I planted my herbs, including a bay that is more than 10 years old, in gritty mix about four weeks ago. The mix I used included the remains of my first batch of gritty -- made with NAPA Floor Dry, Reptibark and grower size Gran-i-grit -- and an equal amount of my new mix -- made with orchid fir bark a little smaller than the reptibark, Turface MVP and grower size gran-i-grit. I did only a quick screening of the Turface to get out the dust, but didn't screen the bark. My herbs include small starts of parsley, marjoram, tarragon, spearmint, rosemary and thyme from the garden center. After I planted them, they spent about two weeks in a sheltered location out of the sun near the north side of my house. After that, I moved them into an area that can get about four hours of sun a day. I say can because we had very little sun in April. Instead, we had record breaking rain of about nine inches and unseasonably cold temperatures ranging from freezing to about 65 degrees F. I think these conditions -- so different from what you experienced in Texas -- may explain why all of my herbs are thriving. Here's the bay: And, finally, here is one of a couple dozen morels that popped up in my lawn last week as a testament to how wet it's been. In 27 years of living in this house, I have never seen morels before. I'd know because I adore them. Yum. A couple notes from a relative newcomer to this mix: I don't think it is essential to closely screen ingredients for the gritty mix if you're planting in large pots for outdoors. But I do believe you should try to get the ingredients to be fairly uniform in size between 1/8 and 3/8 inch. If you have a lot of dust and a lot of large bark pieces, they can knit together to make for poor drainage. I bare-rooted all these herbs including the bay, which had been in the same pot of standard soilless mix for three years, and spread the roots out as much as I could before covering them with the gritty mix. The pots are all about one gallon and the plant roots only occupy the top couple inches. I'm hoping I can keep at least some of them alive through the winter indoor under lights. That's why I used the gritty mix instead of 5-1-1. I did plant dill seeds in 5-1-1 because I expect to harvest that this summer. It is growing well in all this rain too.

Bea, I'm so sorry to hear what has been going on with you. Mary, you are a wonderful daughter to be there for Mom. Got a deal for you Bea. I just had another spinal surgery 3 weeks ago, and, I'm having a tough time getting around now, even with a cane. So here's the deal, my friend. We are going to do this recovery together. Very slowly and very patiently, together we are going to rehab together and get back on our feet and into our gardens to work again. Is it a deal? you bet it is. We will do this together. Progress is slow and we are both impatient people wanting to get our lives back again. E-mail me any time and please e-mail me about MG seeds. Don't have any from this years growing yet. Slow to grow, slow to bloom, just a crazy growing season. But I have plenty that I collected from last year. E-mail me and I will send you some pics in info on what i have and let's get going on that deal. whose gonna get to the gardens to really garden again first? Your friend in MA Fran

Actually, repotted it late last spring, because I liked the new pot. Felt guilty, because it barely fit, so repotted it in another pot about a month ago -- giving it new soil. I do the finger down to second knuckle every evening (two hours before sun goes down - can't water in the morning) to check it's water needs, and it seems to dry out enough to need more water about every 5-7 days, depending on heat and humidity outside. Fertilize it about every 10 days, with the last time the day before I took that first leaf -- about 4-5 days ago?! (Been sick plus insomnia, so losing track of time.) The pot it's in is about 2" wider and about 3-4" deeper then it's little root ball. The soil doesn't recede from the sides between waterings, and since the pot's not very big, it drains about as quickly as I would assume it would in this case -- fairly quickly, but not instantly. I tend to count when watering my different containers, and, I'm pretty sure the bay is a 5 count with an upbeat tempo! (Do you like my scientific terminology?! LOL) If it helps, my indeterminate tomatoes get two 20 counts, determinates get two 15 counts, and my MONGO pumpkin vines in the 1 yard by 1 yard container with three pumpkins growing around the yard gets two 30 counts, so I'm watering thoroughly according to plant size, needs and containers. Sure am glad it's not Rust! I'm going to assume sunburned leaves and give it a home where it's shaded in the worst part of the day. Ack! I feel so guilty pinching plants -- keep feeling like I'm trying to force them to be what they aren't naturally, but then again, I tend to ignore the lines between plants and animals. LOL I do have LOTS of basils, so know what becomes of them if they aren't pinched, so I can live with pinching the top off. My fear is that it's the middle of August now though, and it will need to come in, in a month or so. It doesn't grow at all in the winter. Should I let it enjoy its growth spurt for now, and maybe pinch it back next spring, when its time for its next spurt? I've been assuming it will start spreading out when it got big enough, so I really never considered needing to help it.

"Stone is porous and unfortunately hold undesirable attributes because of this." @Jason Martell resurrected a 5-year-old thread to add an ignorant statement. For anyone reading this--now that he has brought it up to the top from 5 years ago--please note that while some stones used for counters are porous, there are so many that are not. Many stone counters, both of granites and quartzites, need no sealant at all, ever, due to their low absorption rate (i.e. very low porosity). Some stones have such low absorption rates that the use of sealant mars their appearance; since the stone is so dense, the sealant cannot be absorbed so it sits on top, and causes the counters to look hazed and streaky. There are a number of posts on this forum from people who sealed counters of a more dense stone, and got that result. Quartzite, like granite, has different varieties that vary in porosity. Taj Mahal is one of the well-known quartzites that is not porous and does not need to be sealed. However, the OP's quartzite, Calacatta Gold, is not as dense and will need to be sealed. A Deep Dive into the Properties of Quartzite