I'm so frustrated that I can't see the pictures of Laura's rocks! I think this technique is exactly what I've been searching for. I want to make a couple of fake stone chairs that will be similar in shape to beanbag chairs, but with rock markings. I think the wire armature will work for me. I'll build it, then put something under it and sit on it to make the seat indentation! Then I'll add the quickcrete. Based on reading lots of websites about hypertufa, I was thinking I'd have to make the concrete or tufa much thicker than you've made yours. Am I right in thinking it's the fibers in the initial layer of quickcrete that make your structure strong enough to hold 400 lbs w/o after the armature is removed?

Yes, I agree that a biodegradable cup would be nice. I am concerned about anyone putting a whole box of tomato seedlings in the ground, they would be way too close to each other to survive. with my 4 yr. old nanny boy we cut the bottom off the foam cup and tear off the rim then set it in the prepared (lots of compost and loose soil and watered) hole. A little extra soil over the rim makes the cup disappear. This helps in "planting out" with a child, grownups too. You might be surprised how the cup falls apart over the summer and can be troweled in the next year like vermiculite, lets air and water to the roots.In about 10 days our frost date will pass and we can start our planting, what fun that will be! At the end of July I will be leaving my nanny family after 4 years and 2 months. It will be so hard. these boys are dear to me. The 4 yr. old was 3 mos. when I started. But I can feel good about introducing them to the beauty of nature and all the joy it holds. Many children are indoors hooked up to video games or TV and deprived of the out-of-doors. There is a book out now called "The Last Child in the Woods" and it covers the topic of children not being exposed to nature. I'm going on and on, sorry. Have a beautiful gardening day and hug a child:)or a tree if no child is handy:) Tina

I've been skimming quickly, and have a few comments based on my quick read. First, everyone's work on their ranches - fabulous! However, and apologies if I've misread or misinterpreted, but cathleen has or will have a relatively limited budget and is not a DIYer. pirula's gorgeous reno looks like one that had a nice-sized budget, and joanneemb, you've said you and your DH did all the work yourselves. mtnr is 100% correct IMO that if cathleen has the budget to do all that kind of thing herself, she also the budget to get a nicer house from the start. "Built ins, higher baseboards, solid wood doors, new windows, custom moulding, new kitchen and bathrooms...... All of that is very expensive, especially if you are not DIY, and if you were you probably wouldn't be asking us. It kind of begs the question, if you can afford to do all of the above, you can afford a nicer house to begin with (especially since, often, all of the above are cash expenses and a nicer house you pay for over 30 years)." That list above - baseboards, wood doors, and so on - those are just the things you can see. Sometimes (not always, of course, but it could happen), there is basic work you have to do first, or you may have to do it in order to make the changes you envision. We had to have lots of electrical work done before we even got to the good stuff. Our electrician is great, a true artist if you will, and reasonable, compulsively careful and concientious. He told us that for what he had to charge to do the work on our house, he could have rewired an entire new house. We did everything we had to for safety plus some things we wanted to do - and there is still work we decided not to do because of the cost. We were so lucky to have found an excellent, very reasonable contractor. By our calculations, had we gone with anyone else, our total reno costs would easily be two-thirds higher than they've been. We would not have been able to do this work; it simply would have broken the budget, so badly damaged as it is anyway. That leads to: if you are not a DIYer but will want to make many changes to a house to transform its look and style, you will need to be confident of your ability to hire the right people. Our contractor has great taste and an aesthetic sense, as well as technical skills, and he has worked on many old houses. The guy before him, let's just say the work was perfectly competent, but he would have done only and exactly what we told him to do. That means we would have had to have been thoroughly informed and completely educated before starting anything. Through word of mouth, including our contractor's own recommendations, we now have competent, trustworthy people to work on every conceivable part of our house if necessary. The last find - finally - a great plumber. We just paid him ~$400 to fix a kludged-together mess with the kitchen plumbing.... That leads to another thing: cathleen, even after you've bought what you hope will be your perfect house and have budgeted for molding, wood doors and all the rest, you will still need to have plenty of funds available for fixes and problems that could pop up over time, things you might have failed to account for in the beginning. "If anyone knows where to find detailed cost breakdowns, please let me know. I have not been able to find this information." Can anyone steer cathleen to some websites or other places where this info is available?

Thank you all :) for now I've gone with the insect screening as it's what I had on hand. I still don't haven the ingredients for proper gritty mix, but will repot in the spring when I hopefully do (currently using 1.5 : 1 perlite to "cactus" soil mixture. Here's a before and after... please excuse the photo quality as I'm in a bit of a rush this morning. I did spray off and dried the roots to remove all the peat they were in. Also raised the caudex of the red monadenium because I like it much more than the buried look. Pictured plants are as follows: Front left: Euphorbia polygona cv. Snowflake Front center: Euphorbia neorubella 'Red Monadenium' Back left: Haworthia reinwardtii Back right: Euphorbia enopla / ferox (still not sure which of if these are even correct) Again, thank you for the help everyone, can't imagine what I'd do without this forum. Well I'd probably have rotted plants sitting on top of "cactus" soil in glazed ceramic pots.