Hi Lynn: Thank you for the info. on superphosphate. I prefer that over triple-superphosphate, due to higher % of sulfur: Superphosphate provides 20% calcium, 12% sulfur, and 20% phosphorus, with salt index 7.8. You are right that hard water is tough on skin and hair. My kid has curly hair, and it's tangled up from our hard-well water. My skin is always dry. I like drinking our village's water, it tastes sweet, and won the best-tasting water in the county. Using fish-tank litmus strips sold at Walmart, I tested my water, pH over 8. I tested bottled mineral water, its pH is 7.5. A long time ago I had a landlord that bought tons of those Morton water-softener (and drink it too). Her son died young of a stroke at 50 years old. She had 2 strokes, then died right after her son. My husband bought the wrong stuff, Muriate of Potash or potassium chloride, rather than sulfate of potash. Potassium chloride is what we use to de-ice our sidewalk in zone 5a winter. It browned my roses' petals, due to chlorine toxicity .. I found a picture of fertilizer burn that matched with the browning, along with this statement, ""Overfertilization - fertilizer burn can occur when excessive chloride fertilizers (e.g. muriate of potash) or high rates of nitrogen fertilizers (espcially ammonium sources) are applied." No wonder the 6 tomatoes plants in front wilted when I watered them with Muriate of Potash or potassium chloride. High potassium or high nitrogen also induces calcium deficiency (Wikipedia info).... it's not surprising that I got blossom end rots on those tomatoes.

In a site this small, don't overlook the option of hand pulling some weeds and placing seedlings or transplants to add new species. I have a couple of smallish patches of weed-rich meadow that also include some desireable plants. To encourage the good plants, after a rain I go out and pull weeds that are crowding desirable plants. I don't try to eliminate all the weeds, instead just try to give the good plants room to grow and try to eliminate any weed that will really become a long-term problem. Weeds in this category include Canada Thistle, Crown Vetch, Spotted Knapweed, Garlic Mustard, and if I had any, definitely Japanese Knotweed. Most other weeds I pull only if they are crowding desireable plants. When I add a new species I generally start the seeds in six packs, then place seedlings. I find a spot that is all or mostly weeds, clear the weeds, and plant a patch of seedlings spaced appropriately for mature plants. Sometimes I mulch around the seedlings. Each year that goes by I get more and larger desirable plants and fewer weeds. This approach to establishing a prairie wouldn't work on a large scale but should be fine for 2500 square feet.

I got some advice from Gary on the Julie mango. It turns out that they are very sensitive to high ph soil conditions and develop a problem with magnesium deficiency which can only be corrected via multiple applications of chelated magnesium. He said that well water can contribute to this problem because the calcium in the water binds up the available magnesium. It's also an issue with soil like ours in parts of Tamarac where we have a mere 6 inches of topsoil followed by a layer of limestone rubble extracted from the canal digging process. Unfortunately it's not all that easy to find chelated magnesium. Even the popular keyplex 350 uses a non-chelated formulation (magnesium sulfate). Jeff

The spot is now filled, but my reading is that Erigeron karvinskianus is suppossedly hardy to z5 or 6 (not 15F), but I've never tried to grow it myself. In general things that thrive in CA hate it here, can't grow a thing that likes San Francisco climates (just noting the apparent fact). Also saw recommendation that it prefers cool summers (we don't have that), a comment that it doesn't seem to like summer humidity (we have that), or cold damp winters (we have that), if happy can spread invasively (don't want that). Lol, sounds very iffy and if it really did do well, a nightmare in the making. I appreciate your suggestion, but I think I'll steer clear. No, I have a western wallflower (my own idea...kinda doubtful), blackfoot daisy, and texas craig lily in the hole now. And a purple poppy mallow waiting in the wings in case the something gives up a space.