I live west of the San Antonio area in the hills and we've been having drizzle every single day for about a week. Not large amounts of precip, but it's accumulating nicely. Still considered in Extreme Drought, but if this keeps up long enough...maybe that will change. Sorry about the flood watch...I remember those!

My only knowledge is what I read, so take it with a very large pinch of salt.

I keep reading "crown rot" which sugegsts it is surface damp that is the big risk.

I dunno, "heavy clay soil plus lots of rain" spells drowned roots to me!

>> in low lying spots I build a small mound as well. Just 6"H x around 2'W.

Agreed: before I plant anything, I create a drainage trench below grade and a raised bed above grade. That is relatively easy compared to creating the soil! I screen the clay and then add 1-2 partws of amengments to 1 part of clay, adding both organics (compost & aged manure) and driange coarse stuff like pine bark and very coarse sand / crsuhed rock.


>> I also stay away from organic mulches as that holds too much moisture around the crown.

That sounds smart, and yet, here int he summer, it is so dry that mulch is necessary. I might use small pebbles around the crowns when i get around to a raised bed for lavender.

One appeal of growing in pots is that I can put a pot anywhere there's sun, and I only need a few gallons of potting soil instead of cubic feet of amended clay plus trench plus raised bed.

Wow, Rick, you really work at this stuff. Sheesh! You screen your garden dirt and amend for each plant that you plant in your yard??? Your property must look like a botanical garden. Got pictures?

I just stick stuff in the ground, and usually it grows. sometimes not, but that's pretty rare.

Karen

>> Your property must look like a botanical garden.

Nahh, more like a dirt yard that only sells clay. Due to bulldozers when the manufactured home park was built, not even weeds thrive in my native clay sub-soil, which is the top layer.

So I have to screen out 20-60% stones, rocks and gravel, just to improve it to level of "raw sticky clay".

Then I add 50% to 100% of amendments to brind it up to the level of "poor, clayey almsot sterile semi-soil".

Then it still needs lots of organics and microbes and mellowing before you could call it "poor heavy soil".

My best bed, amended and turned for 3 years, is now "not-too-bad-soil", but still heavy and could use a foot of compost easy.

Well, no one can say so don't try hard. It looks like you got some pretty flowers though.

How long have you been gardening? One summer of that and I'd retire from gardening and take up reading

Karen

I've had my own garden around 4 years. Grew up doing the compost heap and turning/amending the soil in my Mom's garden. Spemnt many years wishing I had some soil and reading a lot about many soil and gardening and greenhouse topics as a substitute.

I mainly took up gardening because I like cultivating the soil! Other people's flowers used to seem "effete" or boring and I liked few vegetables. But I like digging and repairing "useless dirt" so it becomes "fertile soil".

Then I discovered drainage issues through creating mud wallows.
Raised beds plus sunken walkways/trenches now are a major hobby.

Now I appreciate many flowers, and even like a few veggies.
I keep trying new veggies to find another one I really like!

Bok Choy
Snow Peas
mild radishes
fresh very ripe tomatoes
leaf broccoli : "Spigariello Liscia", "Broccolo Spigariello", Brassica oleracea var. 'Spigariello'

tall Delphiniums
Salvia
African marigolds
Lobelia
Alyssum
some bulbs, esp Hyacinth

I have a Lavender called Lavender stoechas 'Anouk' that I grow in a clay pot. I bought this from Costco summer of 2010. So far it has thrived well in my garden, with our sizzling hot summers of 100F ++ and cold winters that may go down to 21F.

This is how she looked like in 2010 in a plastic pot:



Have repotted her to a bigger clay pot in June 2011, trying to add some left over violas:



Close-up of her blooms:


This March2011, I have added some more soil and had to straighten it up a bit, has been slanting due to the winds..staked it up some more, and so far it seems to be adjusting well. I have not done any trimming of the leaves. I see new leaf growth on the browned section, and with our recent late winter rains, I hope it thrives even more.

I've never seen an espaliered Lavender. Very nice Tarev.