Shazaam, I read a lot of horticultural literature and I usually depend on it for my understanding of how plants and soils interact. The first paragraph in the excerpt you quote is clearly amiss. The amount of macro and micro nutrients in mineral soils varies tremendously. There is a HUGE industry built around soil analysis for soil quality. Many state Cooperative Extensions offer free soil testing for people in their state. In case you are unfamiliar with this fact, ATTRA maintains a list of such places that you can find here: https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/viewhtml.php?id=285 The notion in that first paragraph that all plants have very similar optimal pH ranges for growth is well known to be incorrect. Blueberries have a pH optimum around 4.5 both in mineral soil and bark plus peat moss based mixes in containers while crocus performs best around pH 6.5. At a common sense level it is a nonsense notion too. Stop and think of all the plants growing in the hugh array of soil environments around the world. There are plants that have evolved to grow in pretty acidic soils while others can grow in basic soils and everything in between. Figure 5 in this link shows the range of pH optimums for a broad array of horticulture crops: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/HIL590.pdf As you can see, there is approximately a 2 pH unit difference (100x difference in H+ concentration) between Crossandra and Venus Fly Trap. Here are 2 links presenting optimum pH range differences between Geraniums and Pansies: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/HIL590a.pdf http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/HIL590b.pdf Note their target pH ranges do not overlap. It is true that, for any individual plant under a set group of growth conditions, varying pH above or below its optimum range has negative consequences for the plant, but, as I read paragraph one, it appears the statement is directed to the collection of all plants, not an individual. The statement in paragraph 2 is known to be incorrect. In this publication it is shown that there are sufficient micronutrients in Douglas fir bark to support vinca growth. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/HIL590b.pdf AND that micronutrient availability is pH dependent. I have dozens of other publications from peer-review, scientific journals showing exactly the same thing. pH management in container media is critical. My best guess is that many, maybe most, of the difficulties people bring to the GardenWeb have their source in poor pH management. Paragraph 3 of your excerpt is, once again, incorrect. The pH effect on iron (Fe) deficiencies is firmly established. Here are 2 examples: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/106750129/Managing-the-pH-of-Container-Media---UNH-Cooperative-Extension http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops/factsheets/pHGreenhouseCrops.pdf I have no idea what is meant by the fantasy situation described in paragraph 4 and why a plant would feel no pH impacts without consideration to nutrients and nutrient toxicities. The excerpt that refers to an" 'ideal' container media pH' comes from a paper published by Lucas and Davis in 1961 in Soil Science. In that paper, they did demonstrate that ideal pH ranges for the mineral soil they used versus wood-sedge soil and sphagnum peat soil was about 1 pH unit different. As more work has been done, it has become clear that the story across a broad range of mineral soils and organic soils (container soils) is far more complex. There is HUGE variation across soil types and those variations significantly impact the ideal pH range of that medium for each plant. The 1 pH unit "rule" has to assume there is only one mineral soil and one container soil which is just silly. For anyone who truly cares to understand pH management, I highly recommend this book: http://store.meistermedia.com/understanding-ph-management/ It will be a well spent $20. Thank you for the link to Dr. Tripepi's paper. I checked his publication record. I can find no publication by him on pH management in a peer-reviewed, or any, journal. I think he is not so up to date. In rereading my post above, part of what I said to you was poorly stated and I apologize for that. What I was referring to in the later part was that any given plant's fundamental abilities to acquire nutrients do not typically change from media to media. An acid loving plant is an acid loving plant. It is the varying qualities of the different medias that will result in pH shifts to allow optimal access to nutrition by a plant. Another publication on the subject written for a more general audience is this: http://www.gpnmag.com/media-ph-and-ec-effects Enjoy! One more thing. Please notice that in all my posts I try to provide links to the authoritative sources I depend upon to make my growing decisions and that support my thoughts. If I am running a line of nonsense, I try to give you the ability to catch that and correct what I said. I choose to depend on those types of sources of information that provide support for what they say. Of course, others can decide what works for them. MiniGerderner876, I apologize for your question getting so deflected here. I would still advise going with a mineral soil in your raised beds and using a purchased potting soil for your pots for what you want to grow. A lot of universities have excellent sources of information on growing all sorts of things in soil and in pots. The University of Florida: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/department_horticultural_sciences and North Carolina State University: http://cals.ncsu.edu/hort_sci/gardening/index.php are my 2 favorites. They are the Stanford and Havard of horticultural science in my opinion. They have tons of useful, absolutely dependable information available for free. Good luck with your garden!

If you want to "plant moss" just put a chunk of moss in a blender with some buttermilk or yogurt. Then sprinkle this mixture around where you want moss. In case you are wondering, the milk is to provide a moist acidic carrier and the spores in the moss are what will grow. As jean001 said, it works best in a moist shaded area with compacted soil. Some moss will turn brown during a severe drought, reviving when moisture returns. Some species are known to survive for as long as ten years without water. Most diseases and insects that affect grass do not bother moss, although moss does not like air pollution (it is seldom found along the roadside. No need to improve and lime the soil since mosses grow easily on compact clay soil and most types can be easily encouraged by an acid soil (pH 5.5 is optimum) and by moisture. You can use rhododendron fertilizer or skim milk powder on moss as fertilizer. Here is a link that might be useful: Create a Moss Garden

You have done your homework and done most everything correct, quite admirably correct. A couple corrections. Rhodies DON'T love water, but they hate dryness, but not as much as they hate too much water. If the leaves droop in the heat of the day, that is normal. If they don't recover by the next morning, then they need deep watering. But they must be in a well drained location or they will get water logged and dye. The new growth sounds good. Watch it. If it becomes yellow with green veins, then you are experiencing chlorosis and need to increase the acidity with sulfur. Old leaves should turn yellow and fall off. Rabbits will take a bite out of anything they run into. They are not selective. Deer are mainly a problem when there is snow on the ground and there is little else to eat. Try using sulfur to keep the hydrangea blue. The sulfur is good for the rhodies also. Sulfur will acidify the soil for both the hydrangea and the rhodies. Aluminum sulfate should only be applied to the hydrangea if the sulfur doesn't work and never apply aluminum to rhodies. Be patient, sulfur is very powerful, but slow. Rhodies seldom need fertilizer ever. If you do fertilize, use a good product with organic nitrogen like HolyTone and then only use once in the spring and at half the rate on the package. Here is a link that might be useful: How to care for rhododendrons

This is the exact procedure that I do and have been doing. I do not know about cold areas of the country, but here in the Buffalo area it works great for me. The reason I started doing it was that I wanted to plant these critters in a basically basic soil situation, sweet, yes, but not good as we know. I wanted drainage. I wanted a high organic matter content, in fact, here is what kicked me into the beehive. From my reading and looking at research the comments were that the ideal growing substrate was LEAF MOLD. Last winter I used alternating layers of shredded office paper and coffee grounds. This year I have compost, leaves, light layer of manure, leaves, pine needles and then a top dressing of coffee grounds. I got it about a foot to 18" tall. To plant I cleared an area for each plant. Into that area I placed a soil mixture, tuned to acidic loves of rhodies. I am using small shrubs so this area might be a foot to two feet in diameter. Into that soil mix goes the plant. Now I have a huge bed with, if you will, rhodo pimples here and there, along with some arborvitae. The soil mix is as high as the lasagna. But the lasagna will decompose and shrink? Oh baby I hope so, cause that means it is going the way of the dodo bird. I will simply keep layering things on top. Can you say replenishing organic matter? During the spring this will be rough bark or other mulch. In the fall, there we go again with layers of leaves, etc. Mangia mangia!