Is the area that is turning brown in someway being distressed by lack of sun or space? Are the others candeling when they should? When was it planted? Can you post pictures of this one as well as the others? Sometimes there is winter kill to one and not the others, it could be that. Or it could be a combination of that and wind. The soil although ammended as you say can be a factor. However I am assuming the others are doing fine in the same type of soil. Just wondering if this particular one has different light, heat, moisure exposure.

We prepped our house for sale in June and I thought we'd need to put a lot of money into it. Our realtor said repeatedly, "Do not do anything beyond repairs and finishing projects!" I didn't believe her, but she was right! Our place sold in one day, above asking price. Find a great realtor and do what he/she says is my best advice. If you need a realtor recommendation and know of Dave Ramsey, you could try one of his Endorsed Local Providers (ELPs.) Beyond cleaning, cleaning, cleaning some more and putting neutral paint on the wall you're not going to recoup your investment 100%. You will likely sell your home faster, though. I would check craigslist.org I just did a quick search of our local craigslist and someone is selling a basic, complete white wood 10x10' kitchen with built in oven and a dishwasher for less than $1000. It looks like there are also a lot of complete honey-oak cabinets. A lot of those are in excellent condition, they're just not popular here and people are taking them out. I've read that Habitat for Humanity Restore is a great store for kitchen cabinets as well. There's a good chance there's a REstore near you. I've seen them all over when traveling. Another option is a cabinet outlet. There's a cabinet outlet here that sells super basic cabinets for cheap. I've never priced them out, but you might look into a similar store in your area. We have used prefab laminate counters from Lowes (or maybe it was HD) and I think it was less than $300 for a DIY of an 8x8 condo kitchen. My friends bought their laminate counter in the As-is section of Ikea for a great, discount price because there was a bit of damage on the end of a long run. Good luck!

Alku: we intend on getting more bids, but between the cabinet bids(2) and construction bid (1) , it got me thinking in a less expensive direction! We will definitely pursue more bids and I think from what I have read here, we should be able to at least get the cabinet bids decreased in 1/2 if we shop around.That is really encouraging that your estimates on $/sq ft ranged that much. So hopefully we will find a happy middle ground somewhere.Thankyou! It just made me think, what can we do with what we have if we got more creative and tried to avoid an 'addition'. So will see what both options come up with! Remodelfla: the alcove has sliders at the north side and a window which goes almost to the floor but that can be changed.The sliders could be taken out. New sliders can't go on the FR wall -this backs up to the 'breakfast/dining room' which opens to a small porch -so access to patio could be via the porch or a single door possibly off the dining room on the east wall if needed. We no longer need the table in the kitchen since we have the dining room right there (previously our play room) BUT we would love an island for seating in the kitchen. SO that is the big ??? is , is this worth $100K+ to do an addition to accomodate an island OR can it be put in by simply redoing interior walls rather than exterior/addition? The idea of cabinetry in the alcove area is interesting as a start to all of this. I don't know if this will help or confuse things... this is the photo with the new addition. I drew in red lines to roughly indicate the current walls of our existing kitchen. But maybe this is easier to read then the above photo which I know isn't the best -its' hard to show the entire 1st floor without making it small.

MsGirl: Marine Cuisine with NPK 10-7-7 has both organic materials and chemical nitrogen. Here's the ingredients: " Cottonseed meal, blood meal, earthworm castings, fish meal, shrimp meal, crab meal, bat guano, seabird guano kelp meal, urea, ammonium sulphate, calcium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, Treble phosphate, potassium sulphate, potassium chloride, ferrous sulphate, iron sucrate, manganese sucrate." The ammonium (chemical nitrogen) in Marine Cuisine is what makes more leaves than flowers. Quick chemical nitrogen isn't best as solids, since that burns in hot weather. SOLUBLE chemical nitrogen doesn't hurt much in hot weather, if one use 1/2 teas. per gallon, that gets flush out with water (nitrogen mobility is a 10). But chemical nitrogen in GRANULAR, solid-form really burns in hot weather. Chemical nitrogen plus slow-released organics is a bad-combo, I burnt plenty of roses with NPK 10-5-4 (has chemical nitrogen plus chicken manure). Kelp is much higher in salt in spirulina, that's why when I read the negative reviews for Maxicorp Kelp powder (soluble), one person gave it thumb-down, citing that he/she got better result with spirulina. I tried spirulina before in protein-shake: very low-salt, and gave me energy. My neighbor lost A LOT of weight with that protein-shake. Spirulina is better for plants, since it's higher in iron & more nutrients, plus MUCH LOWER IN SALT than kelp. An excerpt from below link: "Spirulina avoids the sodium problems of algae that grow in the sea, yielding only 0.2 mg of sodium per tablet. All Natural Hawaiian Spirulina Pacifica is a pure natural super greenfood, containing protein, betacarotene, and essential vitamins & minerals. Spirulina has 2300% more iron than spinach, 3900% more beta carotene than carrots, 300% more calcium than whole milk, and 375% more protein than tofu. " http://www.amazon.com/Nutrex-Hawaiian-Spirulina-Pacifica-16-Ounce/dp/B0039ITKR4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 Some people are allergic to spirulina and develop a rash. I didn't have any problems with that. Amazon reviews stated that Spirulina powder is nasty in taste, so it would be great for plants. http://www.naturalways.com/spirulina-analysis.htm