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Saturday, March 10, 2012

25 Bags of Love

What's heavy, squishy, and only cost $1.28? A big bag of Moisture Max potting soil from Lowe's!! Apparently last years stock is way too out of fashion to be sold next to the shiny new bags of 2012 soil, so Lowe's is selling them for almost nothing.  An email from my garden goddess friend, Annemarie, sent me racing to Lowe's yesterday to  see if there were any left. 25 bags later I have more soil than I might need. Sounds like an excellent reason to buy more pots! Hooray!!! One more thing - if you are active duty or retired military, you save an extra 10%. Just bring your military ID. :o)


I don't normally buy Moisture Max soil since I try to keep my containers xeric, but this gives me more freedom to grow moisture loving plants without having to worry about the soil drying out too quickly. For my container plants that love to be dry, like penstemon, I'll just mix some soil I already have with a bit of this to keep them happy. The 2012 bags of soil are $7 a piece.


A few of the bags had popped open, but duct tape and a big plastic bag solved the problem. One of our local grocery stores recycles plastic bags, too! Yay!


 A still dormant lespedeza grows in this spot between the driveway, rain barrel, and the Prague viburnums.


I'm redesigning/rethinking my container gardens and have been slowly replacing my ugly, broken pots with nicer fiberglass and ceramic ones. These are from Home Depot. I can hardly wait to fill these with soil and plants!


I bought several greenish ceramic ones in various styles at Home Goods.


An older pot sits inside one of the newer ones to protect the rose from extremely cold winter temps. But we barely had any winter so the rose came through unscathed. I'm going to hide the sloppy slip job on this pot by putting another pot in front of it. The raised design is on both sides so it will still show. It's hard to tell in this picture, but this pot is huge!


This is one of my favorite new pots, purchased at a local garden center. The rim reminds me of pie crust. Most of my pots are clustered together on the patio, waiting to be arranged around the porch, patio, and garden.

50 comments:

  1. You have a lot of containers to plant in. Here I'm thinking about reducing some of mine. The ones you got I really like too. Congrats on the deals. I love saving money like that.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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    1. Thanks and me, too! It's always frustrating when gardening stuff is so blasted expensive.

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  2. SCORE!!!

    I love that piecrust pot. Can't wait to see what is planted in all of your pots and containers with all that bargain soil.

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    1. Excited! I went back to the nursery today and bought a really small version of the pie crust pot to add to the grouping. I've already used one bag, 24 more to go. :o)

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  3. Love your new pots!! I'm a certified "pot freak" !! I'm always on the look for a new container. I need some new pots too, but I'm just busy working in my garden now, so pots will have to wait a couple weeks. Most likely they WON'T be on sale when I go looking. I missed my opportunity in January when lots of nurseries had 50% off containers. With all the money you saved on soil, you could get even more pots!

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    1. I used to avoid ceramic/clay pots because I'm such a klutz. I always went for pots that bounce. But when I went a whole summer without breaking a single pot, I decided it was time to get rid of all my ugly pots and finally buy the pots I love.

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  4. Smart lady!:) You are set to go.....I hate buying soil because it's boring but I love having it on stock for when I need it....which is now....because all I'd like to do is buy a plant at a store and have itself placed into the ground on its own:) But it doesn't happen that way:) Pots are great. Soil is plenty. Happy Gardening:)

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    1. I love seeing the huge pile of soil bags on my patio. I feel rich! :o)

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  5. WOW what a great buy! and love the new pots too. Pots are such a big investment but so well worth it when you can group them together. Looking forward to seeing your containers this spring.

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    1. I really wish pots were cheaper. I'm hoping I have these forever. :o)

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  6. Seeing all that potting soil and pots makes me so happy. I love putting together new container groupings. I know you are going to have so much fun!

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    1. I'm excited!! Now I can hardly wait to start my container garden. I have several pots full of bulbs and perennials that are still coming up but I have a huge list of what plants are destined for each pot. I'm a bit nerdy like that! :o)

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  7. I like your idea of overstocking on potting soil, and then having to buy more pots to use it all. Might try that myself. I'm a potaholic too.

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    1. Every spring I end up running to the store to get more soil. But this year I might actually have some leftover. Who am I kidding?? I doubt it!!! More pots!!

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  8. I absolutely love deals like this... it is why I have 5 knockout roses instead of one. Someone at Lowe's decided that they needed to go and they were reduced from 12 dollars to 2.25. 4 for myself and 2 for my Mom later I had paid a whopping $13.50.

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    1. 5 for the price of 1?? Awesome!! When I see plant sales like that the rational, logical part of my brain shuts down and I become a slobbering maniac stuffing plants in her car as fast as possible. Then they all end up in pots!! :o)

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  9. Congratulations on your potting soil bargain! That is truly a good price. Can't wait to see all your containers planted. I love especially the last two ones shown at the end of this post, they are already so pretty even without plants. Container gardening is a lot of fun, but in the summer here in Southern California it can become a little hard to keep all the pots watered.
    Christina

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    1. I quit growing thirsty container plants several years ago because I felt like I was running a botanical daycare. I just couldn't keep them all watered and happy. Hopefully, with this soil I can grow a few of my favorites again since they'll need less water. Yay!

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  10. I too like the pie crust pot. You really got a bargain on the soil and lucky too with all the pots you have to fill.

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    1. I've never seen a pot like it. I called the company that made it and it's from 2009 stock even though I bought it in Jan. Apparently, they had some old stock leftover and sent it out to the nursery with the new stuff. Lucky me! :o)

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  11. You're going to be busy - but what anticipation! :-) Hope we see the results!

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    1. By the end of the summer, I will have bored you to tears with all the pix of my containers. :o) I hope they are fabulous.

