Yes. THANK GOODNESS IS RIGHT JODI! I was just at HD lastnight when I noticed all knds of bulbs, seeds, and many spring items coming in! Guess what I saw surrounding all the seeds and bulbs like the great wall of China? Big bags of Miracle Grow...lol Yup. Somebody is making tons of money on that stuff. Not from me anyway. By the way, I also saw tons of houseplants, mostly all of them left for dead! All were so dehydrated, including the beautiful Hoya's they had just gotten two weeks ago. The mix in those pots was peat based and hard as a rock! They were also infested with mites! My goodness, I will never take a plant home from them this time of year. We are happy you are watching yourself and not pushing anymore huge piles in wheel barrows. Lets's bring in the warm temps. Suppose to be in the 50's by next weeks end and finally, just maybe I can finally draw some fresh water from my 30 gallon barrel that has been frozen since December. I can't even see any of my bushes or shrubs under all this snow. I can't wait just to see the ground again.:-) Xuan: I would love to see some pics of your flowering bulbs. I would also like to say to you that I am so happy to see that you are no longer getting any snow..lol -3 degrees this am with temps in my popup at 40. I hope to God that my Hoya's make it ok since I forgot to bring them in. It should be warmer from here on out, thank God. Have a happy Friday everyone! Mike

Today I went hiking several hours north of Seattle. On my way home, I spotted a feed store and stopped in. They had Cherrystone Grit made from 100% crushed quartsite rock in growers size #2!! I was excited and bought a bag, but I want to double check that this will work. I believe I have read that others use "cherrystone." Farther down the package it lists hazardous materials as quartz silica and aluminum oxide. Maybe this is my source?!

I will let Al answer the question you put directly to him, but I wanted to comment on this statement: I avoid using chemicals generally because of runoff and water contamination issues. First, thank you for having an environmental conscience! Unfortunately there isn't much, if any, difference between organic/synthetic nutrient sources and run off. It's certainly true that if you water a plant with Miracle Grow that any run off water will contain that Miracle Grow, but the same is true of non soluble fish emulsion. Likewise even a solid material is going to run off with drainage water as it is chemically/biologically processed and the nutrients turned into soluble salts. I, too, am concerned about the environmental pollution caused by the use of fertilizers, particularly on the water bodies. It's one of the reasons I prefer synthetic fertilizers in containers where I can match the ratio of nutrients as closely as possible to what plants actually use. Makes for less waste and less to run off into the water bodies. I live in Wisconsin which has a ton of water and phosphorus is high in the soil in most of the state. It's a major source of pollution in the water and I get sick everytime I see what was once a beautiful, healthy lake get surrounded by private homes with manicured lawns. It's not long after that the lake has the life choked out of it from eutrophication. Then the tax payers have to front the bill for machines to go in and routinely harvest the explosive weed growth so residents can swim/fish/boat/jet ski as well as pay for the continual restocking of desirable fish that can't sustain their numbers anymore.

Thanks for the replies. I'm assuming you're asking about the 3 holes per inch. I did do quite a bit of searching to find this size. I was only finding expensive whole rolls. Try searching for: US Stock 3# 304 Stainless Steel Filter Coarse Dense Gauze Woven Mesh 13" x 40" Good price but it did come folded. Not such a big deal with the larger mesh, i.e., it unfolded easily. But, the #14 was slightly deformed when unfolded. After reading more about green roofs and finding this site about the gritty mix, I'm leaning toward a mix with more Turface, less pine bark, and substituting half that granite with pumice to help lower the weight and decrease the potential of heat soak. I'm hampered by material availability (only buying small quantities for testing) and I'm trying to keep costs low. These substrate mixes can be highly engineered. From what I've come across a typical mix is 80% inorganic (expanded shale, expanded clay, expanded slate etc...) and 20% organic (pine bark). Hiring a consultant and getting some proprietary mix is not an option. I'm also not planning on doing the whole roof just parts here and there to keep any added load low. This isn't about Leed certification or urban storm runoff. (goals of larger green roof projects) I just want less days where my AC turns on. And to say I've got a blue elves on my roof. It might turn out to be only a place to grow out the sedum while I get rid of all the ivy and give the Triclopyr time to breakdown. I have lot of shade and only the roof and this single slope that gets any real amount of sun. This is all somewhat an experiment. So, suggestions are welcomed. Thanks for any help, Hosta Collector Seeing some growth a few weeks in and after some sever storms. Time will tell. This one had many cuttings taken from it. Nice to see it growing back. These Blue Elf sedums have been hard to come by.