Hi Josh, I have seen most people (here, CG forum) are chasing and use barks that is about 3/8" size. But isn't the purpose of using bark for good drainage? If I wanted more moisture retention, just would add more peat moss. Here is a quote from Al's description of 5 -1-1 mix >>>> The 5:1:1 mix: 5 parts pine bark fines, dust - 3/8 (size is important 1 part sphagnum peat (not reed or sedge peat please) 1-2 parts perlite (coarse, if you can get it) garden lime (or gypsum in some cases) controlled release fertilizer (if preferred) . EDIT: One more thing I should clarify here. I am not into potting perennial house plants My application is for outdoors container planting, MOSTLY peppers. In my opinion there is a major difference between those. Say, I pot my pepper in mid April. They will expire by mid October. That is about 6 months. So I don't fuss too much about it as I would with perennial house plants. This post was edited by seysonn on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 19:55

Of lately, but not always, I have been putting my potatoes in a shallow trench, maybe four inches, covering with dirt but not to the top of the trench and covering that with a foot to sixteen inches of leaves, or straw if I run out of leaves. If you trench down up to eight inches, the deepest I have planted but then I did not trench then, I simply dug a hole, one does not really need to hill, just check for potatoes maybe reaching the surface. You can then simply put soil over the potato or use some sort of mulch. When I dig even with the shallow method, I bury the vines in the "hole" the old one came out of (I actually make a hole) as the potato vines leave the soil in fantastic conditon the next spring, although it is not a good idea to plant potatoes in the same area year after year after year after year unless you amend the soil. This year as I had a box that had been left out in the rain and was just nasty looking, I took Miracid and spread it over the area of one potatoe plot and roto-tilled it in before planting. I did notice the plants that came up in that plot were definitely a deeper green, but that, outside of making the soil more acidic which is good, does not do much for potato size or quality.

Hi Andrew, Oh no! Get ready for iris fever. I hope you have good luck with your reblooming collection from Spring Hill. I am a fanatic for reblooming irises, but I live in Southern California, where they do well. The irises you bought from Spring Hill may not have been grown in Ohio, since they are a large national nursery company. I suspect they will do well this year, since they have stored energy in the rhizome from last year, but you may have some trouble with them next year. We would love to hear reports from you on how they do. Here is my list of favorite rebloomers in my yard, but keep in mind, they usually only rebloom in the hot states: Total Recall Mariposa Autumn Frequent Flyer Alice Goodman Violet Reprise Feedback I buy my irises from companies that specialize in irises. Here's a link to Brighton Park Irises, which has a list of iris growers. You should take a look at their websites, but beware, you may empty your checking account. Oh yeah- I don't fertilize. Don't know about other people. Renee Here is a link that might be useful: Links to Iris Growers

Angelady, I'm a few hours NE of you, in Pampa. Last year was my first year gardening here, although I gardened for years in South Texas (down by Corpus.) There you can garden year-round, and I really miss that, though we couldn't grow tomatoes in winter. Summers had tomatoes, squash, melons and the like, winters had snow peas, spinach,lettuces, cole crops and cukes. And I didn't do anything to improve the soil there. Here, I tried last year to do the "stumble and grow" approach to vegetable gardening that worked there, and had sickly plants, lots of bugs and no fruits. So starting in the Fall, I brought home cardboard boxes and laid them shingle-style in my planting area. Then I covered that with manure (I bought mine, but if you're lucky and have a truck you might be able to find a farmer who will let you clean out the horse stalls or hunt for old cow patties in the field) and covered that with grass cuttings from when the neighbors mow their lawns. That wasn't enough, so I bought a bale of straw and covered the bed with it. I kept watering it all winter to get the cardboard to break down some, as well as the other ingredients. When it was time to plant, I watered well and then felt down under the mulch with my hands until I found the cardboard. It was soft enough to tear a hole in, and the ground underneath was so soft I dug a little hole with my hands and placed the tomato in, and patted the rest back around it. What a difference this year! The plants are huge, except for the wintersown ones, but they're doing good too, just smaller. I read that you got "Large Red Cherry", and I feel I should warn you, the plant's a monster! I have three, and I picked some of the tomatoes that were changing color today: Here's the plant it came from: And here's my little jungle: If you want a good Roma-type tomato that does great here on a small plant, I suggest Picus. See my post here where I was impatient for these tomatoes to ripen, having very little experience with determinates. The tomatoes are Huge in comparison to the little plants! But alas, I guess I have to wait to taste them....