Thanks to you all for your suggestions!!! I really appreciate you sharing your experience with me. To answer some of your questions, I did have plants in these beds, and they did OK. In the existing bed, I had used Posy Power and those plants did TOO well and got totally out of hand, I was always trimming things back. The plants in the mushroom compost beds didn't get very big and I'm sure it was because their roots couldn't get through the layers of paper. I had soaker hoses running on a timer all summer, so the beds had lots of water throughout the drought. Also, I do see some worms but I'm sure not five per shovel full. I didn't understand that I would need a green source when I put down the mushroom compost, I thought it would still have some nitrogen in it. If I make compost tea and apply it to the top of the existing mushroom compost beds, would that help things out any? And with coffee grounds, how much coffee grounds are we talking about here -- a weeks worth from my house, or a weeks worth from Starbucks? What about fresh manure? I've read that a ratio of 1 part manure to 3 parts brown works well. Would you agree? I do have a compost pile and I mix it in when I plant things, but it's not big enough to supply what I need to amend the new beds. I'm going to try to get hubbie to relax on taking out any soil and just add compost and leaves. Oh gosh, yes, we have lots of leaves as our property backs up to a wooded greenspace. Thanks again for all of your replies. It's wonderful to have some clarity with this. And it's so great that there is a community of folks that help each other out with their gardening!!

Glad you've joined us, gayled, welcome to the NE forum! My DH and I are retired. We work together in the gardens... our spring techniques are pretty simple. 1. Clean up dead leaves and foliage and weed underneath plants... but not as early as we'd like this year. Probably not until April .... if we get more snow this week. 2. One of our earliest tasks every spring.... amend the soil. I think that's the best thing you can do for the gardens. We get free compost from our town.... dig it and take it. We've done this for the last eight years and it's really helped improve the gardens. While it's not exactly "organic" because the compost is made from garden waste that people bag and the city picks up, "free" makes it worthwhile. 3. We like to use bark mulch and I use cocoa mulch in a few special areas, but this has gotten expensive as our gardens have grown. We've found that the compost works like mulch by breaking down over the season. So we mulch every other year. 3. Fertilize? No, not even our roses. I think good soil is better than chemical applications. I learned about composting from my mother who was a wonderful gardener. Mom collected coffee grounds in one container (for her Mt. Laurels and rhododendrons) and egg shells & other wastes that she'd spread around her flower beds. Over 40 years of this gave her a yard with deep, dark soil and lots of worms. 4. My DH put in an irrigation system several years ago and he checks this early in the spring. We have a long yard with gardens down one side and around a garden shed. The days of dragging the hose around are gone for us. Molie

We're you able to take pictures of the dumpster placement, the truck in the ditch, the run over tree? It may be too late for you but in these types of construction difficulties I have tried to follow the same rule of thumb that I use for traffic accidents---if I can get a picture immediately I do it. As someone has already mentioned insurance is important and pictures help if you want to make a claim against someone. The dumpster guy sounds very irresponsible but we have had subcontractors who have inadvertently damaged things and we have always worked something out because the good ones are always reluctant to have an insurance issue. It sounds as if your situation is irritating but probably not something you will be able to get resolved satisfactorily. This is unfortunate but in terms of things that can happen during construction it is fairly minor. For the future do look at those back of receipt terms and conditions (we learned this the hard way), take pictures of any mishaps, and check out up front (if possible) whether those you are doing business with have the proper insurance and licenses. I'm really sorry this has happened to you but if it helps you learn how to deal with more major things that may occur maybe you can consider that the silver lining.

I'll have to say my GC and all the subs were very good about cleaning up each day. I had asked my GC during the bid if I could save money by doing the clean-up myself but he said not really. The job took much longer than the hours it was bid at and we didn't pay a dime extra. They just worked until it was done to our satifaction. We paid $300 (in our contract) for a dumpster that was in our driveway for 6 weeks and he even asked if we were done with it before having it removed. I provided drinks, snacks and cookies for all the workers and they never left their debris anywhere. All smoking was done outside in the drive and they always put the butts in the dumpster. They would even ask my permission before using a trash can or my shop vac if they forgot theirs. I was very pleased with how the work site was left every day since we obviously live here, too. After reading this, I guess I should feel equally blessed at how neat they were!! This GC had done our roof and gutters 3 yrs before and I remember one of the workers crawling around the house picking up nails :) BTW, I'm in Indy if anyone needs a referral for a GC!!