Really? Good to know, I'm about 5 minutes from the zoo, I'll have to look into the compost. If they say it's good for food gardening, then give it a shot, that probably means they use only guano from veggie sources. But my guess is it's used for dumping on lawns and freshening up landscaping. You're the one who built the raised bed, right? If it's sitting on grass or dirt, then you can use compost, it'll drain freely with the ground underneath. If it's in a pot, then the compost will become a hot mess.

The only reason compost would harden in lumps would be because of lack of moisture and compaction. Break it apart and moisten it and it should be okay. You will find that once compost gets just so dry it becomes hydrophobic, water repellent, and it will be difficult, but not immpossible, to rewet it. Once it is again damp covering it with shredded leaves, shredded paper, wood chips, almost anything that will aid in moisture retention will help keep that compost moist longer.

One of the perennials on my top ten list is Montauk daisy. It's in the mum family, and blooms late September to early November, depending on our fall weather. Named for Montauk Point, Long Island, of course it likes a well-drained soil. A volunteer growing out by the curb in the poorest, driest sandy soil on our lot is one of the healthiest. They are quite pest and disease free, requiring cutting back by at least half only twice a year: June 1 and December 1. My first attempt at rooting several June 1 cuttings yielded 100% success. In my area, coastal NJ, these plants keep their green color well into winter. Chelone (turtle head) is another trouble-free late bloomer. Available in either white or pink, they're about mid-bloom here in my USDA zone 7 garden. Some anemones bloom in the fall. So does sweet autumn clematis, though you have to watch out or it will take over. Coresopsis 'Moonbeam' and 'Zagreb' are still going strong, so are the salvias 'Caradonna', 'May Night' and 'Rose Queen'. The second flush of bloom on Monarda and phlox 'Franz Schubert' is just finishing, while phlox 'David' shows signs of a light second flush. Aster 'Genghis Khan' has been blooming non-stop all summer and shows no signs of slowing down yet. I snip or shear off the spent blooms on all of these for the repeat bloom. Repeat-blooming daylilies are in the midst of their second round. Still waiting for an encore from the re-blooming iris, though. Dicentra eximia (fern-leaf bleeding heart) is just starting its fall bloom cycle (it starts in spring and keeps going until the hot weather sets in, then rests until cooler weather returns). These are available in pink or white and will do best in dappled shade. Still nice but near the end of its cycle is the great blue lobelia (lobelia siphilitica); lobelia cardinalis, if I had any, would probably be at its peak about now. Nepeta and calamenthe just keep blooming and blooming and ... As you can see, there's lots to choose from ... and more that I haven't even touched on. Are there any plant sales or swaps near you? One of our county parks sponsors an annual perennial swap and we always have extras to give away. You might want to think about spring and summer now, too. Planting time for spring-blooming bulbs will soon be upon us. Snow drops (galanthus) start blooming here in February, followed by glory-of-the-snow, grape hyacinth, and daffodils; all naturalize well and multiply as the years go by. In early spring, pick up a few forced in pots to make up a spring container, then plant them out in your garden, refilling the container with summer plantings. Or, at the end of the season, pick up some of the leftovers on sale and plant them out ... in most cases they'll come up for you in ensuing years. I'm not averse to picking up scraggly plants on sale, as long as they're not infested with insects or disease, to bring home and nurture back to health. Nurseries usually want to unload their stock at this time of year and have great sales. The condition of the roots is going to be more important than the condition of what's on top. Oh, can't forget ... have you heard of or tried wintersowing? It really does work and there's a whole forum for it here on GardenWeb. The only problem I had with it was figuring out what to do with all the seedlings I had! Hope this has been of some help. Good luck!

The main ingredients in French refer to peat and sand. Could not find the full composition so not sure of the proportions. Anyhow, I am only using peat-free C&S soil mix with a lot of pumice/perlite as do most hobbyists here, so I doubt this would get a lot of thumbs up, at least as is.