Hi, Marie! When I first read Al's writings and decided I wanted to try a more aerated, grittier soil for myself, I ended up with a small bag of bonsai medium as you did. This was before I began really looking around for the individual ingredients. The bonsai soil was outrageously expensive at around $8 for a very small bag... and by very small, I mean only enough to re-pot one or two of my bulbs, if that. The ingredients were listed on the bag's label, and it consisted of fir bark, granite chips, turface, sand, and something else... I can't recall what the other ingredient was... some kind of lava chip, I think. It originated from a bonsai shop on the east coast. They bag it and sell it to nurseries across the country, apparently. The particles are a bit smaller than the Gritty Mix, but it's a good place to start. For me, it was the motivator to begin searching for ingredients to mix it, myself. I couldn't afford to buy multiple bags of the bonsai medium, and I would need quite a few to re-pot my bulb collection. Besides, the nursery only ordered about 4 bags at a time... I asked them. I began looking in the gardening section of every store I went to, searching for pine bark or fir bark pieces. The large chunks I found were way too big. None of the bagged mulches were what I was looking for. I couldn't find any of the soil conditioners or aquatic soils that were recommended... and the fir bark is what I would consider the main ingredient! They all are necessary, but without the fir bark, I might as well give up the ship. Someone suggested Repti-Bark fir bark bedding for reptiles, available at PetSmart or any other pet store that carries reptiles. I looked into it, and it's exactly what I want! We are rural, so we have farm oriented stores in the area. It was easy to locate the granite chips. It's bagged poultry grit in the form of 100% granite chips. If a person doesn't have access to to farm stores, a pet store that sells aquarium gravels might have a size of stone we look for. Well, there's plenty written here in the forum on locating the various ingredients... You wanted to know what someone else might mix with the bonsai mix... I tried all manner of concoctions when I first began. I even went back and reread Al's article a few times, just so I had a better feel for how and why I was doing this. For me, every key is located in that first article. It's extremely helpful if all the medium particles are approximately the same size. I found that the bonsai soil was just a little bit too fine in nature. The chips and particles were too tiny. Too large isn't good, either... which is why the pine mulch products I looked at wouldn't work. I ended up using the Repti-Bark fir bark, granite chips, larger sized perlite, and turface. For me, this mixture is a good balance. It retains just enough moisture to keep some water vapor around the roots for about 2-3 days in my environment. The bulbs that I originally potted into the bonsai medium have been in it now for about 2 years... it'll be time to re-pot them when spring gets here. Quite honestly, Marie, I think you'll find that the bonsai soil is just a bit too fine for our uses... but it'll give you a good idea of what we're going after, the results we hope to attain. Learning how to water it will be an experience, too. I suggest using the wooden skewer method of testing for moisture around the rootball. A friend of mine just re-potted some of his Amaryllis bulbs, and he mentioned to me that he found roots growing upward toward the soil surface, toward the pot sides, and generally all concentrated within the upper portion of the soil he uses. He uses a heavy bagged mix. I explained to him that those roots were starved for oxygen, and were literally drowning in the heavy soil he uses. They were growing toward oxygen sources. What he found under the soil in his pots is exactly what I found, and what prompted me to learn more about the science of container growing. I had the added issue of rotting bulbs from too much moisture. I find fertilizing to be very easy... I use a very weak solution of 12-4-8 liquid plant fertilizer, and I add a pinch of micro-nutrients. I use this to water almost every time water is needed, and I flush the pots with clear water every so often to avoid salt build-up. My bulbs and other plants love having a continuous food supply. If you add your bonsai mix to anything that is finer/smaller particled in nature, you'll be defeating the purpose... and the smaller particles will fill in and settle around the larger particles, thus eliminating the aeration you're trying to give it. I don't know that I've answered your questions adequately, but maybe telling the story of what I did will help you in some way... rereading Al's articles a few times, and referring to them as references, helped me a lot. Never fear, though... you've got plenty of help here, in all the "gritty mix gardeners" offering their wisdom and methods and bits of advice. It's a great bunch... you couldn't ask for nicer, more patient helpers! :-) I wish you the best of luck in your growing endeavors! :-)

