I think good tomatoes can be grown in any medium. As long as you can figure out needs. But as you mention we all have different circumstances and such. I'm often away so I like to use a 3-1-1-1 mix. Next year I'm going to try a 3-1-1-1-1 mix The former mix includes compost. In 5-1-1 with no nutrients I tend to give them too much. I have found that overfeeding leads to weak growth and disease susceptibility. I also use DE to help in water retention. So does the extra peat help retain water(more peat in a 3-1-1 mix). But I could use a little more air, so next year I will try a pine, peat, DE, compost, perlite mix (3-1-1-1-1). The perlite really does help with structure, and air flow. the DE does too, but when saturated with water, it pushes the air out. perlite will not saturate. I have only grown basil once so I can't say what's best. I'm growing three plants next year, all in different mixes. I'm not around much in the summer, so having compost with organic fertilizer works for me as they can take what they want, and it's harder to overfeed them. And when I am here I don't have time to add fertilizer each time I water. So everybody needs to know soil basics, and go from there. Using 5-1-1 for me was not good, it was me. I could not be around to water enough, and it was hard to always have time to fertilize properly. Often skipping it, and the plants suffered. With DE and compost the plants stayed moist longer, yet were not drowning. I also added extra bacteria and fungi to make sure the organics were broken down. Worked well for me, but your mileage may vary. DE is Diatomaceous earth, not food grade, as large as perlite. The best I found was Napa floor dry 100% DE. Sold at Napa auto parts store. Cheap stuff too! Any compost is fine, but I don't like mushroom compost, too basic. I used this on some peppers too. I decided to overwinter some of them, and when moving to different pots discovered worms in the pots., Earth worms that is. So all is very well!

I have the same type of soil. CLAY! What I did, that worked well for me, was to loosen up the soil with a shovel. Then I dumped compost and bags of garden soil over top of the area. I used the shovel to mix it up a bit. Every fall I cover the area with leaves that decompose and really improve the texture. Whenever I plant now, I toss in more compost if I have it or Garden Soil from a bag. It keeps getting better and better. I don't think you'll need to haul away any soil. Just bring add some good stuff to what you have. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: My gardens

Using differing plant forms will help it look nice. You can plant something spikey like liriope, iris, or blue oat grass and something low like lamb's ears or dianthus. Artemisia 'Powis Castle' or nepeta could help fill in a large area if you need to. Your sedum would like nice in front of either or those. What color are your roses? I like these two together and think they would go well with Matrona. This is variegated iris with lamb's ears 'Helen Von Stein' which is also called Big Ears. (All the plants I mentioned are drought tolerant) Click to enlarge:

Aloha Charles, Not too familiar with sweet potatos or the weevil itself, but I would say that your guess seems about right =/ As I understand it, the weevils lay their eggs in holes they make in the potato and vine, depending on the time of the year/season. So if you're having problems, a pre-planting insecticide treatment applied to the soil, and once again midway through the season, may do the trick for future crops. I found a site that you may have already seen, but just in case you haven't, I'll include it here. Hope this helps in some way, just keep doing what works, and let me know what you find! Sometimes all it takes is a little R&D! Aloha, Dave Kauai Here is a link that might be useful: Cylas formicarius