Thank you for the many helpful posts here. My beds were filled with 'topsoil' to about 12" below the bed line, and then the remaining 12"+ was filled with mushroom plant compost. Every year except last year, as the beds reduce (of course, esp. with much of them being compost), I have another half-load of compost delivered, which adds anywhere from 8-12" of compost to the top of all the beds, plus I refill all my big containers, and stick the rest in a rolling lidded trashcan where I keep extra soil to use as needed. Last year I did not garden at all. From the September before, nothing was done at all. So a lot of stuff stayed as dead when winter hit, then quite a bit of stuff reseeded come spring, so the bed all year was filled with the mix of dead stuff from the previous season and live stuff from the current year, plus weeds from being ignored. Now, all of that together is dead. My intent just like directed at last, there -- I am gradually digging out the top of the beds and containers where the weeds and their main roots are (bearing in mind, for all I know half these 'weeds' were fruiting plants at one time), and tossing those in one of my 3 compost bins, leaving the others for real compost (thanks for that advice). In the buckets, all of which were destroyed by the horrid freeze we had awhile ago (everything cracked or shattered depending on its material), I dig out the bottom part of the soil, which looks surprisingly good to me though I haven't Ph tested it, and I put it in my good-soil-bin for now. Once I finish all the buckets (I have 9x 32-gal ones and 6x 21-gal ones to dig out and it's slow going frankly, given everything is nearly frozen, but I'm working on it!), then I will do the beds. THEN I have to add new soil or something. I don't mean the whole beds need new soil, I mean like the top 12" or so of everything (beds, big-containers, pots). So I was thinking, since I already 'have' soil, that a 'soilless mix' seems sorta pointless. On the other hand, surely having about 12" of 'soilless mix' on the top, with 12" of soil underneath, probably isn't going to hurt anything, I hope. One thing I wondered is, if I add a soilless mix to the top (I'm looking at something like Al's recipe), with pine bark fines + perlite + spaghum peat, the fact that in some respect this could end up mixing with some of the soil as I put it in, would this be a problem? I heard someone say somewhere that mixing soilless and soil mixes, depending on their makeup, could result in something rather like mud-cement LOL. I don't know that I can afford enough of the ingredients for Al's mix to actually handle all my beds and major containers and planters. I'd like to but it is sort of unlikely. So I was wondering if getting more compost -- either mushroom compost again, or some from my own bins (hence my question about how to deal with the green/brown and breakdown more quickly), to mix in with that, would be more practical in the end.

I often have this. I think it is algae. It has never caused me any harm. [except that I see green and think sprouts and it isn't!] I don't think air circulation matters as long as there is no germination. good luck. ellen

Hi, your yellow-leafed roses are right next to the drainage pipe. You will have to transplant them as soon as possible away! from that area...and it's always a good idea to add drainage implements, anyway, so that the runoff doesn't hit your garden area... Water from drainage is bad for several reasons... Often the water runoff contains chemicals from manmade materials (like in the roofing, paint, etc)...Plus you get waterlogging in your roses as well! (thus the yellowed leaves) The other rose is faring better because it's further away from the pipe and the other unfortunate rose is partially protecting it from receiving that unwanted surplus water... Also be sure! to mulch your roses...Mulching helps keep soil nutrients from "washing away" during rainy seasons...

This was the first year I have started my garden from seed. I probably will do it again. I did a variety of tomatoes that I knew I wouldn't find in stores mostly. Though I did some peppers as well. Searching the internet and finding seeds for produce I wouldn't be able to find in stores here was pretty exciting. Everything has been in the ground for about 3 weeks and growing nicely.