I bought a bag of Soil Perfector just to see what it's like, and it looks very good, but particulate size is large & will promote very fast drainage if used in any large quantities. The grit you can get is likely crushed oyster shell - thus, the salt warning. Here's what I'm thinking: Soils do not ALWAYS need to be able to support themselves indefinitely. By that I mean, some nurseries actually build a soil that they know will "self destruct" over the course of a couple of years. What happens, is roots actually become a part of the soil structure. As organic particulates break down, the roots remain, providing air pockets as the small soil particles are washed from the drain hole. Not the best arrangement, but pretty OK o/a. If all you have is the bark and the SP, You might try: 7-10 parts bark 2 parts SP 1 part sphagnum peat 1 part perlite You might need to tinker with the mix a little to get the right water retention, and Citrus will assuredly do better in a more spare soil (more mineral content), but if you add all that SP, you'll not have enough H2O retention to get you through a day. I wouldn't go to more than 2 parts peat, either. Did you call Profile Corp to get Turface MVP distributors near you? We have at least 3 nursery wholesalers in lower MI, that all carry Turface, so obviously there's a market. I'll leave a link to profile where you'll find the 800 number in case you wish to chase it down. Al Here is a link that might be useful: Click me & I'll show you Turface info

Not solving any of your questions Robin, just a few dots and dashes for your amusement. When speaking about using crushed, or decomposed rock material, is this the norm for thinking what plants grow in in the desert south-west. You wish to cut your water consumption. Is this really a problem--having to fend off water. I know Vegas is encouraging new residents to the city to think no-grass for lawns and instead find other ways to landscape but we often think the desert is a place where plants get along without much moisture and to their credit, they look good doing it. We have a housing project near us in cottage country Ontario...with the many lakes within usually a mile or so and in this particular area rock is very prominent. Around all the homes are rocks, you cant go more than 100 feet without bumping into a rock. I mean that literally, there's so many rocks they have had to make them part of the landscaping. Every tree on a residential property is surrounded by a pit...the walls being large boulders. Lawns, where a boulder might fetch hundreds of dollars to bring one to, have so many you gotta watch out the lawn mower doesn't bump into one with every pass. Yet, as this visitor scanned the neighborhood thinking 'should we' move to this idillyc site with the lake right behind our door----we thought of it for a day or so and decided rocks aint for us, we like the pasture-look and have no compunction to letting the mower run where it will. I suppose the look of the desert can grow on you. It is still though something to give up green and replace with the rock look. Sorry, just an observation.

We've had people trigger the radiation detectors coming into the nuclear plant due to eating too many bananas. One person in the USA I believe had radiation poisoning from eating too many Brazil nuts. I think the max you should eat are 1 or 2 per day. It does have to do with where they are grown and natural soil radiation. It's everywhere around us and some places just have higher levels than others. Not necessarily dangerous - that's how it is. Shielding is not necessary from such low radiation levels. You will get much more radiation directly from the sun, flights, medical x-rays, rain, snow, etc. I also assume nobody sleeps in their plants, soil mixes, smoke detectors, antiques, propane lanterns, or counter tops all day long every day of their lives. For shielding against significant radiation levels we primarily use heavy concrete, water, lead, and distance.

Thank you Verdance! I was a little concerned about the rock filled bathtub thing myself. I'm actually not sure how bad the drainage situation is over there, though. That corner is always damp, but we have never had standing water there or anything like that. Until a few months ago, the pile of rocks was actually mounded up against the fence, covering a pile of dirt and "mulching" a hydrangea that was shoved in the corner, so even if water wanted to drain out onto the neighbor's patio, it couldn't. The pros we have spoken with have touched on drainage ideas, mostly involving an underground drain connecting to the pipe in the trough you see in the third photo, which connects to a catch basin near the front of the house (downhill at least 1.5 feet over a 30 ish foot run). We would like to attach the downspout to that pipe as well, and bury the whole thing so that it's not an eyesore or tripping hazard. Anyway, I hear what you are saying about concrete, but to be honest I don't love the look of it. If money were no object I would be happy to put pavers over both the existing concrete and the dirt area, but the 10-12K that will cost is earmarked for other things this summer. It might be possible in the future, though, which is why I don't want to do anything that would make it more difficult to do pavers in the future. Grrr. Decision making is not my strong suit ;)