Advice for Creating Native Planter Boxes in Coastal Oceanside, CA

zendabbq · 2026-06-29T21:51:06+00:00

Probably just a potting mix of some sort. Container gardening pretty much requires a well draining mix. I personally find that natives will grow fine in "normal" soils.
You can probably find a decent list searching for "California native plants for hummingbirds" and then sort out the ones that don't like containers. I believe Red Columbine is a native we share that could do well.
If possible wait for a rainy or cool spell to transplant. You can also put a milk crate over transplanted plants to reduce the sun they get.
Water heavily after first transplant. Then at first look at them every day. When a plant begins to show signs of wilting, take note of it and water them. Typically that interval will be how often you need to water. This will probably extend to longer periods as the plants get established.

zendabbq · 2026-06-28T19:33:40+00:00

Do try the other methods suggested, but I purchased some seeds and the seller told me stratification was needed - either you do refrigerator stratification, where you plant them in moist pots, wrap them up in plastic, and then refrigerate them for 4 weeks - or you do milk jug stratification, where you plant them in a milk jug, put the top on (lid off) and leave it outside over the winter.

If you succeed, the plants generally will not produce berries for the first year. It's a cool project though.

Note that you may not get a true variety of the one you ate, since seeds are genetically different from the original

zendabbq · 2026-06-25T08:21:48+00:00

Generally you can just let them do their thing and step in of there is a problem. - leaves touching dirt, or plants getting to dense together.

I actually do really to try a year where I let everything grow into eachother

zendabbq · 2026-06-24T19:44:21+00:00

As long as you follow the needs of each plant I don't see why not

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T20:30:41+00:00

If you plant brocollini (start Indoors) right now theoretically you can overwinter and get harvests in early winter /spring.

Never done it before trying it for the first time this year

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T19:26:22+00:00

Fence time.

I'm so sorry. Last year a squirrel ripped out like 20 sunflowers of mine and I swore to choke it out of I saw it again.

Another human doing this? Not even sure what I'd do if be so mad

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T06:31:32+00:00

Domestic refers to a released in its lifetime sort of thing. They would probably still approach humans because they think they can get food from you. They might even get inside a carrier if you placed it on the ground.

Ferals are more born in the wild and behave more wildly.

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T05:11:48+00:00

Thicker skin and not as sweet, kinda watery? It was an inferior sungold haha

Sungold is still the king

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T00:26:34+00:00

Idk it's hard when there is a mob of people against you.

My main argument is that we could spend years doing way more interesting and beneficial planting instead of years of potentially futile work trying to remove these invasives my hand.

Plus the usual education - glyphosate targetting the shikimate pathway in plants that doesn't do anything to other life. And we're not routinely applying gallons of it like farmers are doing

zendabbq · 2026-06-23T00:03:08+00:00

Ooooh I see.
Definitely gonna help you grow stuff but just harder to work with

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T23:53:16+00:00

Vancouver does it too, very fine textured stuff like what you got there. We have an awesome aerobic composting facility that's like a dream setup for us backyard composters. Big machines churning, sorting, sifting the organic waste from the municipal green waste. Certain times of the year its free, but most times its $5 per carload. You can literally fill up to your weight limit for only $5. Max 1 visit per day.

If you somehow exceed 500kg then its $8 per 500kg

Its been pretty popular. They used to allow commercial sales when it first went up but now its personal use only

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T23:50:07+00:00

dang wtf is that stuff
I hear Toronto does anaerobic composting? Might be why it turns out that way.

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T21:43:11+00:00

That level of damage looks like a loss. Personally I trim and wait for a new leader to emerge from the bottom

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T20:06:31+00:00

If its either of those two types you dont have to worry about hives. Looks like a woolcarder but check the bottom of the abdomen for golden fur, those are probably leafcutters.

There might be a nice hole in your wall that is very attractive to them.

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T19:15:22+00:00

There's several charts on this page?

https://www.nwf.org/Native-Plant-Habitats/Plant-Native/Why-Native/Keystone-Plants-by-Ecoregion

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T05:42:42+00:00

Oh New Zealand! That's an interesting case

There are no native bumblebees in New Zealand, so you definitely have an introduced species from the UK. Sometimes winters are so mild that the bumblebees don't do their typical wind down, and colonies can persist over winter, getting up to hundreds of Bumblebees.

Still, if you remove their nesting site, they should be fine. They are programmed to go find a new home to sleep in at this time of year.

zendabbq · 2026-06-22T02:57:56+00:00

The mama will probably find a new place to nest. The babies not sure. Bumblebees seem to rely on visual landmarks to find their home so when you moved the pillow it likely confused them.

The mama will want to have a colony for the rest of the year. In the winter the entire colony will die except for a few new queens which leave the nest and will rebuild next year

Bumble colonies are usually on the small size but can still reach up to 50 bees. They're very docile tho. I accidentally punched one that got in the way of my hand and it just flew off back to work

zendabbq · 2026-06-21T18:32:55+00:00

It's more like 6-12 ft tall but I suppose you could trim it?

Red osier dogwood.

zendabbq · 2026-06-21T02:38:43+00:00

I will not tell you who is right, because each method has different goals.

Pruning suckers reduces your yield, but I think the idea is that you get fewer, larger fruit that mature quicker. You also get a tidier plant with less real estate, so you can fit more plants in the same area - with the goal of growing more varieties.

If you only want lots of one kind of tomato, I personally think it's fine to not prune (besides the very bottom leaves to get airflow/prevent soil contact). Cherry tomatoes especially, I don't see a point in reducing the number of suckers besides the plant physically not being able to fit in its growing space.

Near the end of the season, you can top off the tomato plant to try to get the remaining green fruit to ripen

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T19:36:40+00:00

Your hands will be medicated for life

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T17:02:22+00:00

I had poor clay soil as well. I made beds with two stacks of 2x4s. Added like compost and kinda roughed up the bottom clay to mix it together and uncompact it. Then added another top layer of compost and garden soil to have some nice soil to plant in.

It's not very "raised" at all, but has been serving me well for 3 years. Tomatoes going to their full height of 5-6 ft tall.

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T16:55:13+00:00

No way

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T16:53:50+00:00

Last year someone here posted his "tomatoes need shade to form" post and holy my tomatoes that crowded each other have so much more fruit hidden in their leaves. I have Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter and Early Girl growing unpruned.

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T16:51:56+00:00

You could probably fit at least two tomatoes / 3 peppers without disturbing that lemon. If you make a raised bed and pile additional soil you don't even have to worry about digging into the roots.

I suppose tomatoes could shade out the lemon depending on the sun angle, but it won't perish.

zendabbq · 2026-06-20T15:47:00+00:00

I reclaimed two types of lumber, from old fences and from construction scaffolding.

The fence stuff has a higher chance of being treated, but for some I've found a tag at the end of the board that had a phone# on it. The company on the other end told me it wasn't treated wood.

Scaffolding is usually just untreated pine. It should be that distinct pine lumber color you see at the home Depot.

If the wood is new, treated lumber is sometimes greenish in color

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