First, why would you want to try to grow vegetables in the shade? They need full sun. Second, putting 10" of soil on top of the root system of an established tree is almost certain death from suffocation. Try just the opposite. Build your raised beds between the driplines of the trees where they would get at least a few hours of sun each day.

I don't know how big the giant pumpkin is yet. It weighs over 20 kgs as I compared it to the weight of the kids :) It is small compared to what it is supposed to be but the fall from the tree didn't help. It has really only grown properly on one side as the other side is a bit deformed. We just planted some more seedlings & seeds in the garden at home yesterday - tomatoes, lettuce, corn cucumber & silverbeet. The school garden is going slowly as the main teacher who organised the garden was transferred and another teacher could be transferred yet so no-one really wants to plan too much. We did a bit of planting & weeding yesterday in the school garden though so it isn't being neglected. Hopefully in the next week or so it will be sorted out.

Heya Everyone :) Thanks for the time to email me and the information. Its given me hope ( Yay! ) I appreciate the advice :D thanks!! Seems like my special mix may have been overkill then. Sooo....im going to mix up a trailer load of mushy compost, manure etc and leave it sit outside for a while to rot a bit and then try again. I think ill try different methods and see what happens. I bought a probe today :D and i can test for things like light, PH, and a few things, then ill be able to get a better idea what types of soil mixes I have made. Alisonoz , i had that in the back of my mind too about transplant shock and your right in that we have had some horrible heats here which is unusual for the area, so the combination along with the fertilizers was probably overkill... The fruit trees i bought are varied species of Pair, Grape, Apple, Peach, Nectarine, Cherry, Berry, Plumb, Mulberry and Nut trees. Some are varied species so im told needed to cross pollinate (I think it is called?..) also got a couple of other fruits Ive not seen or eaten before ( cant recall the fruit name on those ). Anyway i hired an excavator, got some pretty big holes dug out about a meter or more round and 2 meters deep ( at least ). I put each fruit tree into its hole making sure the trees were not too low or too high - but just right as they were in the bags (had to back fill the holes to get the level right but the ground got a good churn in doing that). I have planted about 20 fruit trees now, cant recall the bag sizes but they were like 25 , 50 , and I think 75 liter bags ?? (mixed sizes). I just went crazy and bought a bunch of trees. I also bought a bunch of other things outside of the fruits like weeping willow Crab Apple, Japanese Maples etc to spread out around the land. All the trees were planted in 100% soil - i did not add a thing at roots level on any tree, but once planted I did use that same mulch mix that I used for the vegies on top of the ground around each tree.... .. .. Ill keep and eye on the trees and see if they begin to look sick or anything, most of the fruits had small fruit beginning to grow at purchase. Well thanking you all again for the messages and pm`s. I really appreciate the time to reply to me with help :D I have a feeling Ill be back lol - but I hope with good news :) My best Nathan.

As silica said citrus have shallow roots but you DO need to remove that grass from inside the water ring by the citrus, grass is very prolific and can uptake nutrients more quickly than citrus roots can i believe now that you have gotten rid of the rootstock feeder branches that were robbing nutrients if you get rid of the grass that is also robbing the nutrients you will see some great color improvement and rapid growth improvement on that lemon tree. i would get down there and pull the grass out by hand shouldnt take more than a half hour do that and get all that grass out then stay on top of it once a week.