Hi Bob

This certainly seems like a great idea - it's kinda like what I did to prepare my crappy sand for the marigold trial. Only I dug out the entire bed and lined it with dampened cardboard.

In that garden, the marigolds lasted the longest....actually, it was almost a year from sowing that I finally pulled them out to make room for other stuff.

I'm gonna try it the next time I put an annual in the ground,

It's good to see your name again on the forum..... I hope you'll post a pic of your Sunpatience.

Susie

Hi Susie,
Great to hear from you. I got serious about this idea when I viewed the roots of the large marigold plants. The roots were wide, but not deep. Actually a lot of plants seemed that way. So I would not have to put the newspaper real deep. Below is a picture of the root system for one of the marigolds.
Glad you bought up the cardboard. I thought about cardboard but for these small holes the newspaper was easier.
Your marigolds were memorable last year, so what you did certainly worked.
Thanks again Susie,
Bob
A picture of the width will be on the next post.

This post was edited by bugbite on Wed, Mar 13, 13 at 22:14

This one shows the width. Large plant but roots not deep, thus staking required.