Images 10-12 -- Probably one of the Coreopsis lanceolata-grandiflora hybrids. There are numerous named varieties of this, the oldest and most common ones being 'Early Sunrise' and 'Sunray'. It usually puts on a big show in early summer, then is done unless you deadhead religiously. It's a short-lived perennial but reseeds readily. When crowded it gets floppy, but if given adequate space it's a sturdy, good looking plant. Image 14 looks like Rudbeckia fulgida, probably the cultivar known as 'Goldsturm', since vast numbers have been planted by gardeners in the last 20 years. It's a black-eyed susan. It will also self-sow, but the parent plant will live quite a while, too.

PG brings up a good point - as there are stars in the sky, Ashley, there are potting mix recipes by folks who know how it's done correctly. What matters is what works for you and what's available to you. I have a book that has 27 different soil recipes for cacti - it's the height of absurdity, IMO (but still pretty admirable) but some folks enjoy getting utterly multiple-ingredient-specific in making their mixes. I think at my most obsessive I was putting 5-6 things in for mine, but I had a ready source of good building blocks - pumice, top soil, thrice-sifted decomposed granite sand, bone meal, sometimes coir, and small granite chunkettes went into the potted plant soil. The PIGs (thank you, RoRo!), when they went into the ground, got soil that was saved from repotted plants. Anyway, it's both an exact (the ingredients) and an inexact (your growing conditions and culture) science. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to reconcile the two.

Louise Soil could be wet deep inside, even if top is dry. it all depends on what it consists of. Best way to find out is to use bamboo or other wood skewer or chopstick, that will reach deep down into pt. Extra water accumulates there, and it could keep your soil mix wet. It is impossible to guess what the bugs are without photo and sometimes even with photo :) I understand that it is very difficult to photo very small bugs. Could be springtails (they come in many different sizes, colors and shapes), soil mites, root aphids...and many. many more. It is possible for bagged soil to be infected, but bugs still need certain conditions they like to thrive and multiply. More organics in your mix and more water + higher temps and/or humidity, better environments there is for many bugs. Common advice is not to use things like worm castings in potting mix. They are great for gardens, not so much in containers. (from wiki): Springtails commonly consume fungal hyphae and spores, but also have been found to consume plant material and pollen, animal remains, colloidal materials, minerals and bacteria. ETA: I just looked up Ecothrive Charge. It is beetle poop - so you are adding more poop to your pots, together with worm poop. ..."Laboratory tests have shown that Charge consistently contains more than 450 million colony forming units of beneficial rhizosphere bacteria per gram! "... It also states: ..."Charge is a 100% naturally-produced potting soil enhancer ..." Soil enhancer is not fertilizer IIRC.

The layers do look like the rock lathe in my house. One other tell-tale sign is that rock-lathe usually came in 4'x4' sheets, so when you demo it you will see more joints between the first layer of rock lathe sheets. In some areas in my house the top coat on the plaster appears to be just a white wall-paper. It is even more obvious on the ceiling, where you can see the edge of the paper when you remove a light fixture. The explanation I have seen online is that the old mix for plaster needed to set up for quite some time before being painted, so sometimes they just applied smooth white wallpaper over it to provide a smooth finish when the house was new. Later on they painted over it or added patterned wallpaper. Even modern plaster sometimes has recommendations to let it set for 4-6 weeks before painting. although many folks apply paint much sooner. Bruce