A more shallow watering, particularly during summer, over tree roots isn't necessarily the worst idea. Those tree roots suck up water like nobody's business, so more frequent watering will be required in this case. We're talking twice a week, maybe three times if the weather is blisteringly hot. It's very hard to keep grass in a shady area! If you use synthetic fertilizer, feed normally--it boosts the grass too much and it's easy to put down excessive nitrogen on lawn that doesn't see enough sun to photosynthesize. Most of the benefit from fertilization goes to the trees, which isn't a mistake. Organically, pour it on. This is less to feed the grass than it is to transform the soil to hold more water. And by all means, use the shampoo. Worst case, it can't hurt. Best case, it'll lighten and loosen the soils and hold more water! Reseeding every fall is probably in your future, grasses really don't like heavy shade. Avoid bluegrass as it loathes even light shade, and favor the fescues as they do better and have deeper roots. It's worth looking into grass varieties that tolerate a little more shade (no grass species tolerates full shade). You'll still need to reseed--just less often! Red creeping fescue might be a good choice for you (it's green, not red!) It's pretty shade tolerant, but...well, you'll need to reseed. Perennial ryegrass is a fast sprouter that'll look good for about a year, but will still need reseeding in fall. Fortunately, reseeding is not difficult and the grass develops so quickly that this might be the simplest answer for you. Plus rye is a nice grass, tolerant of drier conditions, and feels nice underfoot. White Dutch clover is shade tolerant and adding some to your mix will give you a greenery cover at grass height that looks good even when the grass doesn't. You may not want clover, however--I sure understand that!

When was the last time you used one of these spikes? These are meant to be use on in ground trees as they are too strong for containers. These are also supposed to be used every 3 months as they are slow release. Even if you crush the spike up its still a bad idea. Your trees may be suffering from fertilizer overdose.The burned tips of the leaves are a sign of fertilizer burn. If this is the case you will need to remove it from the soil its in and plant into fresh unfertilized well draining soil. You can do this without disturbing the roots too much. When you have the root ball out, inspect it for any signs of rot. Re pot the tree and water well. Keep the tree out of direct sunlight for a few weeks and re acclimatize it to full sun slowly over a week or so. As far as which is which, check the flowers on the taller one. Lemons aill have a slight purple tings to the blossoms. You can asls bend one of the leaves. The lime will have a distinct lime scent. Andi

I know this is VERY late - don't know if you will ever even see this posting at all - but for what its worth here goes. I am growing M. koenigii in fiber (fabric) pots. They have been in a mixture of either peat+bark (MM Soil pep in fact) + Growstone (GS2) or peat+bagged mix+GS2 Growstone when I couldn't get MM Soil Pep or anything like it any more. They were originally in a peat+bagged container mix when I started them from seed. It has been 3 years since they were potted up into the fiber plant bags and Growstone-based mix. Some were planted into a gritty-like mix - all of those have either been repotted into a Growstone mix where they are gamely struggling to catch up to their heartier brothers, or - they just flat out died. M. koenigii is a member of the citrus family, a cousin of the so-called "true" citrus such as lemons and oranges etc. I see no reason why what works for my M. koenigii wouldn't work for your citrus as well. You can get the Growstone from a hydroponics store. If they don't have it in stock, they should be able to order it for you. A 1.5 cu ft bag cost me around $35 the last time I bought one, a couple of years ago. That may seem steep at first but the stuff is easily recycled and reused, and it prevents compaction to the point where I've not had to repot for the entire 3 year period and will repot next spring only because most of the plants need to be potted up anyway. You want the middle size - GS2 - not the larger chunks nor the small gritty stuff sold for gnat control. Could be worth a try for you. Handing issues - it is dusty straight out of the bag, and since it is recycled glass, you don't want to breathe that dust. A 99c dust mask from Home Despot should be all you need. You need to rinse the dust off/out of it when you pop the bag open. Put it in a big tub of water and swish it around to de-dust it. If you're reusing/recycling - still put it in a big tub of water and swish it around - the spent organic matter will mostly fall to the bottom and you can just scoop the remaining Growstone into a bucket of bleach water to sterilize. I only sterilize when recycyling, don't see a need for it straight out of the bag. My initial mix proportions were 3:2:1 peat-bark-Growstone but that soon devolved to just mixing it all together until it "looked right". Especially after the MM Soil Pep wasn't available anymore and I was down to just peat and whatever bagged container mix I could find and afford that didn't have any sand in it and at least LOOKED like it had a fair amount of bark in it. It doesn't seem to have mattered, all my curry leaf trees that were initially planted into a Growstone mix at the same time (about 3 years ago) are roughly the same size and robustness. There may be issues of pH but if so, under my local conditions, it doesn't seem to have mattered. Plus all that peat moss is pretty acidic. But then my local water is pretty alkaline at about 9. At any rate it is working for me.

Danielle, I checked posts above and I didn't see what you eventually potted this anthurium in. If you're letting the mix dry to an inch or two down, you're watering is okay. You'll get used to what it looks like after a particular number of days and you won't need a tool to check it. Do you think you're overwatering based only on the yellowing of leaf edges? I'm not very checked out on deficiencies, but I did look at a couple of websites on the subject and saw some pics with similar damage that's on your leaves. Have you fertilized this plant since you've had it? Russ