Category Archives: Garden Advice

How to Know if Your Compost is Ready to Use

March 26, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Compost is one of the best organic gardening amendments. It adds nutrients, improves soil structure, enhances water retention, helps keep organic matter out of landfills, and is easy to make at home. Depending on how you care for your compost, it can take one to twelve months to go from a pile of leaves, grass clippings, and vegetable scraps to rich, finished or mature compost. Here’s how to tell when your compost is ready to use.

Signs that Your Compost is Ready to Use

There are a few key signs that will let you know your compost is finished and ready for use in the garden.

The organic matter in your compost has finished breaking down and is no longer recognizable as the material you added in the beginning.
The compost has an earthy odor and a dark, crumbly texture.
Your compost is no longer generating heat, even in the middle of the pile.
Your pile looks a lot smaller. Compost piles shrink by as much as half as they break down.

Can Your Use Compost Early?

Yes, you can use compost before it’s fully broken down. However, this type of compost that still has noticeable pieces of other organic material in it is best for top-dressing garden beds. In this way, it will act like a mulch, continuing to break down and add nutrients to the soil while holding moisture and blocking weeds.

However, compost for containers or seed starting should always be fully mature or finished. Immature compost may burn tender roots or have unavailable nutrients because of a process called nitrogen immobilization, where microbes consume available nitrogen to break down carbon.

Compost being screened — SuSanA Secretariat, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Screening Compost

Organic material in a compost bin may decompose at different rates. For example, old leaves will break down much more quickly than sticks or large wood chips. Compost may also have some clumps and clods.

You can use a metal screen, old fencing on a frame works well for this, to screen compost into a tote or large container. The finished result will be smoother and better for starting seedlings or using in containers. Material you screen out that hasn’t fully broken down can be added to your next compost pile.

How to Use Your Compost

One of our favorite ways to use compost, it to spread at least 2 inches over each bed before planting a new crop. This adds fresh nutrients to the soil, and over time, will improve the soil structure. If you have little compost available, you can also mix it into transplanting holes or along your seeding trench so that the plants’ roots can access it.

You can also use compost to start seeds indoors, grow container gardens, or even repot your houseplants. Some folks use straight compost, but you can also mix it in with your potting soil or seed-starting mix.

Garden Advice

The Pros and Cons of Container Gardens

March 17, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Sunny porches dotted with a mismatched selection of containers filled with medicinal herbs, patios with large containers of tomatoes and hot peppers, or a balcony with window boxes bursting with salad greens are among the many ways to enjoy a container garden. Whether you live in a small apartment or on an extensive property, container gardens have a unique appeal. They add beauty, greenery, and productivity to otherwise plain spaces and can be exciting to tend.

The Benefits of Container Gardens

Container gardens aren’t ideal for everyone, but they offer a few unique benefits whether you’re starting a container flower garden or want to harvest herbs and vegetables.

Perfect for Early Starts

Starting a traditional garden in spring can feel like an exercise in patience. Is the soil warm enough yet? It’s hot today, but we still haven’t reached our expected last spring frost date. Will it frost again? You get the idea.

Container gardeners can take away some of the risk of early planting. The soil in containers warms up early. Plus, if you use portable containers, you can always drag them inside on a night that’s calling for frost.

More Accessible

Container gardens may be more accessible for some gardeners, like those with mobility issues. You can set up your container garden right outside your door so it’s easy to access.

Placing pots on a sturdy table or shelf will alleviate the need for kneeling or bending. You can also design tabletop container gardens at heights and spacing appropriate for wheelchair access.

Less Weeding

If weeding is your least favorite task, you’re not alone. Container gardening limits the need for weeding and may create a much more joyful garden experience for you. You can also use mulch in containers just as you would in a traditional garden bed.

Ideal for Making the Most of Tricky Spaces

Generally, we see container gardens recommended for folks who don’t have any access to a yard, like those with apartment balconies or tiled patios. However, container gardens can be helpful in other situations, too.

If you live on a small lot and have already maxed out your backyard growing area, you can sneak in a few more plants on your porch or in any unused parking space.

Container gardens are also ideal in areas with poor soil. Newer homes and lots often have poor, rocky soil thanks to topsoil removal, compaction, and the use of fill dirt during the construction process. To create a traditional garden, you’d need to invest in a large amount of finished compost or garden soil, or slowly build up organic matter. In the meantime, a container garden will quickly flourish.

