Vickie - I LOVE Pine Fines! I can't imagine not using them now when amending or creating a new garden bed. The pine fines mixed with some sandy dirt doesn't seem to pack down as hard as regular garden dirt. Which is probably easier for the plant roots to expand in, too. I've even amended ground level garden areas with pine fines & oak leaf mulch and what a difference after a couple of years. The drawback is that the plants really grow faster, so it can mean more work for someone in the south where we don't have Winter dieback. But I'd much rather have that than puny plants that struggle in my less-than-ideal ground soil.

Wish we could get pine fines here. My next best thing is to take some dirt from around my blue spruce tree and use it. It is very rich soil.

OK, I decided to take the advice of @needrain and went out and purchased a white garden uniform. Actually, I couldn't find a white garden uniform, so I settled for a nurse's uniform. Then this morning I donned my new outfit and divided a large clump of Mauna Loa, a large clump of Mary's Gold, and a huge clump of Tom Wise. The result? I am even hotter, sweatier, and yes, filthier than the last time. What am I doing wrong? I so much want to look like Martha Stewart.

Instead of a white uniform, just get a bunch of people who you will pay to be your staff and do the dirty work. That's what she does. Then she puts on the pretty whites.

cottelpg said:OK, I decided to take the advice of @needrain and went out and purchased a white garden uniform. Actually, I couldn't find a white garden uniform, so I settled for a nurse's uniform. Then this morning I donned my new outfit and divided a large clump of Mauna Loa, a large clump of Mary's Gold, and a huge clump of Tom Wise. The result? I am even hotter, sweatier, and yes, filthier than the last time. What am I doing wrong? I so much want to look like Martha Stewart.

Becky and Cindy, we can't get pine fines here, so instead I've started using fine (dime-nickle sized) redwood mulch, mixed with a line of organic planting mix produced by a nursery chain here, with a little vermiculite thrown in. (The proportions I used were roughly 12 cu ft of planting mix, 8 cu ft of redwood mulch, and 32 qts of vermiculite). I filled my seedling beds with that, and I am using it in the pots now, and the daylilies seem to like it (with the proper fertilizers and alfalfa amendments and so on). It is very loose and fluffy and easy to work with.

Our clay soil is so horrid in places that now when we plant, we mostly just dig a hole, and backfill it with the planting mix. If we have the time and patience to mix up another batch of mulch-and-planting mix-and-vermiculite, then we do that.

cottelpg said:OK, I decided to take the advice of @needrain and went out and purchased a white garden uniform. Actually, I couldn't find a white garden uniform, so I settled for a nurse's uniform. Then this morning I donned my new outfit and divided a large clump of Mauna Loa, a large clump of Mary's Gold, and a huge clump of Tom Wise. The result? I am even hotter, sweatier, and yes, filthier than the last time. What am I doing wrong? I so much want to look like Martha Stewart.

Cracked me up - I needed that today!

cottelpg said:OK, I decided to take the advice of @needrain and went out and purchased a white garden uniform. Actually, I couldn't find a white garden uniform, so I settled for a nurse's uniform. Then this morning I donned my new outfit and divided a large clump of Mauna Loa, a large clump of Mary's Gold, and a huge clump of Tom Wise. The result? I am even hotter, sweatier, and yes, filthier than the last time. What am I doing wrong? I so much want to look like Martha Stewart.

Sounds like you're doing it right, to me! Well, except maybe for the "Martha Stewart" costume!

I got filthiest digging out a daylily for a friend this morning, than the entire week I am completing spending as a sheep superintendent at our local county fair this week, and this is after the 6+ inches of rain we had in 24 hours! Just can't figure out what I am doing 'wrong'

Now I need to retake a shower before I go to wrestle sheep onto trailers today.

I wonder if we have pine fines here. Will have to check the local garden center
~jan