Thank you for the many helpful posts here. My beds were filled with 'topsoil' to about 12" below the bed line, and then the remaining 12"+ was filled with mushroom plant compost. Every year except last year, as the beds reduce (of course, esp. with much of them being compost), I have another half-load of compost delivered, which adds anywhere from 8-12" of compost to the top of all the beds, plus I refill all my big containers, and stick the rest in a rolling lidded trashcan where I keep extra soil to use as needed. Last year I did not garden at all. From the September before, nothing was done at all. So a lot of stuff stayed as dead when winter hit, then quite a bit of stuff reseeded come spring, so the bed all year was filled with the mix of dead stuff from the previous season and live stuff from the current year, plus weeds from being ignored. Now, all of that together is dead. My intent just like directed at last, there -- I am gradually digging out the top of the beds and containers where the weeds and their main roots are (bearing in mind, for all I know half these 'weeds' were fruiting plants at one time), and tossing those in one of my 3 compost bins, leaving the others for real compost (thanks for that advice). In the buckets, all of which were destroyed by the horrid freeze we had awhile ago (everything cracked or shattered depending on its material), I dig out the bottom part of the soil, which looks surprisingly good to me though I haven't Ph tested it, and I put it in my good-soil-bin for now. Once I finish all the buckets (I have 9x 32-gal ones and 6x 21-gal ones to dig out and it's slow going frankly, given everything is nearly frozen, but I'm working on it!), then I will do the beds. THEN I have to add new soil or something. I don't mean the whole beds need new soil, I mean like the top 12" or so of everything (beds, big-containers, pots). So I was thinking, since I already 'have' soil, that a 'soilless mix' seems sorta pointless. On the other hand, surely having about 12" of 'soilless mix' on the top, with 12" of soil underneath, probably isn't going to hurt anything, I hope. One thing I wondered is, if I add a soilless mix to the top (I'm looking at something like Al's recipe), with pine bark fines + perlite + spaghum peat, the fact that in some respect this could end up mixing with some of the soil as I put it in, would this be a problem? I heard someone say somewhere that mixing soilless and soil mixes, depending on their makeup, could result in something rather like mud-cement LOL. I don't know that I can afford enough of the ingredients for Al's mix to actually handle all my beds and major containers and planters. I'd like to but it is sort of unlikely. So I was wondering if getting more compost -- either mushroom compost again, or some from my own bins (hence my question about how to deal with the green/brown and breakdown more quickly), to mix in with that, would be more practical in the end.

Yes, I was told that some quartzite does etch. I was asking on the stone advise forum about one called Mont Blanc that was listed as quartzite by the stone yard and this is what I was told: Mont Blanc is not a granite. It was introduced as a quartzite which is harder than granite. But unfortunately it is not a quartzite. It is what we have come to refer to as a hybrid marble/quartz material. It will scratch and etch. It is suitable for kitchens as long as you treat it like a marble and install it honed. So although there are probably pure quartzite stones out there, there are also stones that may be somewhere in between. That means it is probably important to test the stone you are getting the make sure it is what you expect. I would be very upset if I got a "quartzite" instead of marble because marble was not practical for me and ended up with soemthing that would stain and etch anyway. Sue

I am a fabricator. I have been following this thread with interest and find it contains a lot of disinformation and skewed perspectives. Over half my business is high end homes where money is often not a consideration and interior designers are common. Natural stone is still the preferred material for the majority of the work we do even though we provide a wide variety of engineered surfaces includes the various quarts brands and the new materials like Dekton. The quartz products are rapidly losing the panache they enjoyed for years as the new alternative to natural stone. This change has been exacerbated by the emergence of discount brands and discounting among the big suppliers as they fight for market share. Granite has changed in that "exotics" are much more prevalent and alternative finishes to the traditional polish are increasingly common. The buying public has also become more educated and recognizes the actual maintenance for natural stone is minimal unless the material is one of the alternates like marble or travertine which have inferior material properties. My advice to my customers is always to pick the "look" they want and make sure they understand the material properties. Marble is extraordinarily beautiful but it is only a little harder than jello, wicks up liquids like a sponge, and dissolves readily in common organic acids like acetic acid.

There's not much I can add, except to say that I will pray for you too. When I had my biopsies I was scared out of my mind but by the third one learned to ask myself, what's the worst case scenario and how likely is that? Not very. I reminded myself that there's treatment, and that most cases turn out well in time. Prayer is good, and was so necessary at that time to keep me calm. I was lucky, but I'm always a little worried when I go for my yearly and mamo. I think the senseless fear and "what if's" is the almost the worst. Also, you have your age on your side. I believe that cancers in younger people can be more aggressive and in older people, (not that I'm calling you old!) are slower. That's gotta be a good thing. The treatments work so well these days. Hang in there and know lots and lots of people are thinking of you and praying for you!