Turface can be a real boon for turf areas that undergo steady traffic (dogs or other wise). One of the worst offenders to turfgrass is compaction. But you need to understand that no lawn can withstand steady hard activity. If you knew what sort of efforts go into keeping a golf course green 'up to par', you would understand. ;-) Many sports fields, by the way, are constructed (nearly artificial) soils. The Quick Dry is too fine textured a material to be useful for your purpose. Your goal should always be to do what you can to provide AIR spaces for roots. This is a fact whether you are discussing lawns OR containerized plants. Air spaces (pores) can be improved by the addition of coarse organic matter, too. It's all about porosity. As a matter of fact, you should always remember that OM can be the 'cure' for lots of soil related issues. It creates porosity within a heavy, airless soil but will also offer water holding capacities to a sandy soil. Al IS a guru. He is an incredible warehouse of knowledge and practical experience regarding soil and root systems, rhizosphere interactions, soil structure, plant growth and development, and much more. Turfgrass is simply not something that he has concentrated on, thus he was certainly not 'passing the buck'. ;-) Although Turface and similar products have been designed for use by the sports field industries, bonsai enthusiasts and other container growers have used it quite happily for ages. I've used Turface in my containers ever since I saw the beneficial properties during my days as a consultant for the golf course industry in SC. Once I began building container soils that were extremely coarse, my plants showed quite an amazing boost in vigor and over all health. Now, if I were given the choice of using ANY commercial potting medium or not having containerized plants at all....I think I would go plantless. It makes THAT much of a difference. I suggest that you do a Search right here in the Container Forum so that you can gain a little insight on the benefits of a coarse textured container medium. I'll even attach a link to get you started. I also suggest that you try the Lawn Forum for your turfgrass issues. There is always lots going on over there, and I'm sure that you will find the answers you are looking for. Some pretty crazy characters, too. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Grab that beer and let's read....get one for me, too!

I am located just outside of Boston, MA. I too have some bumpy areas that I plan to level out this spring, and I have a soil test on its way out the door. I'm guessing the soil test is going to tell me I need more organic matter in the soil, and if so, I'll topress with a similar mixture as those recommended above. Assuming that is true, my questions is in regards to the timing of the topdressing vs the timing of the application of Halts. I'm probably still a week to a few weeks away from seeing the forsythia bloom, and thus my Halts application. What I'm wondering about is if the order of Halts vs topdressing has any implications? Obviously the Halts timing is more important, and needs to be applied at a specific time. But should I try to get the topdressing and top soil leveling dropped and spread prior to dropping the Halts in a few weeks? Do I need to give the topdressing time to get down into the soil before applying the Halts? Or, on the flip side, if I drop the Halts at the recommended time, but then a week or two later add a topdressing, would that topdressing on top of the Halts have any impact on the effectiveness of the Halts? Anyone have any thoughts on the proper timing in trying to get both Halts and a topdressing applied? I want to do both, but want to make sure I don't negate the Halts barrier. Thanks in advance.

I appreciate your response! I don't even have cable so I can't watch the Masters. :) Anyway, as seems to be somewhat common with new sod, the lawn is bumpy, especially in the back yard. My hope was to lay down a top dress to smooth out those bumps. In fact, I have already done that in one particular spot where water likes to collect and stagnate. My goal there is to build up the elevation a tad so that excess water more freely flows between my and my neighbor's house, along the depression formed by the sod sloping away from our respective houses. My plan was to add no more than 1/2" of top dress. I am prepared for it to take several applications to completely smooth out my soil. I am currently mowing with a rotary mower at 1.5". I'd like to go lower, but the bumpy soil is making that difficult. I have some slope to my property which means mowing the grass at a consistent height isn't easy. Depending on where exactly the mower is I can get taller or shorter grass. Once the lawn is smoother I can begin mowing at a lower height, probably with a reel mower. My target is 1/2" to 3/4" mow height. As far as aeration, I did the screwdriver test and it went in pretty much without a problem, so I think I'm going to forego aerating. I think my soil is not compacted. I performed a soil test several weeks ago. Based on the findings I applied sul-po-mag. Although the soil test showed high levels of nitrogen, I applied Scotts GreenMax for the iron content. My grass has greened up nicely as a result. I am having to mow every 3 days to keep it tidy. Next time I fertilize I plan on using a higher quality fertilizer and verifying it is slow-release; more research on my part here. The test results also mentioned that I need more organic matter in my soil. They recommended a good compost. I have yet to act on this particular finding, however. As for watering, last year I calibrated my irrigation system for 1" of water per week in all zones--as close as I could get, anyway. I adjusted and will adjust the system appropriately for changing watering restrictions. I verified watering amounts by using ground-level rain gauges. I have the system set for 50% of the regular program because it's not that hot yet. The one depression on the north side of my property is keeping me from fully watering one of the zones. Too much water collects in that depression (another reason I'd like to start to build that soil up a bit). The north face gets almost no sun in a couple of spots and as a result the bermudagrass is thin to non-existent. I haven't read the Bermuda Bible, but I did see it mentioned in several threads and I will definitely check it out. A comment or two on one of the threads here had someone say that using compost wasn't good for top dressing because it would eventually disappear. Although I did find that a bit odd (things don't just disappear!) I accepted it at the time. I can only absorb so much at one time, after all! If you've got other opinions on a top dress mix I'd love to hear them.