Hey guys, just wanted to give my two cents into the mix since I happen to have dealt with all these issues this summer. We had our deck re-built and extended this year. As a result, we went a little hanging basket mad and now have about 15 - 17 baskets around the deck and hanging from the pergola (new and overly excited gardeners lol). Of the baskets we have, some were purchased (Basket of fire, tumbling tomato, a couple strawberries, a couple creeping jennys, and 4 cheapo baskets from wal-mart) but the rest were made by hand so that we could A) control what we put in and b) use nicer baskets and c) re-use the baskets year in and out. When we selected the coir liners, I had no idea that their porous nature meant that they expelled water faster, but having read the other comments, it makes perfect sense! Will have to look into the plastic lining, thanks for the idea! That said however, we spent some time talking to a gentleman at the local nursery and ended up picking a soil called Faffard Profressional Agro-mix, which is a soilless mixture that includes coir, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and a couple others (I couldn't find the list online). It was the same soil that the nursery used for all the plants they grew and we had wanted to make a mix ourselves like Al suggested (though not specifically that mix) but he essentially said that the agro-mix was what we would end up with (for the most part), but without needing to do the mixing ourselves. The benefit of a soil-less mixture was that it had great water retention, didn't pack down as much as soil did so the roots had plenty of room to grow and because it was an essentially an inert mix (no nutrients in the mix itself), the nutrients could be controlled by us. Furthermore, once the season was over, we *could* just remove the plants and roots, wash out the soil to remove excess salt (a byproduct of coir is that salt build up will happen, though it is dealt with by flushing the plants with water), and then use it next year. At this point in the summer, I can confidently say that the only baskets doing well are the ones we planted and the basket of fire. Most of the baskets doing poorly look root-bound and while we have provided water daily (when needed) and some miracle-grow for nutrients, they are struggling. I think I can confidently say that while doing things yourself may be a little more costly and time consuming, the end result is well worth it, especially into the end of the summer. As a side note, creeping jenny is amazing for baskets! It looks lovely and if you want to hide the basket itself, it hangs over so perfectly. Cheers guys, hope my input helps. Happy gardening :)

Wow, thank you so much Al! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all these questions. Ok, I won't break out the mortar and pestle. I've done some more searching for pine bark fines on the net and have located some wholesale suppliers of them in my area that say "contact us for retail locations". I will contact them and see if they can direct me to where to get the pine bark fines retail. So far, I've noticed that many of the suppliers of pine bark fines on the East coast seem to be located down in North and South Carolina. This must have something to do with geography, and the forest products industry. I'm thinking I may go with the "Gritty Mix" now instead of the regular mix, even though I'm growing annuals in these baskets, because I have a crazy dream of being able to overwinter these plants in hanging baskets in an unheated room attached to our house that has south-facing windows. I usually overwinter my geraniums in this room and they've been fine for years. So I'm going to try to overwinter the lobelia and calibrachoa. The winter temp in this room is usually about 55 degrees F. The lobelia and calibrachoa will die outside in the winter anyway in Zone 6, so what have I got to lose? Will stick with the 19-6-12 Osmocote, great. I usually use MG in an off-and-on type of regimen when I water the geraniums, but will continue to look for the Micro-nutrient powder anyway...you never know. Thank you again!

It was flowering but I had a black heart sweet potatoe in a hanging basket that huge and lush looking all year. Most of my other things I had to move more into the shade or they didn't do very well. One other thing I had spilling out of a large cast iron pot in full sun was calibrachoa Million Bells. Those things bloomed like crazy all year and may survive the winter outside. I thought they were annual but they are still alive and even have some green leaves coming out after this warm spell. I will be so happy if they live and bloom again. They did so much better in the heat than my petunias.

Maggie, maybe she and I have stoves made of different material; I've tried what she suggested. I've also tried virtually every solution known to humankind... Nothing works. Especially vis a vis the rapid accumulation of crumbs et al. I suspect that happens with wry stove -- it's simply that black tends to show EVERYTHING. I've even considered painting it, with a Giani-type system. I used their stainless steel paint system on my dishwasher and on the oven hood with great success; the reason I didn't try it with the stove top had more to do with numerous reviews noting the rapid deterioration of the paint around the burners. Naturally, that's to be expected -- high heat and constant use with the dragging of pots and pans would result in a far less pristine surface that the dishwasher, which has remained perfect. I figured, why bother, it'll only need re-doing every 6 months... But now, having tolerated this black stovetop's weaknesses, I'm leaning closer and closer to painting it anyway and just DEALING with the need to repaint...