Dear Ms Ford,
About gardening, our climate here in belgium is probably different than yours in USA.But it is alwaysthe same generality.Substrate,water,light and food.In fact it isjust that each family or species and varieties need specific parameters.For example,one of my favorite floweris thefuchsia.Itcomes from Patagonia in argentina.The climateis specific and the culture of fuchsias ofcourse is correlated.They dislike the full sun.They like the shade and a lot of water the morning and before thenight.They like the fresh water.te substrate is a mix of severalargils and with humus and "Heath terra"Several organic adds can be made to this argilo humic complex.NPK,mineral salts and oligo elements can be add with different natural powders.The bacterias and fungis and micro vegetals and micro animals can work in complementarity.The fuchsias are happy with thiskind of substrate.At this moment I have tested allin the pure compost and the resulst are ok,it is not optimum but it is a good result.Best Regards