i had great luck with Mel's mix last year. so far, so good this year. i didn't use mushroom compost last year, though i am trying some in 1 of 6 boxes this year. i think i had a few mushrooms grow last year under some plants when we had a lot of constant rain. they were only where it was damp and shady, so i am not totally surprised. it only happened that one time. personally my compost mix was a blend of what i could produce at home (leaves, grass, vegetable scraps) supplemented with some from nurseries. i pretty much stayed with the plant composts. i'm vegetarian and didn't really want to deal with cow or chicken waste mixed into my food. i have a bit of paranoia about what those animals are fed and what comes out. that's just me, but even with my relatively selective compost mixtures i got great results with Mel's Mix. the soil in my yard is not any good for growing (clay) and this is a lot easier than trying to change the ground. one thing in support of Mel's Mix (for the suspicious types).... got to any garden place and look for the (organic?) Miracle Grow garden/vegetable soil. if you read the ingredients you will see that it is not "dirt". it's a roughly even mix of peat moss, compost and perlite. perlite is similar, in function, to vermiculite. the square foot gardening site and books have a lot of their explanations as to why they feel vermiculite is superior to perlite (basically it holds a lot more water). anyway..... the point is that one of the biggest commercial sellers of gardening soil is basically selling some that is very close to Mel's Mix in ever gardening center, hardware store, Walmart etc across the country. if you have a need for any substantial quantity then you can see how much cheaper it is to make your own mix. i have not had your issue with the plants being yellow. as far as i know they all seem healthy. some plants seem to be slow to grow at first, but other are not, so i am guessing it's just that plant? i do not have a lot of years experience, so i can not compare it to proper traditional row planting. that was always a mess for us (due to clay like soil).

I for one think everyone has had a great comment here, and I would combine the answers into one plan! If this were my yard, I would enlarge that paved area by about three times - at least out to the ac unit and out to the line of the downspout. I think having that paved area (whether it's concrete, stones, pavers, whatever) would just help define the area, and as it stands now that walkway is too tiny and utilitarian. A bigger area will give some definition to the area as an entryway, a sitting area, etc, and look better in scale to the house. Might even be nice to have a pathway connect from that to whatever other path/walkway you have in the yard. I can't tell from the photo if there is already one there or that is just dirt. I have three rain barrels, and love them. I should note that not a one is connected to a downspout, as DH won't hear of cutting into the downspouts, so I can only dream of the abundance of water I'd have if I did! However, even without that, mine do fill up slowly but nicely, and I do use them with watering cans, either dipped in, or under the spigot, as my barrels are on cinderblocks to give just enough height to get a watering can under. These rain barrels help me cut down on my well use, and IMO are a great idea in general in terms of water conservation. I'm not quite sure WHERE you want to put a garden - along the wall where the ac unit is? To the left of the photo where that bag is? Extending it out from the bag to cover that green area? Is that where the moss is? IMO, you can have a garden almost anywhere, if you have the right plant for the spot. I've put in a bog-type garden in an area where it floods every spring, and which sometimes has standing water well into August. Again, it's the matter of the right plant. Determine just how wet this area is, and do your homework researching plants that like that moisture level and the sun levels you have. Amending the soil helps, but do it as nature would - don't try to change the soil there, but enhance it. It will take some trial and error but I'm sure it can be done. There are many plants you can use. As for moss, I too don't understand why some people dislike it so much. I had a friend who I used to help in her garden, and we live in a very wooded area. She had a quite damp yard, and lots of shade and trees, and along the edge of the lawn she had these wide swaths of moss - a good 10 to 15 feet deep from edge of lawn to woods. She tried for years to get rid of it and get grass to grow. I always told her it looked wonderful, it was soft, green, and from a distance who could tell? She was constantly worried about the resale value of not having a lawn (and it's going on a least 25 years that she's been in the house and worrying about this!). The one downfall to moss, IMO, is that it does rake up very easily when you are raking up leaves, so that is a pain. But other than that, if its green and nothing else will grow there (in terms of lawn, not garden), then that is the plant to have there! I don't know. I guess I'm just a big believer in working with nature and not against her. Good luck and keep us posted on your evolving garden! Dee

I'm west of you in Martinsville, VA and also had awesome results from overseeding last fall, but made 2 mistakes which I will remedy this year: 1. No pre-M in fall, which resulted in massive Chickweed bloom that I had to battle into late spring. I'm adding Tenacity at overseeding and a pre-M 6-8 weeks later as well. 2. No fungicide in spring, which resulted in large Brown Spot outbreak in May and killed a lot of my new grass in the back yard. So, next April-May (when nightly temps hit 70F), I'll be putting down a fungicide. I like your plan and agree with the above posts. Good luck and pray for rain soon!!

Actually, Gelsemium sempervirens Margarita should be hardy for you - there's a Rhode Island gardener (6b) who has posted photos of its winter blooms on the New England forum. It has survived in my garden for 4 years, but has not done well; while Margarita is hardier than most Gelsemium sempervirens, my zone 5a is too cold for it to be happy. I may try it in a pot so I can give it some winter shelter. I found that Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' retained some of its leaves for me last winter which was an unusually warm one for central NH, though usually it drops them all in late fall/early winter. Mine still has flowers on it now, though we have been having hard freezes for 5-6 weeks, so it might well bloom in winter for you. Mine blooms from some time in June until late fall with the most blooms in early summer, but it continues to push flowers on new growth. I don't know if all Lonicera sempervirens do this, but Major Wheeler is a very long bloomer. I'd start working on removing the ivy if possible.