Well, josh, you had two problems - worm mess and soggy soil. I'll be the first to agree that an excess of earthworms can create a real mess. It appears you resolved the worm mess. But, your after pic makes it clear that you still have the soggy soil issue. So now you have just one problem. That may be the nature of the beast due to persistent rainfall coupled with the local terrain and grade on your lot, assuming you don't have any water system leaks, either plumbing or irrigation related. With the soggy soil and your mower you have another problem in the works, and that is soil compaction. From the ruts evident in all of your pics, it is also clear that running that robust (and probably heavy) mower over the saturated soil is leading to compaction. When the rains abate, which at some point they will, you should welcome the return of the earthworms. They are your best and cheapest solution for compacted soil.

I look at it this way in simpler terms of course..... I am brain dead and bored, so here it goes..lol I if don't make sense, pardon me. If I can't or do not know how to grow anything in a pot with a Perched Water Table, which I mostly do not, then I won't use a soil that encourages it. Using bottom stones, or even water proof packing peanuts which don't weigh the pot down never helped me. By the way, if your determined to use bottom material, this is the way to go. No more heavy pots.:-) I have killed a many plants in the past this way. The bottom roots being wet ,stuck in that PWT above the stones, never drying out while the top half of the roots keep getting watered because I keep watering the top of soil that is bone dry. My roots can be thirsting for water even 4 inches down into my pots from the top, while the bottom half of the roots are in that PWT portion staying wet, never drying out. And rocks on the bottom of any pot does not get rid of that PWT. It just makes it higher. The Perched Water Table depending on the soil you use will be there, and maybe not if you use a wick or a fast draining soil. Of course this is not a concern to me in any pot smaller than 6 inches... They dry out fast, especially if they are in clay. I typically use something other than the gritty soil for these. But when I move up to a bigger pot, I am not willing to take the risk of root rot. Some people here can grown plants in any size pot with a PWT and have sucess. Some in 30 gallon barrels! I am not one of those..:-( This is why I use A'ls gritty mix minus the fines that could settle down at the bottom of pot and stay wet while the top of the soil gets dry. Bonsai have very shallow roots, therefore grown in shallow pots, and this is how a many of my friends including myself have killed our Bonsai. You can have a PWT in soil as deep as one inch. We can't afford to have a PWT at all in such shallow pots! On this we take NO chances. I can not afford to have a PWT also in big sized pots for regular plants. Since they and I changed to Al's gritty mix, we have been sucessful, with no Perched Water Table and bottom root rot, even in rainy everday weather if pots are left out all summer. We just have to water more often when because the soil dries out quicker. :-) Jean, I have done the same thing to most of my pots, especially the ones my Clivias are in. They are thriving!! I even drill bigger holes at the bottom of my plastic ones and hammer out a huge circle hole on the bottom of my clay ones, then use screen to stop the soil from falling through. I can only imagine the roots breathing all that air from the bottom!lol,and the water exchange because of this.:-) I love that Container Soils thread, at least what I can understand of it! One thing I did learn, I never knew what a PWT was until I read that thread. That was the culprit to the death of all my plants! Thanks for that thread Al! Thanks for all the great info everyone! Take care all! Mike

Would love your input on 1. leaf miner, 2. Leaf cupping and/or curling and 3. leaf burn problems I'm facing. Have gone thru your great video on addressing leaf miner issues. Want to be sure it's leaf miner alone or if these three issues need different solutions. I purchased an owari satsuma dwarf mandarin plant a few weeks ago, have it in a pot and looks like I have a heavy leaf miner infestation. In addition there seems to be tip browning and curling. I live in the Bay Area. Have started a cycle of spinosad every two weeks, alternating with neem oil on the off weeks. Been about 3 weeks and the curling only seems to be getting worse. Plant is south facing with full sun. Have posted pics at Pinterest: https://pin.it/t4X73-W if you could take a look and provide any inputs on what else I should doing will be very much appreciated. I did top the soil with a little bit of chicken manure and the browning *may* have followed that. At the same link, have also pics of a couple little banana trees that also seem to be suffering from leaf burn. Wondering if the cause is that I didn't sufficiently acclimatize the banana plants in shade after getting it via mail from the nursery. They are potted and placed south facing in full sun. This is my very first time trying to grow fruit trees (or any trees for that matter) - Thank you for lending a helping hand to aspiring backyard gardeners

Your tree is infected with an insect called soft scale. The scale infection is also on the leaves of your tree. Scale is rather easy to control by spraying the tree with a horticultural oil solution, neem oil ( neem is rather stinky), or even a soapy water solution. With neem oil and horticultural oil sprays spray the entire tree in the early morning hours, at dusk, or during a cloudy day. Never spray a citrus tree during the heat of the day. The soapy water spray is the least effective method, but several sprays should take care of it. -Silica