Soil and Worm Care?

I'm almost done digging out for the new flower bed and I want to even it out. I want to use this soil for planting tomatoes in containers in the spring and I wanted to fill them before I even out the ground. The soil has a ton of worms. If I put the soil in the containers now with nothing growing in them, will the soil stay good and will the worms be ok?

I wouldn't recommend using garden soil in containers--you'd be better off using a soilless potting mix that's intended for containers. Garden soil just doesn't drain well enough in containers. As far as the worms, I'm not sure that the fluctuations in temperature and moisture that occur in containers to a greater extent than in a garden bed will really be good for them, I think they'd probably be happier being left in the garden.

a few years ago I used potting soil and nothing grew. What about adding sand or something to the soil to make it less dense? Thank you.

There are all sorts of reasons why your plants might not have grown, and your plants are less likely to do well in a container filled with garden soil than they are in a container filled with potting mix. Adding sand won't help--in potting mix, you want to have larger particles so that there's some space for air around the roots and sand won't help with that since the particles are very small. I'd highly recommend reading the 2 sticky threads at the top of the container gardening forum for some insights on achieving proper drainage in containers--they explain things much better than I can. The ideal situation would be to make your own potting mix using the recipes mentioned in the thread, but bagged potting mix would still be a better choice than garden soil. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/containers/all/

Thank you. I will try it. Hopefully I can mix potting mix better than I can cook. I love fresh veggies so I'm willing to do what it takes. Thank you again. Robyn

Monkey, there are lots of different potting composts on the go and you need to buy one that suits what you want to grow, for instance, theres soil for growing bulbs, this usually has all the feed and nutrients that bulb use to grow well, then theres soil for growing general summer bedding plants I call multi purpose potting soil, theres stuff for acidic plants etc, so you maybe had the wrong stuff in the pots for what you wanted to grow.
Remember also that soil in pot's and containers dry out so much quicker than soil in the open garden, also the soil in the containers heat up fast too especially if placed in a sunny position'
Don't get down about the failure you had, we all had those when we started and asked others, read about growing veg or flowers, lawns or whatever, and as the time went by, we got quite confident, but believe me even years later, I still have things go wrong, I am just a lot quicker spotting a problem than before, remember also, only grow what you like to eat, make sewings of say been / peas etc about 2 weeks intervals so you don't have to go pick for the whole state all at once, you get them ready weeks apart.
get to the library or book store to read up on what you want to grow and when to plant, what to add to the soil etc over the winter months when the garden is asleep till Feb / March.
Send off for all the seed catalogs etc as these give you good planting / soil indications. ask all the questions you need here too as everyone is friendly and want you to succeed.
Good luck. WeeNel.

Thank you. I never thought about what I bought but I'm almost certain it was all purpose soil. It would have never dawned on me to check into that. Veggies grow fast enough to keep planting like that? That is wonderful. Except with tomatoes. We have a guy who lives down the street who makes the best salsa and we all keep him supplied with toms and he keeps us supplied with salsa. Store bought salsa just doesn't come close. I did have excellent results with herbs so I still have cilantro growing. Thank you again for all the great advice everyone has given.

Well you have already learned that home grown is best and the taste is so much better, even IF you only get a little at a time, it is still better to know what was in your soil and what chemicals if any were put onto your food, so stick with it and have fun, take your time too as gardening is supposed to be relaxing, ha, ha, ha.
Good luck Monkey, happy gardening. WeeNel.

It would be much more relaxing if I had a maid. I tend to spend my time out side (even pretending to be doing something) and then the house work gets behind. I would love to have an inside that matched the outside, but house work is not fun.

I take the free gardening classes at Armstrong Gardens and one of the classes each year is on growing veggies in containers. One thing for tomatoes, in particular is to give them a BIG pot and only one plant per pot. In '09 I had 6 plants in 6 pots and grew about 10 tomatoes! This year the teacher changed her directions a little and recommended half veggie/flower potting mix and half compost. Since I have my own compost pile this was a savings! The plants were fairly prolific and this fall became even more so, growing past being staked on the fence to crawling along the ground. But last year, 2010, was the best for my tomatoes in particular as I grew in strawbales (learning from the Strawbale Forum here on DG). I ran a soaker hose over the bales, but found hand watering (I find it mentally therapeutic) the base of each plant worked better than soaking the whole bale. I believe I will use both method this coming summer. One thing that is important with any container gardening (pots, bales), particularly produce, is fertilizing. I am not diligent about it and get worse as the season wanes. I will try doing it more this next year!

I had to laugh Money when you mentioned the housework, now that I have learned that theres a difference between a dirty house and an untidy one, then my guilt while neglecting to have the house looking like a show home comes easier, My rule is, if the sun is out, then so am I, in fact here in UK if it is dry weather thats gardening weather and the sun is a bonus ha, ha, ha, I find the winters so dark and long here that I completely go over the house with a fine tooth comb, paint work, drapes, rugs, maybe even rearrange furniture as I go but each room gets the works and soon as the lighter days arrive, I'm ready for outdoors, maybe for several week I try keep the place immaculate but hey, once you become engrossed it's amazing how you don't notice a bit of dust but, I can look at a veg plot / bed and find a squint row of beens that bug me something rotten, just tell yourself the house will still be there when your too old and decrepit to go out gardening and you'll be fine money, ha, ha, ha.
Happy gardening, WeeNel.

Since I joined this site I have found that I live in a great climant. The nights are cold now, but the days are still really warm.
The dust problem has gotten worse since I started gardening but I've only myself to blame. I come in covered in dirt. As far as mess goes...I've decided to be happy if I can find a path through the toys. I have an adult daughter who leaves a trail when she gets home from work. First it's her shoes, then her socks, then her over shirt. It's never hard to find her. LOL. I had a perfect house once. Before I had children and grandchildren. I"m hoping for a neat room when it's time for the carehome!

No one who knew me as a single gal 20 years ago with my neat and tidy home would believe I live in this horror now. I am the only one bothered by the mess and smell of 7 indoor animals! Today, even though it is cool for us wimpy Southern Californians, I spent hours outside raking leaves and cutting down tomato carcasses after 3 days in a row with 24 to 28 degrees in the AM. Coming indoors after that wonderful air was rude to my nostrils!!!

Lots to add to my compost pile. When my wagon's flat gets fixed I can haul the pots over there yo shake out what is left of dirt. I throw the root balls and a few larger branches back behind some native bushes to give shelter to the ground birds.

The mess drives me crazy too, but my daughters don't seem to mind it at all. I don't know how this happened because while they were growing up they had chores and we kept the house clean. Then they turned into teenagers and the grown-ups (at least they think they are). One good thing though...I used to be OCD about the house. I couldn't stand to even have a picture frame facing the wrong way. Now I'm happy that the picture frames are at least on the table they are suppossed to be on. My GD loves to move them all over the house.