If you suspect your soil is not good, just mix up a potting soil and fill the boxes with that. In any case it is not a bad idea to begin this way, as it removes one variable. A simple formula is one part peat moss, one part perlite, and one part good compost. You don't have to be all that exact about it. Mix it a little at a time in the box, or mix it on a tarp and then shovel it in. If possible, mix a variety of types of compost. Some landfill places give away free composted solid waste from the sewage plant. I wouldn't trust that stuff, because a lot of bad stuff goes into the sewers. A 4 x 4 box one foot deep is 16 cubic feet. So you would want something over 5 cubic feet each of peat moss, perlite, and compost. If you have gophers, in your area, make sure you staple half-inch hardware cloth to the bottom of the box, or you will regret not doing it later.

Thank y'all so much. I looked up some of the names mentioned and I have been able to match my babies up much better. As far as the Spruce goes. I understand that it is slow growing, but I saw that it does best in full sun and it is in a corner that does not receive even the slightest moment of sunlight. Should I consider transplanting it or is that just asking for trouble? The Skimmia (there are 2-one is about 1/3 larger than the other)look exactly the same as when we moved in last year. I am from the Gulf Coast. So I am used to our shrubs just doubling and even tripling in size every year, but we weren't dealing with evergreen shrubs down there. Hence, my concern that they were not doing well. So, I shouldn't prune them? As far as the Itea. The previous tenants must have pruned it because it seemed to appear out of nowhere this past spring and as you can see from the photo is overtaking the poorly placed hosta. But that hosta is actually the best performing of the three that they planted. There is one very sad one that the slugs got to before I even realized what was happening. Again, we didn't have slugs like these back home. This forum will be a plantsaver in the months and years to come. I am a late bloomer to gardening as was my mother, but I am very excited and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the willingness with which everyone has offered to share their knowledge and experience with us newbies.

Sometimes when we get plants, maples especially, they are in pots and potting mixes that might have been appropriate for their situation in the hands of the grower but not for us the end-buyer. If you have left the maple in its original pot I would recomment what David hinted at and remove it from the pot and do an inspection. As the maple heads toward dormancy and the daytime and nightime temps are quite mild taking the time to repot will allow you get ahead of the game for next year and avert any contined problems with the way you maple is potted. Here is my short advice and you can search for more detail on potting mixes, repotting, etc if you want. 1)Maples often come out of summer looking stressed and ragged. It is normal. There may be nothing at all wrong with you plant except the fact that you are not used to seeing how small young maples respond. 2)Remove from pot. 3)Revmove as much of the growers soil as possible while preserving as much root mass as possible. 4)Trim any long ragged roots or rotted or diseased roots so that things are mostly even. 5)Find a pot that is just slightly bigger than the one you had if you plant was near rootbound or filled the previous pot. If you did not have a full root mass and removed all the soil and root pruned just a bit, it might fit back into the same pot 6)Go and buy a bag of cactus planting mix. If you have some forest humus, mulch or fine bark around add just a little to the mix to make it a bit richer. If you don't, I wouldn't go out of my way to find some, just use it as it is. 7)Pot up and do not plant any deeper then it was before, at best, leave it a 1/4" higher. 8)Water and leave in direct sun for the rest of the season and allow to mostly dry out between waterings. 9) Overwinter in garage or protected if you get well below freezing or have sustained freezing temps. 10)Leave maple in that pot until just before bud break in 2008 and repot to larger pot or put in ground. If all is well with your plant and if leafs out fine and beautiful you might give it a very light dose of fertilizer in the spring and let be for the rest of the year. There is little we can do if your plant is dieseased, but we can always try to improve the culture. We never know what is up with the roots unless we look at them and then give them what they need to thrive. Good feet are the quickest way to a strong healthy plant and how your maple is potted and cared for is what you have control over. There is very little risk to repotting maples and many thrive from the process. If you repot it and it dies it was likely destined to do so anyway. MJH

Excess moisture from any source promotes leaf diseases on zinnia and many other plants. Management is to keep leaves as dry as possible. eg: space plants to allow for good air circulation; water at ground level; if watering overhead, allow adequate time for leaves to dry before night fall. Might take a look at this from Penn State http://extension.psu.edu/pests/plant-diseases/all-fact-sheets/zinnia-diseases Here is a link that might be useful: zinnia diseases This post was edited by jean001a on Sat, May 31, 14 at 22:22