Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 4, 4 by RickCorey_WA

RickCorey_WA wrote:
I have thought about prying it out and digging down and amending, but then I would also have to deepen the drainage trench - the slope is very shallow, and the clay is so imprevious that anything below grade becomes a permanent puddle if not trenched.

I will probably just keep widening the tiny bed and making the peripehry a little deeper than the center, especially if I extend it "downslope" more than along the sidewalk.

The light green MIGHT be partly due to having just been transplanted from the pot, but you may be right that even shallow roots need some decent soil.

I found a more recent photo (F. rufa at 2 years of age).

And a shot of what my soil looks like when I dig down, but don;t trench the water away.