Random rantng on contests and berries

[Dark-San]

By the time I posted this topic, I'm already had 2 badges and 3 of my pokemons at level 40. My current location is at Hearthome City where a Pokemon Contest is about to be held. Here are some of the questions, I wish to ask regarding about Contests and Berries,

Contest
1) My bagpack itself contain a Fashion Case. And I already had a Pokemon in mind to enter into the contest. However the main problem would be on how do we utilise those decoration in the fashion case? I had this problem of everytime when I click on 'use' in the fashion case, it keeps showing me,

Accessories: 12
Backdrops: 3

And thats all! How do we equiped these to the Pokemon?

2) Is there any winning formula on how we should equiped what kind of accessories to the Pokemon to make sure that we would win the contest?

Berries
1) I have planted several berries on my journey and I had watered them quite regularly like once every 3 hours. But I am wondering how long does it take for a berry to fully bloomed and be harvested?

2) There is this little hut just outside the enterance of Hearthome City selling fertilisers (Mulchs). Hence if we would to plant those together with the berries, would it hasten their growth and by how much faster?

3) Another lady also in that same hut that gave me a berry detector or some sort. I realized that I was able to access it via the touchscreen of the DS. However when I looked at the map, I am totally confused. How do we go about looking into the map on whether have the berries you planned ripen?

Explorer Kit
1) What use does it have? Do we search for fossils using it?