Gardening in a Box

Get out and get dirty

So, if you've got everything into place by now (see first post on boxes), and, you've got your brand new soil put into place, it will soon be time to plant the rest of your plants and seeds.
This can be a little tricky here in northwest Ohio, because our weather can go from the 80's to the 40's overnight, and most seeds and plants prefer nice warm soil.
I have to admit that I don't have all my new soil added to the boxes yet, but I will by the end of the week. The soil will settle over the winter months, and what was once a full box of beautiful growing dirt will have diminished by several inches. I will be buying more top soil, peat, and manure for these boxes.

If you've grown seedlings in the house, it's probably too soon to expose them to our temperamental weather, but the stronger and heartier tomato, cucumber, pepper, and squash plants can be planted soon.

My other love, perennial flowers, are doing well, because they absolutely thrive when the weather has been cool and very wet. This is the time to separate these, give some of them away, or move them to new locations. I started out with one Bleeding Heart plant about ten years ago that was doing poorly, separated it, planted it in several places where it would get partial shade and have five beautiful huge plants now. It's also the time to make sure that the old ornamental grasses have been cut down (I let them stay over the winter to add something to the landscape), and cut down the old sedum and phlox stalks from last year, if you didn't do that in the fall.

The Ohio lilacs are in bloom now. My bushes are about 80 years old, have been pruned many times, and still producing. They are the light purple variety, but I am planning this year on starting white, dark purple and pink.