I looked at your photo and I am assuming that the area of concern is behind the dry streambed, since I cannot see the trunk of the willow. There are a couple issues to consider. If you add soil, you run the risk of smothering the roots of the tree. Even a few inches of soil spread on top of the root system of a tree can smother them, preventing air exchange from taking place in the original root zone. The fibrous roots that are currently near, or just below, the surface would be buried and you risk a slow decline or death to the tree. The same concern would be with adding a retaining wall and building up the bed. The other concern with the retaining wall is that to build it properly requires digging a footer for a compacted stone base. Digging that trench, roughly 4-6" deep, will cut off another large part of the root system as it extends from the tree. Without the footer, the wall will most likely shift and settle unevenly in the years ahead. The other concern with raising the area is that there is a wooden fence. If you raise the dirt level along the fence, ,it will cause premature rotting of the fence pickets. If you have a better pic of the area, I might be able to give you some other ideas of what to do. Try taking a pic while standing in the yard, so I can see under the tree.

Will add my 2 cents. I don't see anything that really concerns me in the pictures. I don't see any signs of disease. Overall the plants looks fine. I start 5-7 hundred a year. Not all will look picture perfect. I'm not sure what Age Old Grow is. There are organic methods you can use to feed the plants while in potting soil. Fish/seaweed solutions are one. I use a soybean based organic feed sometimes. Many of the germinating mixes don't have any nutrients in them as the commercial growers transplant shortly after germination. I let some go hungry for a week this year. I would just feed them a little with something and you will have nice plants. If you want to stay the organic route the fish/seaweeds solutions are a good choice. If not any of the blue water solutions work well. I like the middle number to be high. I usually use what they call a rooting/blooming formula. It develops a great root system on a plant. Hope you have a great 011 gardening season. Jay

I'm so sorry about your reno fatigue--that can be overwhelming sometimes. I would say that whether or not you are up to the delays, etc that are involved w/ redoing the tile is a decision for you and dh to make. However, if choose to have it redone, I would strongly encourage you to reconsider paying out of pocket for more tile. It sounds like you did your homework about this tile, discussed it beforehand w/ the GC, and have had realistic expectations of what is acceptable. This is installer error, thus the burden to pay for a fix *is not on you*. Given your good working relationship w/ the GC, hopefully all will proceed peacefully. And I suspect your dh would be much more amenable to a re-do if there is no cost to y'all. I know mine would be! p.s. It is definitely easier/less labor to remove before grouting. p.p.s. If you do start over, you might want to indicate w/ an arrow on the back of each sheet of tile which way is "up". Although I still don't think that is your responsibility to take care of that, it might facilitate a faster, more successful install ;-)

These jades don't care for our hot wet summers. While many have reported that they are prone to brown spots, mine gets full blown edema if I am not careful. Here's a thread on just this problem - http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3509597/those-darn-brown-spots-on-jades Good for you in deciding to repot. That is often the root of the problem - pun intended!