Our conditions in MI were prolly the same as yours, JaG. I had great container plantings right up 'til frost when the material was not too temperature sensitive, but noticed the same thing with my tomatoes & peppers - lots of late fruit that never ripened. I also use a lot of tropical perennials in the floral display containers, and they took a long time to take off this year. We had regular frosts 2 weeks beyond our last frost date, and (garden) soil temperatures remained well below 55* until after the first week of June. Sorry for the cross-talk, HBG. I hope I'm close enough to being on-topic. ;o) I had thought about the possibility of an N deficiency - especially if you were using fresh bark/small pieces, but that wouldn't explain why one plant did well & another didn't. Still, I would put genetics well down on the list of probable causes. Remember this for next year: "By habit now, I literally rip the bottom half of the roots off every plant I use in containers. I then remove a healthy additional portion of the soil they come in before transplanting or potting." For plantings with many different plants (mixed containers) I save the old soil and roots in a pile, and after the plants are situated as I like them in the container, I use it to pack around the remaining roots to secure the newly planted plants. It's usually a much more water retentive soil than what's below it and works well to help keep good amounts of moisture near the roots until the plants are established. It's an example of how being familiar with the rules of how water behaves in containers can allow you to break the rule (of not using dissimilar soils in the same container) and make it work to your advantage. ;o) It may make you shudder to think of it, but I nearly always remove all blooms & buds from the plants I am newly planting. It hastens establishment & allows the plant to build a strong root system quickly, which ends up paying dividends over the long haul. You may have to go bloomless for an extra week or so, but I've always found it to be well worth it in the end. Good luck!! Al

Thank you both for your answers. I should have stated originally that the grading is fine now, fixed before the turf went in, no more flooding the neighbors. However, water collects all over the yard and stays (seemingly) forever. We have 4 pet ducks who enjoy it and for the most part that's fine. The areas of spotty grass, or where there's none at all, is constant mud though. What I'm thinking is this: renting a cone aerator, do the whole yard, apply pumice, and aerate again. From what you kind folks on the forum have said I know it needs organic matter to improve drainage. ***But just what kind, and how to apply, without killing, smothering, or having to dig up the grass?*** I harvest straw with duck poop each morning from their sleeping quarters. My friend takes it for his garden. ***Should I put it on the lawn; does it need to be chopped up first?*** To top it all off, we just put in a small pond with a good filter, but the volume of teeny tiny particulates of duck poop make it impossible to keep the water fresh. I'm afraid we'll have to drain it a few times weekly. In other words, the mud/ soil drainage problem will escalate quickly. YIKES!!! Again, thanks!!! ***Oh yes, does anyone know where to get a hefty amount of ground pumice?***

The ph and complete composition of mushroom compost is going to depend on what the mushroom growers use to make their compost and what they add to it. This will likely vary depending on what type of mushrooms are being grown. The mushroom farm where I get my compost uses gypsum for added calcium so I don't expect that the pH of mine is exceptionally high. The soil the OP has sounds like it is at least on the slightly acidic side (strawberrys mentioned.) And another component of the raised bed mix is peat so I doubt the problems in the raised bed are due to High pH. The manure/Mushroom compost mix may have a fair amount of nitrogen but if it was sterilized before being sold, then it may not have the necessary microbes in it to make the nitrogen available to the plants. Softmentor, your lengthy post about how plants and seeds can't grow in the non mineral soil media, I can't agree with. I have grown plants hydroponically and Therefore know that soil is not necessary. That said, most of my gardening is outside on the ground, the larger deeper rooted plants I'm sure reach the native soil, but a huge number of my plants are actually growing in deep layers of mulch and compost. I've found seedlings sprouting in 4' deep piles of wood chips before so saying that "Seeds can't grow in the "O" horizon, they need to be in the "A" horizon" just doesn't jive with what I have observed in my gardening nor in nature. Some seeds/plants may need the mineral soil more than others but most any plant you can grow in a container with a potting mix can grow without mineral soil provided it gets fertilized with what it needs.

Dear desalad, Again, thanks for the question and let me know if you have more. Drainage is the biggest key to turf areas and often the one overlooked as it does not come into play until there is excess water. I would not till the yard, aeration is fine for reseeding, some grasses may come back. You may have some crabgrass later, and if you can find Drive (quinclorac) at a LESCO or someplace else, this will help. Anther issue is how to handle the depression. Obviously, address the existing drain. If there are no drains in the other depression and you cannot easily tie into one, you are left with two choices. One, build up the area so that water will runoff and not collect. Probably not that easy and will take too much time and resources, but it is always an option. The second idea is to install a dry well. This will get the water into the ground faster and keep water for sitting in the area as long. At the lowest area in the depression, drive a pipe in the ground up to as far as 3 feet if you can. Remove this pipe as it will be full of soil. Place another clean pipe with perforated holes in the last foot of the pipe (leading end) into the hole. If the pipe is wide enough you may choose to cover it with a drain cover. You can place any size pipe you want but the smaller ones are easier to install. Drive the hole with metal pipe and then use PVC pipe for the drain if you can. It many need to be tamped down on occasion as the winters will cause heaving. You will be surprised how much water this will help move if you can get the hole deep enough. Let me know how it goes and thanks for the question. Respectfully Trey Rogers The Yard Doctor