I tend to be very sceptical of 'miracle' products like Eleanor's fertilizer and Superthrive that use broad & vague rhetoric to tell you they do everything but cook a perfect 2-minute egg. If it worked like they want to believe it works, they would assuredly lay out the mechanism by which it works to satisfy the sceptics & even the cynics, thereby separating them from the ability to taint the manufacturers sweeping claims. It's sort of like the gritty mix or FP 9-3-6. I can recommend these products for container culture & make help you believe they will work because I can explain why and how they work in a way that leaves you feeling satisfied that your odds of seeing them as beneficial are very good. The many others adding their voices don't hurt, either. OTOH, we can see that it's difficult to sell heavy, peat-based soils when we look critically at them from the plant's perspective - or with the aim of optimizing growth and vitality. There will always be as few people who LOVE these heavy soils for whatever reason, but when it comes to convincing the masses that they truly ARE the best from the plant's perspective, the conversation usually finds them coming up short because of inherent issues that are very difficult to remedy. The same can be said of certain types of fertilizers. As a result, FloraNectar ensures optimal metabolic rates during the flowering and fruiting phase when nitrogen levels have been reduced. How can they make this claim? How can they 'ensure' anything optimal? FloraNectar fulfills the additional energy requirements of your plants throughout all phases of growth and during stressful times of transition. How? Plants' only source of energy comes from the sun & is stored in the sugars, starches, oils, and other bio-compounds they manufacture themselves .... When it comes to horticultural products, if it SEEMS too good to be true, there's a very strong likelihood it isn't. It doesn't bother me that some one else might be convinced of the product's value, but personally, I need a lot more convincing & something with a little more substance to sink my teeth into before I take the hook. ;-) AL

You have to keep reminding yourself that this won't be a quick project. Since you're starting from scratch on a difficult area, I'd guess this will take several years of trial and error to get a look you're happy with. The stepping areas and feeders/birdbath are great ideas. There isn't much point in adding a lot of mulch to an area that you're not ready to plant yet - certainly add an inch or two, if you think it'll stay there. It will break down and the soil will be better when you get to planting the area, but until you get some rooted plants into that area the new soil and the mulch will erode a bit. I wouldn't pull up the weeds - their roots will help stabilize the area until you're ready to tackle it. You can dump some mulch on them and it'll help kill off the bits growing above ground without removing the roots. If you spray with Round Up (might not be allowed anymore in Halifax area?) that will kill off the weeds without removing the roots, but... Round Up takes a few days to a few weeks to break down, and you've got a slope where the rain will run down and wash that stuff onto your lawn or other plants. Might not be a wise idea :-) I would just dump mulch onto them a couple of times a year and gently pull out what is really loose. It takes longer, but you are solving the poor soil problem that way too. In general I am not a fan of herbicides and pesticides since almost all problems they are used for can be sloved with better cultural practices or gardening techniques. I don't know if this would work for you, but if you want to add a lot of mulch right now, and have it stay put, you could place chicken wire or hardware cloth over the mulch (pin the chicken wire to the ground with stakes). A heavy rain might erode some of it, especially in the steeper parts, but it would help a bit at least. About your seeds you plan to use next spring - a word of caution. Seeds are a great way to fill up the slope quickly and without breaking the bank, but stay away from the generic 'wildflower' mixes you can get in Canadian Tire and places like that. They contain a lot of weedy seeds and very few seeds of plants you actually want to have growing there. Buy a good quality wildflower mix - it won't be that much more expensive and it'll be a major improvement over the cheaper stuff. Seeds can wash away fairly easily, so you might want to consider laying down some thin jute or burlap to sow them in or under (that protective burlap you get to wrap shrubs in the winter would work). Sow then as soon as the snow melts. Or you could wintersow them (or some of them) in containers and plant the resulting seedlings in your nooks and crannies. The Japanese Maple being shallow rooted might be a problem if you were planting it directly on the slope. Shallow rooted plants will have a harder time staying put on a slope, but if you build it a nice sized terrace, then it might be perfect. Select one that is hardier than would normally be necessary for your area because of the cold flowing downhill problem. You have a swampy lawn huh? That's a drainage problem. You have neighbours higher up the hill than you do? That's almost certainly where your water is coming from. Peat moss might mop up a bit of water, but I doubt it'd solve your problem. A permanent fix would be to regrade your lawn, but that's not cheap (or have your neighbour regrade his, but that's a lot to ask from a neighbour). You could also install a French drain type of thing to drain the water to a lower lying area or drain - that's cheaper, and a do-it-yourself project if you want, but still a lot of work. You could decide to grow a bog garden in that spot - irises, cannas, lots of neat grasses... I think your slope provides you with some really neat garden terrain - my 'fantasy garden' always has a nice terraced slope full of plants, but it is going to be more challenging than building 'ye olde generic bed'. BP

Hey mountaineergirl! Glad to know I'm not the only one from "Almost Heaven West Virginia!" I'm from the big city of Charleston -- fourth generation (at least); went off to college in central Kentucky, seminary on Boston's North Shore, honeymooned across America with everything I owned in a UHaul truck to settle in Los Angeles for 4 years, then came back east, inside the Capital Beltway in Maryland for 6 years, then finally home again, home again to Charlie West. Like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home!"

Gems and jewels : uncut stones and objects d'art--Henri Jean Schubnel