See "D": Empty soda bottles are good space taker uppers, as are bricks/rocks if you want more weight. Packing peanuts are a PITB, and don't offer anything an empty soda bottle doesn't offer, even bricks would be better than peanuts. Water tends to perch above layers like peastone or packing peanuts. And since packing peanuts have closed-cells, they don't hold water or nutrients, and roots can't penetrate beyond any imperfect (open) cells at the very surface of the particles. Soda bottles or bricks at the bottom of the pot take up space in the part of the pot most likely to be occupied by perched water. Essentially, they reduce the volume of soil occupying the PWT, and in doing so, they reduce the amount of perched water the container can hold. This means that air returns to the o/a soil mass much faster. Imagine how much less perched water the soil could hold if up to 90% of the shaded area in figure A above was taken up by bricks or empty soda bottles (90% less). The PWT is always a fixed ht with any given medium, even if it perches atop a drainage layer. Anything you do to reduce the volume of soil in the PWT reduces the volume of perched water. Al

The roots go a lot further down than an inch, and it doesn't look like that pop bottle has any drainage holes. I still suspect they are too wet most of the time, and probably are not getting enough sun as another poster noted. Lavender is originally from the Mediterranean region, along the coast. Yes, they manage to grow a lot of lavender in England - it is still a Mediterranean plant, however, that grows best in dry, chalky, poor soils. I think the Brits just tend to be better gardeners on average than the average 'merican, LOL! Plus they have lots of chalky coastline ... think the White Cliffs of Dover ... Lavender does NOT do well in soil that is moist all the time. If they are doing "better" since you started daily watering, I shudder to think how they were doing before, because those plants are not doing anything like "well", especially given that you started those plants way back in the spring. Here's a picture of a potted lavender that is doing well: Potted lavender advice Lavender needs 8 hours of sun a day, at least. Full sun in the garden is what they are talking about there. I don't think your plants are getting near that on your balcony. It will only be worse sitting near the window there in your kitchen (or where ever you plan to put them over winter). I understand that you are in an apartment and have VERY limited access to light and space for growing plants. Lavender is a very challenging plant (so is rosemary) for growing indoors. I've never had any luck growing either plant indoors myself. I'm not saying it can't be done; but it is a challenge. Your setup is not adequate to the task at this time. You're not getting nearly enough light; the soil mix in your pop bottles looks too heavy (lavender does better in a soil-less mix, in fact I think potted lavender may be a prime candidate for some version of Al's gritty mix). There are no drainage holes that I can see in that pop bottle and you are overwatering if the soil is never allowed to dry out. Lavender also like an alkaline soil. Adding some lime could help. ESPECIALLY if there is any peat moss at all in your soil mix, or if you are using pine fines as mulch or a soil amendment. So - alkaline soil, allow the soil to dry between waterings - not totally since these are first year plants but it shouldn't be wet or even damp all the time; and it loves the heat but dislikes humidity (hence it does pretty durn well in our dry near-desert conditions in N. Nevada). However at this point in time I hold out little hope for the survival of your plants over the winter, given their stunted condition now. I'm not trying to be discouraging; go ahead and try, you've come this far with them. But you need to repot them in a soil-less mix more suited to the plant and be prepared to supply extra heat and light, else they will not survive. Here is a discussion and fairly clear description of how to make Al's gritty mix. Personally I have found ALL the ingredients difficult to impossible to find. Turface, in particular, I have never been able to lay hands on - and though it is the virtually same stuff as certain types of cat litter or adsorbent, it isn't ALWAYS the same stuff. For instance, Napa Floor Dry has been touted as a replacement - but there are TWO KINDS and only one of them is suitable for this purpose. And I'm too tired to go dig up the links that tell you which is which. Also, having to screen and discard large portions of your ingredient isn't exactly lending itself to being affordable - let alone easy. That said - for this particular instance, I think gritty mix is your best bet - if you can only find the ingredients and get them properly screened and mixed.

you're right, ward, I found mine lying down on top of the hibiscus after the rains from dennis blew through here. I staked it with a broken shovel handle, which it promptly pulled to the ground, too. that plant is heavy. I put the handle back up and put a rock the size of a shoebox at the base of it, which is working. give this thing some swingin room, folks. ward, can you teach me how/when to collect seed from tithonia?

Well, we did a mini "refresh" on our kitchen in 1999 to add a dishwasher and standard-sized range, as we had one of those apartment-sized ranges that DH detested. When we did the mini refresh, we also changed countertops, sink & faucet, and we had put in peel and stick vinyl over the hideous gold linoleum when we first moved in. That being said, we still had issues with layout, with the only really useable countertop being the 15" to left of the range and 5" to the right of it. There was a small swath of countertop across from the stove, next to the sink, but because it was right by the back door, it became a catchall. When I took anything out of the oven, it pretty much had to go on the stovetop. Baking cookies just wasn't very fun after a while. I sorta stopped doing it. :^( Then there was the wall between the kitchen and livingroom that made the kitchen seem so dark and cramped. The lack of storage was the biggest issue we had. I still get the heebs when I think of that cabinet where the plastic storage containers lived. I don't know how many times I sat on the floor and cleaned out that blasted cabinet, just to have it heave out plasticware all over me the next time I opened that door. I'm pretty sure that DH would open the door *just enough* to throw an item in there. We had no venting over the range, instead we had a cabinet directly over the range, and it was lower than standard. When we did the remodel, we could see big black burn marks underneath. Lovely. Our garbage was located across the kitchen on the stairwell landing. If I had gunk in my hands, I had the pleasure of carrying it across the floor, leaving a nice little dribble trail. Fun times! The giant fluorescent light box, with that hideous tube light. I tried to "tart it up" at one point, but in the end, it was just a big rectangle with an ugly light, so it had to go. My peel and stick vinyl tiles, so wonderful and bright when we installed them, were pitted and cracking in places. No matter how long I scrubbed on my hands and knees, there were areas where the tile was worn, and the dirt was embedded. Yuck. The kitchen wasn't awful; it just was not a joy to work in. Now I enjoy baking and cooking in there, and putting away the tupperware is not an exercise in frustration! Hooray! Oh, happy day! :^)