Where in the world you are can be of tremendous assistance to some of us, although my soil is sand while my sisters soil (6 miles west of me) is clay. Usually sand atop a clay base indicates that someone dumped some sand there in an attempt to have a soil kind of easier to cultivate then the clay would be. The clay, under that sand, will keep that sand from draining properly, two different soil types with vastly different drainage capabilities. I would talk with the people at your local office of your state universities Cooperative Extension Service to find out what your soil type shoulld be.

Someone here is having good results with amending clay with 50 percent sand and then topping the area with sandy loam. The nurseryman who runs Laguna Hills Nsy and gave the soils class takes the stock he buys and removes most of the mix around the roots. Then he replaces it in peat moss, perlite, pumice,sand and some charcoal. He would add more sand in the mix he sells bagged but the bags would rip or be too expensive to ship. The charcoal is there because the world's best soils have some charcoal content. A building supply in Costa Mesa sells something called Rick's mix that is sandy loam and decomposed granite for improving clay. I have used the best potting mixes I could buy and watch the plants die off in a year. With the mix from Laguna Hills, it doesn't happen. Now I use a mix of my own soil, sand and the Laguna Hills formula. I have been making charcoal all winter and sifting it to throw out the ash which is alkaline. In the old days the nurseries planted in Sandy loam and sold bareroot. No one amended the holes or they planted high in large mounds or raised beds if drainage was poor. Now the wholesalers who planted in real soil are being edged out by those who plant in composted wood. The plants grow fast and are lighter to ship but eventually the breakdown of the planting material kills the plant. You can slow the process by letting the mix dry out almost completely before watering again, but it stresses the plants, especially in our warm climate. In the old days, a nursery could water every day with no root problems at all. A nursery could keep their stock for years and water every day and feed once a month until it sold. Now it's a race to sell the plant before the mix degrades and the roots die. The nurseries have to move their stock quick before then. Even if you plant it in good soil, the plant might not make it to five years because the mix around the trunk has become poisonous to the plant. Some plants grow fast enough to get roots out beyond into good soil. Arborists use augers to drill out holes around the trunk and backfill with sand to get the oxygen into the toxic area. You can also dig into one side and replace with 100 percent soil and six months later do the other side. The formula is stay away from three times the diameter of the trunk when removing roots. That was the formula for moving plants sold in soil wrapped with burlap. Any plant you fix needs to be shaded for two weeks. You can also help them by spraying the leaves with 1 gallon water 1 oz Karo syrup 1 oz seaweed 1 oz fish fertilizer a little wetting agent I hope this helps anyone trying to save a plant. I think it's rotten that plants are being sold that they know will have problems later on. People think it's their fault. The landscape reflects the trend towards only plants that can overcome the crappy potting mix and we all get taught wrongly to add this stuff to the soil at planting time.

NPK numbers on the fertilizer gives percentages of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potash (K) in the fertilizer. Starter fertilizer has a lot of phosphorus. For a deficit in both phosphorus and potassium, you could use a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 20-20-20 (sometimes referred to as "garden fertilizer"). If the deficit is just potassium, you could look for a fertilizer with no phosphorus and a good dose of potassium along with the nitrogen. Sulfate of potassium (0-0-50) is great for a potassium-only deficit but you are unlikely to find that at a big box store. Soil tests usually don't measure nitrogen because it varies so much in any given soil and the measurement is meaningless. So instead you supply nitrogen accordingly to the estimated annual need for the kind of grass. If there are shortages in both magnesium and potassium, KMag or Sul-Po-Mag is a good amendment to use. Unlikely to find that at a big box store.

Thank you all. There's a lot to learn from your comments. I live in an urban residential area and, while I wish I can use some of the creative organic solutions with manure, I'm afraid it's not possible for me given the proximity of our lots. That said, I'm encouraged to learn that horse manure is less smelly because we can get it for free in our area. Great to hear that many of you are using leaves and I keep scratching my head why I haven't thought of it sooner instead of wasting on their cleanup and collection. It sounds that roses are not too selective about the mulch material which will make it fun and interesting to experiment by rotating between them. The only trouble is that whatever decomposes faster and amends the soil also encourages weeds, but underplanting our roses more densely with perennials might be the way to control it.