The bag says "pine bark mulch," so I'm going to assume that's primarily what it is. I do plan on mixing both CRF and lime with the soil, so glad to hear I'm on the right track. I'm eyeing your gritty mix, but I'm going to build up some more confidence in my gardening skills before I go to the trouble of tracking down supplies and putting it all together. It is such a huge paradigm shift for me from what I know about gardening (which isn't much BTW). I'm a little intimidated by it right now. Maybe down the road... Anyway, thanks so much with being so generous with your knowledge and time. I appreciate, and more importantly, so will my plants.

Finally I got all the ingredients for the gritty mix, to my surprise, the hardest to find is the pine bark fine(I still did not find it). I am using the Repti Bark for now (a little pricy -$19.99 for a 24 quart bag). But do not want to wait any more, will use Repti Bark for now whereas keep looking for I Pine bark fines. Well, I have to say the particle size of Turface and Gran-I-Grit is smaller than I thought although I saw so many pictures on GW. I still do not have Foliage Pro 9-3-6, But I got Osmocote Outdoor & Indoor plant food. The ratio is 19-6-12 ( close to 9-3-6), is that ok for now (Will order Foliage Pro from internet later. I got some Jade Plant, Christmas Cactus, Spider Plant and Some NOID succulents cuttings before I found all the ingredients. I put them in the Miracle Grow Potting Mix and they rooted already. But like most people find out already, the bagged potting mix is so hard to water when it drys - the water just stay on the top of the soil. I was repotting them (except the spider plant) into the new gritty mix this afternoon. I did not even screen the Turface and Gran-I-Grit as I have not gotten the hardware cloth to make the filter yet. But I did shake the bag before I opened the Turface to hope the smaller particles will fall to the bottom. This is how it looks after I mix the three ingredients. Follow the tradition, a dime in the center Then put the mix and Osmocote into a soaked pot, water it well until water come out from the drainage hole. Soak the cutting that grown in the bagged potting mix, Remove most of the soil from the root - but not all - intimated by afraid broke the root. Put the plant into the gritty mix. It is actually hard to make a proper hole to put the roots in - the gritty mix is heavy so they keep falling into the hole you make for the roots. Final results: How do they look? Am I doing it right. I also have some Spider plant rooted, not sure is gritty mix good for them too. I had the impression that gritty mix is very good for woody plant, but Spider plant is somewhat herb? Should I put them in 5:1:1 mix. (I do not think I will make 5:1:1 mix though, since pine bark fines are not available and Repti bark is pricy). Also, Does anybody know the ID for the two plants on the last picture (the one that not Christmas Cactus or Jade Plant) And if anybody knows where to find pine bark fines in new England area, please let me know. Thanks.

Lloyd, I took your advice and posted a thread on Hot Topics, but haven't seen you over there. I'm glad to read your comments Cowgirl because we so rarely hear the perspectives of Albertan citizens, about the tar sands. I've often wondered why you all are not up in arms. Motive is everything, and the motives behind supporting tar sands mining are obvious: jobs and money. But what motives do you see behind the objections to mining, which are coming from the Pembina Institute, the National Geographic, native groups, wildlife protection agencies...Why would they lie? I can't believe any of them simply want to deprive anybody of jobs. Do you doubt the Pembina Institute's statitistics? When I read the Alberta Government's claims about land reclamation for example it is mostly wishful thinking and projections into the year 2020, if such and such happens... Your comment about transfer payments made me smile. My family's standard of living is as high as anyone's anywhere in the world, because for us the environment comes first, and ours is beautiful and unspoiled. On the other hand you might be dismayed at how little money we have to get by on. I certainly am. What I find most shameful about the tar sands is that we, collectively, Canadians and Americans, prefer the despoiling of the environment to conserving energy. But that is due in large part to ignorance about the reality of the mining, which I posted this thread to help correct. Here is a link that might be useful: Pembina

I have hardly seen a soil test that did not recommend nitrogen, which kinda makes you wonder if it's really needed. How do your plants grow? If they seem to lack nitrogen, by all means add it, but your soil is so healthy with high organic matter and nutrients that it may not need nitrogen. As for how to calculate it, if you want 1.2 lb/100 s.f., here's how to convert. X is the sq ft of your garden space. Let's say you have fertilizer that is 12-0-0 so 12% nitrogen. X sq ft in your garden x 1.2 lb n/sq ft x 100 lb fertilizer/12 lb N = (X x 1.2 x 100)/12 There are online calculators too. Your pH is not too high but doesn't need to go higher so if you've been adding any lime, you can quit that. 8% OM is right in the good range, and since your P and K are quite healthy I would cut back on the annual compost additions so they don't get excessive. Once you get good soil OM levels you can go into maintenance mode, 1-2" per year. Or mulch with wood chips or leaves which have lower P and K levels and will feed the soil with OM to replace what decays away without adding much other nutrients.