i've only got one alata, but i grow it in a coconut fiber basket with sphagnum, peat and fine pine bark.

"If anyone is having success with cardboard, please let us know how you process it before putting it in." I have a cheap paper shredder that I use on paper and cardboard. It is so cheep that it is labeled as Amazon.com's house brand. It shreds in thin strips and cuts them every few inches. I feed the cardboard into it perpendicular to the grain of the cardboard. The holes are on the sides of the shreds, like a truss. Not like tubes that go long ways. I just dump it in the bin, or use it as topping on the bin, or layer it with other things to hold moisture there and provide air spaces. I don't want to play around with wet sloppy paper products, so I put it all in dry and then water it when I think water is needed. It stays well shaped and open until I don't notice it anymore. What I don't like is how the newspaper just makes a pancake without providing many other benefits besides holding water and being a backup food supply. Mixing the dry paper and cardboard shreds does not seem to work well. It's like they don't like each other. What I've started to do is shred the paper and cardboard at the same time instead of alternating them. This mixes them together much better, but takes more effort and coordination. Do note that a typical, low-cost, paper shredder is not intended for heavy duty use, nor is it intended for cardboard. Mine has metal teeth and plastic spacers. To prevent a meltdown, I only shred about 2 or so boxes at a time. Then I do something else for a while to let it get back to room temperature. In other words, I don't pile up a bunch of things to shred and then make it a task. I just grab a few items now and then, get them done, and then go back to what I was doing. My shredder came with a bin. When it gets full, I dump it in a large box that was spared (except for its top flaps). When I need some shred, I have all I need in the big box without having to try and crank it all out at once and melting the shredder.

Here's what I did with the baskets from the swap. I used Roselee's method with the deer net, sheet moss and the landscape fabric. I cut holes in the sides and pulled the plants through like a strawberry pot. I will do this as I plant other baskets too because the netting really holds the moss in better than just the wire frame and the landscape fabric keeps the soil in place. The hangers are wire covered with plastic beads. The plants are petunias, blue daze, and calibrachoa with verbena at the top. I did one last week and the second one yesterday, the petunias are doing the best and the blue daze are a little wilted so I stuck a few portulaca cuttings in too.

This thread became resurrected when I was googling around for a substitution for Coco liners.. they were dirtying up my house and deck.. Plus the birds love to make nests out of the liners and pull the liners apart all over the place.... So this particular thread popped up ....and I'm glad it did.. But now when the comments pop up in browser form I have to go through the entire thread to receive the latest comment. Any way around this?something tells me this is a dumb question .