(I'm the original poster) When I made the mounds for my lavender I used 1/3 sand, 1/3 purchased top soil, and the other 1/3 is comprised of turkey grit, a handful or two of compost and one handful of bonemeal. The mounds look pretty lean and well drained so I'm hoping for the best. I have gone to all this trouble to build the mounds and buy 20 lavender plants so I just want to be sure I water the new plants correctly. I could probably water between the rows eventually but I can't do that now because, of course, these are tiny new plants and their root systems are shallow and the plants are perched up on top of the mounds. So that kind of watering probably wouldn't work right now. So should I just water gently around the base of the plants (not the base of the mounds) for right now? As far as the mulch, mowing around the mounds won't work so I want to use some kind of mulch to keep the weeds down between the rows. The mounds are on a slope that gets some water runoff during rains. So I think if I used landscape fabric and covered it with mulch, it would have to be a mulch that wouldn't get washed right off the fabric. Plus lindac says that landscape fabric might not be the best solution since it can get clogged and then hold water. I wonder if layers of wet newspaper would work and, if so, what is something inexpensive that I could put over the newspapers so the area will still look nice? Also, I heard that I should use white gravel to mulch the actual mounds themselves so light will be reflected up into the plant but I think my mounds may be a little too steep and pointed for gravel to stay put. I need to figure that out too.

Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

That needs to be evenly moist so the bacteria, the Soil Food Web, can work since they do not function in a dry environment, but a too wet soil, compost pile, Lasagna bed can also be problematic because moisture displaces air and the bacteria you want working, aerobic, cannot function in a too wet environment, so look into the material to see what is happening in the pile of material.

With hardness around 10gpg and manganese at .03 with iron at .1 you are smart to be considering a softener. Aside from the niceties of soft water a softener will lengthen the service life of the plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. Your clothes will last longer and you'll save money by using far less soap and detergent. Ok, water softener 101 ... Hit the Yellow Pages and call at least three local water treatment pros. Make sure you call at least one of the big dogs like Kinetico or Culligan for comparison and at least a couple independent pros. DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAD YOUR WATER TESTED. Give each an opportunity to offer suggestions and provide you with a quote to meet your water treatment needs. IGNORE ANY THAT DON'T TEST YOUR WATER THEMSELVES as they can't speak intelligently to water treatment without knowing what needs to be treated. Ask lots of questions. Warranty, parts & labor or just parts, how long and on exactly what? Install, permits required, licensed plumber? Routine maintenance and costs? Do they stock parts? Response time for emergency (water leak) calls? If they don't explain things to your satisfaction that is a good indicator of how you'll be treated after the sale. After they've gone use your water test to compare with theirs. Are all your treatment needs being addressed? Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid. Come back here and post the specific recommendations and hardware components with the costs and we'll give you our opinions. If you're a DIYer then you have other options but they must be discussed privately by email. But remember, when you do it yourself there's no one else to blame.