From what I've learned rain tends to be on the acidic side. Which normally helps us here where our soils lean to the alkaline side. But with little rain the last two years I had no rain to leach it out. I do try to water less often and deep water when I do. But when the water I'm using is alkaline and then carrying soluble salts and other minerals I'm not gaining much if any by deep soaking. Using sulphur, bone meal and a soil inoculant my PH dropped from a range of 7.5 -7.9 in 08 to 7.2 this last year. I hadn't had a soil test ran in years. My thought has always been that if the plants look healthy and are producing well things have to be ok. I'm not sure even if I had ran the tests they would of showed much till after the first year of the drought. We went 12 months with just over 4 inches of rain. So basically all my watering was from the faucet. Which compounded the problem. I will continue to test every fall till I have it in line. And then I've promised myself to test at least every 2-3 years. But then thought I had better just keep doing it every year. Because if I ever skip a year then I probably won't test again till I see problems. As you garden you will notice problems fairly fast. What takes a year to develop can take several to correct. Although I've always been able to grow most things I've tried here. Blue berries is one plant that like you said would hang on a few years and struggle then just give it up. Now I know why. Like Dawn I've decided at the present I'm not willing to spend the time it would take to try to maintain a PH level to grow them properly. Here the extension service will run I believe two tests a year for you free. Then after that they are like five dollars if you are a Kansas resident. Unless you want a more detailed test then they go up. I think two comprehensive tests this year cost me around $30.00. And normally one would be enough. But I broke a new area and last year was the first year for it. So wanted to test it as I knew there would be a difference between the two and there was. Jay

Hi Lisa, You have high sulfur which would normally give you a low pH but extraordinarily high calcium, which gives you the high pH. That's classic Texas soil. Growing grass with proper watering and mowing is the best thing you can do for it. Stopping the chemicals and applying compost is second best. Applying organic fertilizer for the bermuda and no fertilizer for the Tech Turf comes last. One thought to keep in mind is that wherever you plant trees, the Tech Turf (the new name for Turffalo grass) will not grow on the east, north, or west sides of the trees, fences, shrubs, or brick mailboxes. The best way to nudge the soil pH is with cottonseed meal. Ask around at your local feed stores to see where to get it. You might have to work up a deal with a feed lot. Or you might visit some cotton gins and see if you can bag your own. Why do you think your soil is clay? If it drains well and has nearly no organic matter, it must have a bit of sand. Dump a couple cups of soil into a quart jar of water and see what happens. Anything that settles to the bottom quickly after shaking the jar is sand. Clay will stay in suspension for a long time. Loam will settle on top of the clay over a few hours/days. The organic matter floats. What loosens the soil is fungi. Compost brings them in if you have none at all. I'm not familiar with expanded shale but it sounds like one of Howard Garrett's ideas. Unless he can explain how shale somehow grows fungi, I would focus on proper watering (deep and infrequent) and mowing (lowest setting for bermuda) with frequent cottonseed fertilizer until you make the change in grass. I have seen Tech Turf mowed at every height from 3/4 to 4 inches, and it all looks amazingly good...unless it is in any shade. Then it becomes a bare spot. Even bermuda does better with shade than Tech Turf. Why are you waiting until fall to convert? The Tech Turf may go dormant before you get complete coverage and good roots. I would convert ASAP and take advantage of the heat. If you are going to change to Tech Turf now, then you can skip the fertilizing and ignore the shortcomings of organic matter. Buffalo grass grows along side the highways where the soil is very poor.

Stick your finger into the dirt and see if it is wet or not. Treat the plant like any other Draceana. They don't like to be continually damp. I have a Peace Lily in a "self watering" pot. Mine works by having a reservoir and wick. I don't use it that way technically, I over water the plant from the top so the excess runs into the reservoir and don't water again till the top of the soil just dries. The wick keeps the plant evenly moist till the reservoir runs dry and the plant dries somewhat before getting watered again. The reservoir doesn't stay full this way (as a matter of fact it never gets full either as I only let it get a little bit of excess run off. Maybe half a cup or a bit more. Not sure you could do the same. But you also don't have to use the spa but just water from the top like a regular houseplant.

Oh ffs, plant the tree Strobilo. Look, I am going to give you faith that life is tenacious and rules are to be broken. This is, in my humble opinion, the best tree in Cambridge. In an historic city full of fabulous specimens, many hundreds of years old , this is really special. Against all predictions of hardiness, soil conditions, sheer improbability. have a look at this - a madrone (I think it is a.arachnoides) growing in Cambridge chalk. There are no other specimens - certainly nothing at our prestigious botanics to compare...and to completely amaze you even more, this is growing in a council house garden (public housing projects). I have to leap off my bike and pay homage every time I pass by. However, I seem to have buggered up the orientation so anyone savvy enough to reorient - would be grateful