Sofie Bell Couture for Girls

I should have sewed.  I should have cleaned my house and tackled the mountain of dishes in my sink... The weather was just toooooooo beautiful all weekend for that.  For all my complaints about the expense of living in California (made mostly in the rainy cold weather, I might add....) you just can't beat the weather.  Sunny with a little breeze and 82 degrees.  Love it.  Where I live north of San Francisco, the weather will stay warm and sunny well into November now.

This wonderful weather makes it so easy to garden and grow some amazing plants.  Did you know you can grow just about anything in a pot?  Take it from a long term renter who's convinced her dear husband to move as many as 50 potted plants, shrubs - and oh yes, trees many times over our 20+ years together.  I like growing in pots for many reasons.  If you're silly like me and get attached to the plants your grow and don't want to leave them behind when you move, you can take them with you.  You can change the way your garden looks every year by moving your pots around.  This is really cool. Like the design shows we watch on TV that show us how to rearrange our rooms to get a fresh look?  We can do this with the garden too, only the plants change so much from season to season, you really do get a much different look.  Another great reason for me to grow in pots, is it uses less water and it's sooooo much easier to prune and care for plants in pots. Oh, and one more thing, you can grow more types of plants that many not normally be for your growing area because you can move them into a garage, shed, living room or porch during the winter.

I am no expert on potted gardens, but there are a few things I've learned from trial and error over the years.  Every 2 or 3 (or sometimes 4) years, you've gotta transplant your leafy friends into a larger pot.  When you are talking shrubs or trees and they are already in big pots, you've still gotta take them out of their pots, trim 1 to 2 inches of roots off all sides (I use a long bread knife for this) and them put 'um back in their same pot with new soil all around the space you just made.


Keeping your plants fed with good nutrients will keep them happy and healthy in their pots.  I use Superthrive with a 10-10-10 fertilizer every 2 weeks when I water.  I also give drinks of worm poop tea and mulch the tops of the pots with compost.  This combo has worked great for me.