You can also set up containers in areas with contaminated soil, whether the ground is contaminated with heavy metals or fuel from industry or herbicides. Just ensure the roots don’t escape the container into the soil beneath.

You may also choose to use containers if your yard doesn’t receive adequate sunlight. A container garden on a sunny front porch may perform better than a traditional garden in a shady backyard.

Limited Care

Container gardens are arguably easy and faster to tend. If you’re in a busy stage of life or have little energy, container gardens can help you enjoy growing and produce a harvest on a tight schedule.

Potatoes growing in a container on a patio — Patio Potatoes by Claire Pearcy, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Disadvantages of Container Gardens

Like with any gardening technique, there are a few trade-offs when choosing container gardening.

Limited Space

The obvious drawback of container gardens is that they offer limited space. Even if you purchase large containers, this system will limit space-intensive crops like large vining pumpkins and sweet corn. While it’s still possible to grow these crops with a bit of ingenuity, you’ll likely see a smaller harvest than in a traditional garden bed.

Want growing ideas? Check out our post, 12 Varieties Perfect for Container Growing.

Less Affordable

Depending on what you need to purchase for your container garden, it can be quite costly. Upcycling containers can help mitigate the expense, but you’ll still need to buy potting soil and amendments.

That’s not to say that traditional gardens are always cheaper. Many people find they need to purchase large amounts of compost or other amendments for good production.

Three blue containers of kale, lettuce, and other brassicas — Container Garden by the University of Maryland Extension

More Watering

Containers will dry out much more quickly than traditional beds. Especially in hot, sunny climates, you’ll need to stay on top of watering. Using light-colored containers and mulch can help some, but plants will still suffer quickly if you forget to water or leave for vacation without a garden-sitter.

Additional Nutrients or Fertilizer Required

In a traditional bed, your plant’s roots will move further into the soil as they grow, accessing more nutrients. Ideally, you’ve also worked to build nutrients and organic matter in the soil over time through methods like composting, cover cropping, and mulching.

In a container of potting soil, plants have access to a limited supply of nutrients. During the season, you’ll need to offer your plants a boost if you want good production. Liquid fertilizers like fish emulsion or liquid kelp are great easy to apply, organic options. You can also mix finished compost with your potting soil at the start of the season to create a more nutrient-rich blend.

How often you’ll need to fertilize will depend on the plant. A slicing tomato that fruits heavily will use a lot more nutrients than a pot of lavender. Fertilize whenever you see signs of nutrient deficiencies, like yellowing leaves, or when the plants begin to flower.

Container gardening isn’t the perfect solution for everyone. Like any gardening technique, it comes with a unique set of benefits and drawbacks. Weighing these considerations can help you decide if it’s the right choice for your garden.

Think container gardens might be the right choice for you? Check out our post Grow Anywhere: Tips for Container Gardening.

Garden Advice

Bountiful Blooms: 7 Easy Flowers to Succession Plant

March 10, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

We’ve often discussed succession planting vegetable crops like sweet corn, zucchini, and bush beans to avoid gluts and shortages here on the blog, but it’s also an excellent technique for flower gardening. Whether you’re growing cut flowers for market, to provide food for pollinators, or just to enjoy their beauty, succession planting flowers can help you achieve your goals. In today’s post, we’ll dive into why succession planting is important, how to do it, and our favorite flowers for succession planting.

Why Should I Succession Plant Flowers?

Succession planting ensures that you have fresh blooms all summer long and into autumn, whether you want them for bouquets, bees, or beautiful landscaping.

Even when you have flower varieties that say they bloom all season, that may not be the reality. In the Southeast, annual flowers can stop blooming early as the plants weaken under the stress of hot summer days, drought, and prevalent fungal diseases.

How to Succession Plant Flowers

Succession planting is simple. It means you’re dividing up your plantings into smaller groups, rather than sowing all of your flowers at once. Typically, we plant a new succession every two to three weeks.

To determine when to start sowing, you’ll need to know your last spring frost date and your variety’s ideal growing conditions. For warm-weather annuals like zinnias, you’ll need to wait until all danger of frost has passed, but you can sow cool-weather loving flowers like sweet peas much sooner. Once the conditions are right, you can begin sowing every two to three weeks.

