I'm not sure where you are in the Bay Area. I buy all my soil and compost from Wheeler Zamaroni in Santa Rosa. I filled my beds with their "veggie mix" soil. This year, I've amended it with their Compost Plus compost. Have been extremely happy with both. There's also Sonoma Compost company in Petaluma where friends have bought their Mallard Plus compost to amend their in-ground garden beds. And I know of another one in Santa Rosa but can't recall the name. They sell Mango Mulch which is supposed to be very good (Renee?). Here is a link that might be useful: Loribees Garden Blog

I am in Christchurch, New Zealand, Latitude 42 S, and we can get some pretty severe frosts. I am growing this in a container against a north facing brick wall under an overhanging eave, and last winter I enclosed the plant in a mini greenhouse standing on end. Even so the temperature fell several degrees below freezing, but the plant did not go dormant. I only got 4 or 5 fruit off it in the first year, mostly ripening over the first winter. This year I have already had 4 or 5 fruit and there are another 9 or 10 ready to be picked, 19 or 20 immature and developing fruit and lots of flowers! I dont think that you will need more than one plant!! (Sorry about the image being on its side).

that sounds right in the ball park... we just ordered from Trustone in the city for $5200 for one cut out.. 2 slabs and aprox.68 sq. ft. United Marble through Pacific Sales was just about the same price. Those 2 place where the most reasonable. Pacific Sales charges per sq. ft. @ $70 sq. ft + cut outs. that sounds very reasonable for 3-4 cutouts. They charge a lot for cut outs... between $250-400 per cutout. I got 7 quotes in the bay area and those 2 fabricators were the most competitive.

I think soaking is personal preference, it's to get the bark saturated since it's naturally hydrophobic. Some people soak it for a couple hours, some overnight, some not at all. I usually soak it for a couple hours. When I'm making gritty mix I just pour it through a strainer to drain it, but for 5-1-1 I find it's easier to mix all the ingredients when the bark is dry, so I just wet it down and let it soak together, then drain from the pot. I doubt it makes much difference, I just try to keep the mess to a minimum! You can tell when it needs to be watered by sticking a wooden chopstick into the mix, let it sit for a few, then pull it out and see if it's wet. As soon as it comes out dry it's time to water again. Ideally, you would flush the soil with each watering, which means watering just enough to wet the soil, waiting 10 min or so, and then watering through again until you've seen at least ~10% of the water (more is ok) exiting the drainage hole. That will prevent excess salts from building up in the soil over time. As long as the drainage holes are in the bottom of the pot, you're good, you don't need one right in the center. If they are on the sides of the pot such that there will be soil in the pot below the level of the holes, I'd drill another one in the bottom. You don't need super thrive. Once you've planted, water with just plain water initially, then as soon as you see new growth on the plant, start using the foliage pro. i just saw you were going to plant today so maybe I'm too late with this response, but I bet you did just fine!