I answered the question of what we're doing. It asked "working on a project?"

What???

FWIW, posts are not required to consist of questions only. People post info and updates on their projects all the time.

That said, I thought this post was going to be about either advice or request for info on how to fill the pots.

What???

If you come in from the Houzz side, things are totally different from what the old-time GW folk are used to. Instead of forums there are just tags, and not always even tags chosen by the poster, which is why there are a lot of things like posts about african violet soil mixes in the baths forum and so on.

What are you planning to put in the pots, greenthumbs? Did you buy them for taller plants or just to raise up the level of the plants?

A mixture. I have the tomatoes and peppers already planted in them. The rest will be sun and shade loving colorful flowers along the side of the house. Some flowers will be in handing baskets. Learned last summer that plants do so much better in pots here than in the ground.

Learned last summer that plants do so much better in pots here than in the ground.

Yep, you've learned the most important thing. You can get plants to do okay in the ground, but only after a long time of digging in organic material to amend the soil and discourage nematodes.

Good luck with the tomatoes and peppers. Tomatoes are always easier in containers here.

FWIW, I learned that it's not such a great idea to dig & turn our sandy FL soil, because you can bring up more nematodes from lower down. I understand it may be better to simply pile your organic material on top and let the micro & macro critters mix it for you naturally. Mixing organic matter into the sand just becomes a waste of energy and organic matter, IME. For veggies, I often dig a hole and fill it w/ compost w/o mixing it in.

Yeah, I should have specified that the folks I know who favor digging in do it for years and years before they try to grow there. Like at least 5.

I have quite a lot of things growing in containers here in St Pete, fruit trees, plumerias, and lots of smaller plants. The only real issue I ever have is during the hottest part of the summer, many of them need to be watered heavily on a daily basis. Miss a day and they show their dissatisfaction! If you've got an auto-watering setup that can run independently of your lawn irrigation, you're probably in good shape.

carolb_w_fl(zone 9/10) - That's what I've been doing and the plants, an assortment of shrubs and flowers, still didn't do well. It was getting too expensive to buy amendments for the soil that made little difference. Is there anything to get rid of the nematodes?

irun5k - Thought we have a half acre we have no lawn. It's a mess of assorted weeds and ugly grass-like vegetation we keep mowed. In the shade native ferns have taken over and some kind of low growing weed. I asked a few of the people on this road what kind of grass tolerates the heat and humidity and lack of rain and none knew. They were not the original owners of the homes so had no idea what the person before them planted. I do see some decent lawns here. The auto-watering system is for the pots only.

So far the toms and peppers are thriving in the pots. The peppers I kept over the winter in the GH has fruit almost ready to pick. The new peppers from Lowe's are in flower. The new Celebrity tom is also in bud and the two holdovers from last fall have already bore some fruit.

When I first moved to this apartment, the soil was horrible! I couldn't afford soil amendments, so I just piled up leaves. One bed grew quite a few earthworms, so I transferred them into other beds and covered them with leaves. In the courtyard, I just tossed all my kitchen scraps onto the ground, mostly around the bananas, and also put my clippings of things around everything. I grew pigeon peas and trimmed them regularly, and threw those onto the ground around a lot of plants. Three years later, and things are growing like mad with no fertilizer except for the worms.

It takes time to build soil, and mine still isn't as rich as I'd like it to be, but it's getting better every year. The worms definitely have helped. I want to start a worm bin with two Rubbermaid containers just to see how it goes. My red wigglers seem to be very prolific.

In reply to: ( carolb_w_fl(zone 9/10) - I agree with you. Plus the compost and organic matter quickly vanishes. It seems to make little difference. I am trying okra in the ground this year.