For cool weather loving crops, sow a couple of successions in spring and then another in late summer for fall. For warm-weather crops, you can usually sow successions all summer.

To determine when to stop sowing, you’ll need your first fall frost date. Using your first frost date for fall, you can count backward with a chosen variety’s days to maturity. To account for slow growth in the dwindling light of autumn, add an additional 15 days. That will be the last date you can sow that type of flower.

Example: Let’s say my average first fall frost date is October 20th and I want to grow successions of Mexican Cosmos all summer. Mexican Cosmos take 68 days to bloom. I’ll add an extra 15 days to 68 to account for slow growth for a total of 83 days. Then I’ll count backward 83 days from October 20th, which would be July 29th. This is the last possible date I can sow a succession to get blooms before a frost.

You don’t have to use a calendar to count by hand; try a time and date calculator like this one.

You can also stagger your flower season by choosing species and varieties that have different days to maturity. This will naturally help to spread out your blooms.

Whenever a bed of flowers fades or dies, pull it immediately, look at your planting list and sow a new succession. This can happen when cool-weather flowers like violas succumb to the summer heat, or you harvest all of your early sunflower blooms for market.

7 Easy Flowers for Succession Planting

Easy to grow and quick to bloom, these are the workhorses of the continuously blooming flower garden.

Zinnias

Zinnias are colorful, easy to grow, prolific, and versatile. Most zinnia varieties take between 60 and 80 days to bloom, meaning you can usually get several successions in before fall. For extra early blooms, you can start zinnias indoors in trays about four to six weeks before your last spring frost. Transplant them out into beds once all danger of frost has passed.

Cosmos

Like zinnias, cosmos are easy to grow, colorful, and prolific. Some varieties, like Sensation Mix, begin blooming in as little as 45 days, making them ideal for getting the most out of a small flower garden. You can start cosmos indoors in containers about four to six weeks before your last spring frost and transplant them out after danger of frost has passed.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are some of our favorites at Southern Exposure. These cheerful blooms are great for cut flowers and enjoyed by pollinators, songbirds, and humans alike. Unlike cosmos and zinnias, sunflowers don’t offer continuous, prolific blooms. If you want to enjoy fresh sunflowers over a long season, you need to succession plant. Multi-headed sunflowers offer the most blooms and are usually ready to harvest in just 50 to 60 days.

Most people direct sow sunflowers, but you can also start them indoors about 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost. Transplant them outdoors when all danger of frost has passed.

Calendula

Calendula doubles as both a beautiful flower and a medicinal herb. You can also use calendula petals to decorate baked goods or add pops of color to salads and garnishes. Its short days to maturity and attractive blooms make it ideal for succession planting. The two calendula varieties we carry each take about 85 days to bloom.

You can begin sewing calendula indoors about 4 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost date, then transplant it out when all danger of frost has passed.

Amaranth

Amaranth varieties like Love-Lies-Bleeding, Mayo India, and Golden offer so many benefits. In addition to working well in cut flower arrangements, they’re highly nutritious, fully edible plants that are drought-resistant, easy to grow, and attractive to pollinators. They typically bloom in about 60 to 90 days.

If desired, start amaranth indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost and transplant them out when the danger of frost has passed.

Marigolds

Most articles about succession planting flowers focus on cut flower market farming. While marigolds may not be a popular flower for bouquets, they are great for succession planting. Succession planting marigolds ensures you have a steady supply of beautiful blooms that will attract pollinators and deter pests.

Start sowing marigolds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost and transplant them out when all danger of frost has passed.

Celosia

There’s a lot to love about Celosia. It offers fun colors and unique shapes, and it’s long-lasting in the garden and in the vase. Celosia is also an excellent candidate for succession planting. However, most varieties take 90 to 100 days to bloom. Even when you start your successions early, you will only get in a couple.

To start Celosia indoors, sow it in flats or containers about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost. It will be ready to transplant out after all danger of frost has passed.

Other Options for Spring and Fall Successions

There are many other flowers you can succession plant. Some, like larkspur, thrive in spring’s cool weather, and others, like rudbeckia, take longer to bloom, making them ideal for fall.

Larkspur
Sweet peas
Snapdragons
Poppies
Rudbeckia
Bells of Ireland
Dara
Queen Anne’s Lace
Bachelor’s Buttons

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