I am still fairly new to wintersowing. This year, I had a much better year than last year. I actually had some spouts (jumping for joy) and blooms already. I guess I should post pictures... but that's for another post.

Anyway, I am curious to know What other people are including in their holes for such beautiful blooms. Here in Georgia, we have clay for soil, so last year, I tried lasagne garden, which turned out to be a total mess. I had to remove most of the grass because the water couldn't get through to the roots of the plants and everything (what little plants there were) were dying.

So has to avoid another disaster I've decided to ask some of you seasoned gardener. Right now, I include top soil and some aged grass in each hole.

Please let me know what you include in your planting holes and the function of it. For example, I include grass because I know it will decompose and soft the shovel breaking clay we have here in Georgia.

Thanks in advance!

Amending just the planting holes though isn't usually recommended, it's better if you can add the amendments through the bed or area....

msrie, when you build lasagna, you have to water the hump as you build it. With each few inches of height, you water it. After it's finished, keep watering from the top daily to avoid having it dry throughout. If the material is dry to start with it really is impossible for water to penetrate. It works great when done properly, so consider trying again some time. Building the lasagna in fall and letting it sit through winter works great.

Karen

I have been top dressing as well, but because the garden is still young, and the clay is still a bit hard to dig, I tend to amend as I go.

Would it be a good idea to add some aged grass throughout the garden durning the summer as the summer progresses? If so I promise to water it as well. Thanks KQ. What do you guys think about that?

Yes, just don't let it get too thick, or, again, water won't penetrate well. A thin layer is good. In fall, consider mulching with a thin layer of leaves. And if you don't compost, you might want to consider starting.

Karen

What is this? Where do you get it? Is it expensive?

@Drippy
Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. I wish us both luck. I know it's not the best approach, but if I were to wait until my garden was ready, I would be missing out on too much winter sowing fun.

I am starting another bed and I am trying to do it the right way this time. I just laid the card board boxes this morning. I might start to plant some annuals for now, but it's really for this fall to plant some of the goodies I wintersowed in December.

My Main garden gets amended with rabbit meal during the summer. I put peat, seaweed, & bonemeal during the fall. I always soak it with Fish emulsion to increase soil fertility.

@Erinlisa, pine shavings? Is that from pine trees or pineapples? Rabbit poop? Wow. I learn something new every day.

Karen

This year I have been fishing quite a bit, well one day we came in late, so we were dressing the fish by flashlight. After I fillet my fish we didn't feel like taking the guts off. So we buried them where we plant our veggies, bone, scales and all. About 2 weeks later I needed to plant, so I dug up the guts and spread and worked them into the entire bed. So far so good!

I have never done this so I don't know how it will work, but if it works well then we will probably do it again cause I love to go fishing.

I've heard some good things about amending with anything fish related. You should get a bounty of crop this year.

I got bumper crop from a small nursery.

Seaweed I get at an Asian Food market. I try to get it on sale.

Alfala meal, feed store or rabbit meal at a pet store.
Fish emulsion HD or Loews, anywhere.