feel that from February to June is an unconscionable wait without explanation. If something was wrong, he could have emailed, he was well enough to email the LA, but has ignored me. The money is not a lot to some people, I understand that some people spend thousands on daylilies and I wish I could, but it is enough that I can't afford to buy more daylilies this year and of course even if I could, it is too hot to plant. I felt that since I have been talking about this incident it is only fair to mention the vendor's name. I would more than welcome him to come here and offer an explanation; as of now I have no explanation, no daylilies, and no refund. Some very nice people have taken their time to email me with the names of vendors who they feel have integrity; after getting over my initial hurt I think I will use the DA again but under the guidance of some of those more experienced. Some points were made that there are good, hardworking vendors that sell quality plants and I agree because the other vendor was like that, so my beef is not with the LA, it is with Marvin.

Depending on what you are using to kill the grass it could be a long time. The information on the package should tell you everything you need to know about wait times and how it affects other plant material. A couple years ago I had a very weedy area and hired a guy to clean it out for me so I could plant bluegrass there. He killed everything with Roundup and said I only had to wait two weeks. So I waited three weeks, planted the grass and it did fine. He said that the roundup breaks down in the soil in about 14 days. Having said that, I'm sure there are alot of people who would disagree and say that it can last much longer. I've also had some experiences with weed and grass killers that seem to last for about a year or two. So you need to be very cautious with poisons. Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent that will prevent weed seeds from germinating in the soil for about a year. It won't prevent the grasses that spread by rhyzomes though so you would want to just use it to prevent weeds popping up from seeds that are spread by birds or the wind. Corn gluten is available at feed stores and at some garden stores. One thing about your heavy clay, it is normally very high in nutirents and although it's hard to garden in, it is good for the plants. Besides adding the compost, try also adding zeolite. It's a natural, organic material that will enrich the soils and make it less hospitable to weeds. Weeds seem to prefer to grow in areas where nothing else can. They prefer poor soil. So by enriching your beds weeds are less likely to take hold. When you do get some nice new things planted be sure to mulch well. This will deter weeds, but it also makes any weeds that do manage to pop up much easier to pull. Compost loosens the soil, mulch helps keep it moist. One other thing I would suggest is to introduce earthworms into that bed. Earthworms have their own kind of magic they do on your soil, by tilling it with their burrows and fertilizing with their castings. They will also eat dead plant material and dry leaves that fall into the bed. Composted cow manure is a good amendment to add when you have earthworms too. Cow is good because the rumination process kills most weed seeds. Domesticated rabbit manure is good because they only eat processed rabbit feed and it has no seeds. I use a 4" cedar mulch in my rose garden and the weeds and grass actually grow between the soil and the mulch layer. Their roots are in the mulch so when I pull them out they come right up. I can shake off the mulch and toss the weed. I know you're frustrated with your azalea bed, but you have such an opportunity right in front of your nose. You don't have to throw out those azaleas you know. If you pot them up, soak them for a few days in water with fish emulsion and hang onto them until you are ready to replant you could certainly put them back into the amended bed where I'm sure they would flourish. Keep in mind that most the other things you're talking about putting in there won't look like much in the winter. The good thing about the azaleas is that they fill out and stay green year round. Cheryl

If they put down an installation date of June 8th, then that's what they owe you. Obviously, life happens, and things can get delayed a little here or there. But 6 weeks' delay is just not OK. I throw my vote into the pile of "Call The Manager". And if that doesn't work then Call Corporate. I'm pretty sure these stores must all be semi-independent if for no other reason than that they're contracting with different local folks, so you would expect a quite different level of service in different locales. But that doesn't mean the corporate office isn't wanting any level of consistency. I imagine they would want to be knowing about this bait-and-switch if the manager isn't incensed. Really, I'm guessing that higher-ups will help you out. But you do have to reach out to them and explain your frustration about the situation. BTW, while the local shop may be overworked and overwhelmed, it will also be the case that Lowes' is a massive customer and they will do what they say. If the store manager calls and says 'honor the June 8th contract date', I'm guessing they will honor the June 8th contract date. It can't possibly be worth it to them to lose their contract with Lowes. Call the manager.