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  12. Wow I didn't realize that last year's dirt was considered so last year in the marketplace. lol Congrats on the good deal!! I like your new pots, especially the one with the piecrust rim.

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    1. I think they got rid of it because the bags were so faded. Dumb!

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  13. Love it! It's fun finding great deals and thinking of all the creative things that you can now do. I love your pie crust pot:) You can never have enough pots and now you have an excuse to buy more! Happy shopping:)

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  14. Udał Ci się zakup ziemi w workach i bardzo dobrze, że jest miejsce gdzie możesz je oddać do przetworzenia. U nas one lądują na śmietniku. Doniczki są świetne. Pozdrawiam. *** He went you buy land in bags and are very well that this is the place where you can return to be processed. With us, they end up in the trash. Pots are great. Yours.

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    1. Thanks!! All the Polish pottery I've seen is beautiful. I'd love to have a big container that looks like some of the dishes I've seen.

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  15. That soil was a great purchase, I am full of envy... How big are your beautiful ceramic pots? I want one as a focal point, but in the size I want it it would need some heavy machinery just to move it. If I fill it with wet soil, it might sink all the way to China :(.

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    1. Try a lightweight fiberglass or resin pot. I've seen some huge ones that looked heavy but were surprisingly light.

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  16. you have very nice containers! I should get some better looking containers for my garden. Looks like you're all set for spring planting! I hope you had a nice (student-free) weekend. ;)

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  17. Thanks for your visit today... I'm sorry I didn't include the link to Scavenger Hunt Sunday. It's there, now! ;-)

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  18. What a great bargain! We use our 10% all the time at Lowe's....keeps us coming back. Love your containers, especially the pie crust edged one.

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  19. I really like the pie crust pot and the one with the lattice weave design...exactly what I've been looking for our new dwarf Meyer lemon tree! I've looked at Lowe's and Home Depot but no luck..I'll have to try Home Goods. Thanks for the tips...I really like your selection of pots. They are pretty even without plants!

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  20. I love your pie-crust pot, too! I would be tempted to plant something scented like heliotrope (sometimes called "Cherry Pie plant")in there. :):) I also love the robin's egg blue pots as well. Nothing like getting out some pretty pots to start the dreaming.

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  21. I have never used that moisture potting soil but my sister has. She said it worked well for her until she got a lot of rain.... The pots are all beautiful, even the drippy one and I look forward to seeing them filled with plants.

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  22. What a steal. Who cares if it's in aging bags? It's still the same stuff on the inside. Kind of like people. LOL. There isn't a Lowe's close by in my neck of the woods. Maybe I should do some searching. Awesome pots!

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  23. Don't you love when you WIN and you're at the right place at the right time and they have exactly what you want? Congrats!
    I love the pottery collection. I'm doing the same and upgrading whenever I get a gift certificate to a garden center. It's a painless way to buy the expensive stuff.

    Hey, I have a new garden funny for you. Come visit my "Gardener vs Wild Morning Glory" Court Case. David/:0)

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  24. Oh my goodness, you got a great deal on that soil! Who cares if it's last year's dirt. ;-) And your pot collection--how beautiful! Now you have me so excited to get out and garden. I wish I had this week off from work! Happy spring!

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  25. P.S. You have a great garden blog! :)

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  26. Wow, what a deal. I love repotting season. I get my wheelbarrow out and put the pots in (if I can lift them filled) to get a bit of working height. Sometimes I just use the wheelbarrow to mix up some soils to make the "blend" for the year. Then the plant combinations, I love potting season.

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  27. What a great deal to start off the new spring. Have fun and I love those pots. Hope you have a great week.

    Sandy

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  28. I love your pots - old and new! Can't wait to see them full of plants!

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  29. What a bargain! I'm afraid buying potting soil is a few months away for me!
    We moved from a Zone 7, did you know that? Vancouver Island. Now that I'm sort of a quasi newbie gardener, zone numbers actually mean something to me!

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  30. Who cares if the bags are a little worse for wear. It's what's inside that counts! You certainly got yourself a nice bargain. I don't know if it's just your pictures, but those new pots look huge. You're going to need all that dirt just to fill them.
    The daffodils look great in your header. The weather has finally warmed here and we might get an early spring. I can't wait to get out there!!!

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  31. "Apparently last years stock is way too out of fashion to be sold next to the shiny new bags of 2012 soil" - This is hilarious :-)....I don't think any gardener would pay attention to if the bags are shiny or not. What do these stores think? But good for us if they keep on thinking in this way as $7 is way too costly for a bag of soil!!!

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  32. What a deal! I know you posted this 10 days ago already but I am going to check out my local Lowes and see if they have the same deal. I am always looking for these types of prices for the school garden where I teach Junior Master Gardener. I love all your pots! Can't wait to see them when they are filled with plants!

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  33. I love your pot with the pie crust rim! Congratulations on getting a great deal on the potting soil! I always am poking around older stock to find a bargain. Happy gardening!

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  34. I haven't gotten around to planting my containers yet, but you are inspiring me. I did buy some geraniums this past weekend for container planting. I guess I keep thinking there will be a cold spell, but many of the weather pundits say no....so I should go ahead.

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  35. I was only just recently reminded of a task I should've done LAST YEAR: After emptying a ginormous bag of soil into my garden, I found that a good chunk of the bag's weight came from a darn rock that was bagged in it! I took photos of the rock along with the UPC code and all that jazz and totally meant to contact the company to complain! Then I promptly suffered short-term memory loss, probably bent over to tie my shoe and duh-hur!!! Never did it. I just uploaded those photos onto my Flickr account, but when I found them on my computer...I was all "What idiot takes a picture of a rock!?!?! HAHAHAHAH IDIOT!! Oh...that's me. Oh, I was supposed to do something about that..."

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