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A Gardener's Notebook: The latest incarnation of my column detailing the trails and tribulations of my garden. Join the list and ask your own questions about gardening Subscribe

The rains have gone and left beautiful days in their wake. They’ll be back; winter isn’t over yet, but for now we are luxuriating in temperatures in the high 70’s. It is days like this that make me happy I live in Southern California. Working in the garden under these conditions is a joy. Warm enough to wear shorts and dry enough to avoid the mud.

Pots

The rain has helped the garden in many ways, but it also helped the pots of herbs and flowers on my front steps. Over the summer they developed a problem that threatened to kill everything. As you may know, when potting soil or peat moss is allowed to dry out entirely if can become impermeable to water. Pour water in and it just runs right out the drain hole in the bottom or overflows. Since these pots sit with a full southwestern exposure it is very difficult to keep them well watered. Eventually the water wouldn’t be absorbed any more.

I had planned on re-potting these plants and using that as an opportunity to re-mix the potting soil. Luckily, though the rain did my work for me. The soaking rains were heavy enough to overcome the ability of the soil to repel water. The pots seem to be retaining water again.

I could have accomplished this using another method I recently came across. If you submerge a pot in a bucket the water will overcome the repelling action of the potting soil. You can tell when this has been accomplished by watching the air bubbles that rise from the pot. When the bubbles stop, the soil has been saturated. You might need to place some small stones on top of the soil to keep it from floating out of the pot. This method is used when placing water plants like water lilies in a pond. Some houseplants, such as ferns, can also benefit from a good soaking.

Up come the wildflowers

The combination of rainy days, followed by these warm ones has produced nearly perfect conditions for the germination of the wildflowers I planted a few weeks ago. In both areas I am seeing the beginnings of a green carpet rising out of the leaf mold mulch. I was a bit worried I hadn’t worked the beds deep enough, but the seedlings popped up just in time to allay my fears.

More rain is expected but I will need to watch these bed to insure they don’t dry out between storms. I have high hopes for them. The mix I used contained not only annual seeds but also perennials that I hope will return again year after year if I give them the right care.

Wonder where other AGN subscribers are doing their gardening? I recently updated the AGN Subscribers Map on my web site at http://www.welchwrite.com/agn/ Stop by and check it out. The site also contains a complete archive of all past AGN columns that you can read or search.

Keep digging and dreaming! -- Douglas