Yes, it's Salvia leucantha. I just found out that even though my plants are currently blooming Mexican sage is actually supposed to bloom only at the end of the summer. Disappointing. I only have a container garden on my balcony. No yard. I was really attracted to the shape of the plant and the lavender flower color. The flowers are supposed to lure butterflies. I already have hummingbirds investigating it. If I keep it, it has to be in a container, so I don't want to give it a bad start with the wrong kind of soil mix. It was probably growing in the container that it came in for at least several months, so maybe it's okay. But the soil does seem to be too heavy for a container, like it contains a lot of compost and sand. Am I missing that if you have a shrub in a container the soil mix should be heavier and slower to drain water than for something like a rose bush or perennial? This post was edited by peterk312 on Mon, May 13, 13 at 14:03

"It seems that it is highly recommended to plant peach trees in raised beds from the experience on this board. Does anyone have a good link or more detailed directions as far as how to do that? What type of soil do I need? How deep do I dig the hole? How high should the bed be?" For my peach trees I use mounds and terraces. It doesn't seem to make a difference how tall the mound is. Some of my mounds are 1' tall, others started out 4' tall (before settling). The peach trees do about the same either way. Some people enclose their raised beds with a raised border of some kind. I think that's fine too. I don't think it makes much difference what soil you use for the raised beds/mounds. Several years ago, I installed drain tiles in the orchard area (The drainage was horrid and I was tired of losing peach trees.) In places we had to excavate to a depth of 4' to install the tile. What we dug out was pure clay. I used this material for some of the mounds. The peach trees have done fine in the clay mounds. Per the above posts, I would only use mounds if the drainage is poor. But since you mention puddling, I strongly suspect you could benefit from raised beds/mounds. Mounds not only provide good drainage, they also loosen the dirt so there is minimal resistance for the roots to spread. Mulching on top keeps the soil moist longer into the growing season, further encouraging root growth. It's hard for peaches not to succeed when they have moist (but not overly wet) loose soil with no weed competition and plenty of sunshine. Here's a picture that's a couple years old. You can see some tall and shorter mounds. Some of the older trees aren't in mounds. The drainage tile helped them. Here's a pic of some terraces I built last fall for planting peaches this spring. By the way, I don't bother with mounds for more water tolerant trees like apple, pear and plum, unless the drainage is really bad.

Whatever your "landscaper" used for "topsoil" was probably about 95 percent mineral (the sand, silt, clay part of soil) and 5 percent organic matter and what your soil really needed was organic matter. Whether cottonseed meal, or any other meal, would help would depend on the Soil Food Web and how active they were. Things like cottonseed meal need to be digested before the nutrients in them are available to plants and if the soil has little organic matter the SFW is not there to do that. First you need to look closely at that soil to determine what it needs and that requires a good reliable soil test for soil pH and major nutrient levels and balance. Then these simple soil tests may also be of some help. 1) Soil test for organic material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. kimmq is kimmsr

Sounds like you have already taken pH into account which is something I was going to ask about when I saw the recommendation to add lime. If you have the right kind of clay, gypsum can also help - it adds Ca which can help aggregate clay particles into larger structures without raising pH. I am not sure why the earlier poster said that Mg would do this as well and that it was a bad thing. In any case tons of organic matter will help and you don't need expensive soil conditioners. Get a bulk load of compost delivered. One thing about clay is that you have to keep after it year after year. Once you till in this initial load, add smaller amounts in successive years and taper off on the digging and tilling to allow the spongy structure created by worms and microbes to form and not be destroyed. If there are perennial beds you don't want to disturb after initial tilling, use degradable mulches (leaves, grass clippings) or lay compost down and put wood chips on top. The soil food web will digest and incorporate it. You can read more about managing clay by searching this forum for 'clay soil'. There are some very informative threads. Good luck and keep us posted.