I have enough room to have more than one pile. Anything that I want NO WHERE NEAR the garden; i.e. thistle, blackberry, mullein, etc. goes in a large unkempt cold pile that is located NO WHERE NEAR the garden. I turn it a few times a year and just let Mother Nature do her thing. That pile currently houses many a mouse, lizard, and volunteer potato plants. Our regular kitchen scraps along with small, easy browns go in the black plastic bin with screw-top lid that is conveniently located next to the garden gate. Everything else goes in a set of 4X4X4 orchard bins that I alternate when I get around to turning. I call them the Bulk Bins. Surplus coffee grounds, leaves, shredded wood debris, wheelbarrows full of weeds/grass clippings. . .it all goes in. But I understand many people simply don't have the space. In which case I would say bury it in the middle and hope for the best, or burn it (if possible) and use the ash in the compost. I also find that when things do start sprouting up (dredded maple seedlings)a few well timed turns of the pile keep them from getting established. Good luck!

Jr, Welcome to my hill, but mine is sandy, has competion of live oak trees, and the soil is terrible. My hill is steep, hard to get a wheel barrel up, I go at an angle, and for the past 5 years, I have been growing things on it. I don't use weed cloth. Basically because I could care less about weeds. Sometimes in the morning I will weed, but if you have enough plants, you won't get too many bad weeds. Your going to slide all over with that stupid weed cloth anyway, and the weeds grow right through it. From what I have learned, unfortunately the hard way is, Rocks are your friend. I bought rocks every year for the past 5 years and keep placing them. There is no way I could get that many rocks in my car and do it all in one year. Plant some tall shrubs, it shelters in rain, and when they grow in, provides a little bit of shade for the other plants. Use lots of composted cow manure when you plant. I never rake too many leaves off the hill, only when they are excessive. I buy the specail mulch from Home Depo, it is shredding for hills, it doens't move in a bad rain storm. It is cypress and says on the bag, Stays Where you put it. It is better than pine straw. I used both, the mulch from HD is better. I planted these plants, Daylillies- best hill plants in the world. St. Johns Wort- must rake leaves around these, they don't like them. Little Princess spirea- unbelievably hardy. Boxwood- they anchor things down. Broom, strong as an ox Crape myrtle, it won't die. Vinca Sedum Chaste tree, it was growing wild on my front lawn, one of my volunteers, so I put on hill, it is doing alright. Ornamental grasses, anchors. My blue rug junipers arent' doing too well, but still alive. Well, good luck, and have patience, it'll take alot. LOL!

Let's start with the basic answer. NO! NEVER use weed n feed products. If you have weeds, use a spray type herbicide and spot spray the weeds lightly. If you need fertilizer use a fertilizer only. Weed n Feed product are too hard to use and typically don't give the effect you think it will. Too good to be true. If the grass started to germinate at 2.5 weeks it could be either fescue or Kentucky bluegrass. Rye would have popped up in a few days. Now if you had not been watering it 3x daily for that 2.5 weeks, and it popped up after the rain storm, then it is either crabgrass or rye grass. Time will tell. Spring is a poor time to seed in the north. If this does not work out for you, reseed in early September. Oh, where in NY? Long Island is much different from Buffalo.

Karen I was going through pumice like it was going out if style;). That was truly the main reason why I started buying perlite again. But then I noticed the perlite really lightened the load. Not so heavy and dense. I feel like the perlite is great for aeration and the pumice is good at water retention. Personally I like the particles in my mix all different sizes. The pieces of pumice are slightly bigger than the perlite. Westes, I know you don't like the look of pumice, but give it a try. It's really wonderful. Pumice is one of the best things you can use in your mix. I can understand not using it because it's too expensive, but not because of esthetic reasons. There is so much info out there on how great it is and you have it so readily available;). I really enjoy bonsai and admire the people that can do it well. A man named Micheal Hagedorn does really amazing bonsai. He used turface in his mix before using pumice. Check out these two pics from this blog Life without Turface Mr. Hagedorn wrote. This is a pic of Pine tree roots planted in a Turface mix for 5 years. Below is Pine roots planted in a mix of pumice after 3 years. I know bonsai and succulents are not the same thing, but their mixes are definitely in the same vein, and we all want great roots. Amazing roots below equal a beautiful plant up top;). I mean come on who's lookin at the mix when the plant is stunning;). I don't filter my pumice, definitely do rinse and strain the two to get rid of any dust. It would make life easier if you put the cutting in pumice and water like normal. Give the plant the opportunity to dig and anchor itself with some good roots. The way you're watering is very counterproductive. I know people have already told you this, but we aren't just saying it just because we feel like it;). At first I didn't realize that's how you were watering that little guy. Doesn't surprise me one bit that there are no fine roots. How could there be the plant never has a chance to grow them. Roots need at least a few hours to absorb water. I can't imagine they absorb anything within a few minutes. That could be why the plant is absorbing the bottom leaves. I'm not trying to tell you how to do anything. They're your plants do what you want, but I'm just trying to help you see the other side of the coin;). If you take anything away from all these comments it's just to leave your plant be and give it a chance in pure pumice and water like normal once the mix is dry. I'm sure you will start to notice a huge difference in root growth;).