Spag, It will basically look like horse manure still. Since you are sourcing in Woodside I am going to assume you are on the penninsula. That makes your soil a bit better than mine (concrete solid clay). My methodology will be a bit different from yours, but here is what I do. I made a screen out of just a piece of 1/2" steel netting (like chicken wire) and nailed it to a wood frame from old 2x4's. Then I screen the manure thru this to break down the clumps into 1/2" size. ( I do this bothto reduce the "clumping" of the manure and to make sure not too much "foreign" matter gets into the beds. I then laid out where my raised beds were going to be and dug 8-12" of the clay out (dang stuff is like concrete!). Then I built my 12" raised beds over the top of that hole. Once that was done I put my screened horse manure in (that brought the "soil" level back to the original ground line) and dug that manure into the clay (evening out the soikld condition as much as possible). So far I have "prepped" 3 6x8 foot beds this way using about 4 cubic yards of screened manure. Now I have lasagna bedded up to the top of the 12" raised bed for the fall-winter (alternate 3" layers of shredded paper mixed with tree clippings/leaves and "grens") Those beds will then be topped off with the compost piles I have running in spring to bring the level back to the top of the raised bed (the lasagna bedding will reduce by about 1/2-2/3 as it composts). Its a few weekends of work, but worth the effort. I would suggest to you that you probably won't need to go as far as I have since your original soil is probably better than this "santa clara clay" (as I keep hearing it called) I have. So you probab;y can just make the raised bed and turn the soil over with some of the manure, then just keep toppping it with the compost as needed...... Its the first "conditioning" that always takes the most work. Oh and the pine shavings are no problem at all, they will break down over time and won;t hurt the plants

Shouldn't be a reason to do anything below 2 feet. 90% of the tree's roots are in the top 18". And it may be better not to go deeper than the bottom of the rootball just to avoid settling below the root flare. Have you picked out, or already gotten the trees? If so, I'd use them as a guide as to how deep to dig. Using your native soil is also good for filling the trench as this lessens the chances of the "bathtub" effect with differing soils. tj

Here's the response that just came back: "The stocks of Thai Thai are finally coming along well. Having said that, we have not yet decided whether to offer it for 2015 or to wait one extra year for the mid- size bulbs to reach a larger size. We will make this decision next month once we can see how the growth on the bulbs is progressing." So, we won't see it for another 1-2 years. K

actually, john, they have dammed up your creek- but way down behind me, after where it passes your house. and i know it's beavers because our scientist/naturalist neighbor told us about them to begin with when we got to know him. it was part of the reason he bought his house. he told us when it got too bad the town did trap a few of them and relocated them (i think that's what he said). i believe there's another dam up further between us towards you, because there's a part of the sewage easement we used to walk that is flooded to the point of being a pond. i would imagine they'll have to get rid of that one since they have to be able to service the line, and that's hard to do when it's under water. not to mention there are now houses VERY close to there- the new develop on thompson rd. i don't think the city minds the ones from our place down towards the lake since they are just wetland and not flooding sewer easement. the beaver i saw behind the houses across the street most definitely had the big flat tail and smacked it as warning on the surface before he disappeared. i was surpsied at how big he was- i wouldn't want to get too close! i know what muskrats look like, but i've only seen nutria in pix. the muskrats i saw were up north, and i don't think there are nutria there. the nutria are big, and their faces look similar, so i bet they are easily confused with beavers. i wouldn't think the muskrats would be able to do the kind of beaver chewing damage on big trees because of their size. not sure what muskrats eat, come to think of it. do nutria eat/cut down trees too? and i bet those beaver kits are adorable! i can't even imagine! are they all tail, teeth & eyes? what the heck do you feed them once they are weaned? i'll bet a baby platypus is almost as weird looking! :) tam