You can leave the wick in all season, but if you make the 5-1-1 mix (mostly pine bark fines) you aren't likely to need it. If you use MG potting mix you may or may not wish to use it the first season. If you reuse the mix you have on hand you will absolutely want to use it. The wick simply helps compensate for mixes holding too much water, it helps pull water out of the saturated, soggy layer of mix. Given your containers are on the patio I would suggest using whatever you have on hand to elevate them an inch or so. I typically use wooden stakes that are approx 12" long and 1" thick. I have a bunch on hand, but most anything will work. I think you will find that your patio doesn't stay wet too long, particularly in the summer so it should be fine if the wick is in contact with the cement, but you are correct that it's value is limited when it is sitting on/in water. Pine bark fines are often sold as soil conditioner. sometimes 'aged pine bark'. Check your nearby big box stores first and if you strike out there post back with your general location and it's likely there is another forum member nearish you who knows of a source. Perlite is a common potting mix ingredient. It's the light weight, white 'pebbles' in your MG mix. It is used primarily for aeration. Peat is sphagnum peat moss, should be available darn near anywhere. How much to get of each depends on how much you need ;) You will want 5 times as much bark as perlite or peat. All these ingredients will be sold in 1 cubic foot bags or larger. One cubic foot of mix will fill a 5 gallon bucket with some left over. Hopefully that helps you get a feel for how much you need to buy based upon the size and number of containers you will fill. Dolomite lime is often labeled as such and sometimes as agricultural lime. Just flip the bag over and look to see if it has both calcium and magnesium listed. That is what you want. If it only lists calcium, it is not what you want. Also stay away from hydrated lime. It can be used, but is much stronger and very caustic. Not something you want to work with on a windy day. You can store the mixes, yes. To avoid their breaking down prematurely try to keep them away from water. Wouldn't worry much about temp protection or air tightness. You might regret not just telling me to buy MG and be done with it! LOL Not at all. While making one's own mix can seem confusing at first and locating the ingredients can sometimes be a pain, it is always worth it to see another person report back how pleased they were with their results and to see first hand how much better they can do for their plants than just buying a store bought mix.

Hi traci - I was thinking maybe you had that wrong when you said it was Passive. Thought I'd remembered you saying it was Argos before b/c that's how I decided to go a shade darker in my LR. :) Too. Many. Paint. Samples. !!! Anyway, just wanted to add that I have Passive in my kit/nature room/dining room and Argos in my living room. They're all connected, but the light is very different in the LR. When you look at the rooms as a whole, it looks like it's all the same color. I think I'm going to do a tone-on-tone mural in the living room to emphasize the color difference (using Passive on top of the Argos). Man, I love that color strip!

I went to the stone yard today to look at their marbles. I have to say I really REALLY dislike honed marble. In photos it looks great, but in person I found it to be lackluster. I did not like any of the Danby marbles either. I saw the most beautiful polished Carrara, but for me - nothing compares to the polished super white "quartzite" The staff took me into their kitchen where they have had it installed for 5 years. It has not been treated gently, was covered in coffee splashes and mess, but it looked AWESOME. Sure, if you looked closely there were scratches, there was some etching but it looked stunning. More stunning than a perfect piece of quartz could ever look. The small piece I had tested on previously I left lemons on it overnight. That's never going to happen for real so i'm not overly concerned... There is just no substitute for the real thing. I'm definitely getting the super white for our island :D (Double stacked but still to decide on the edge profile) and will do a black quartz for the perimeter counters! I'm so glad we are doing it. Sofibebe - your countertop is a dream, it's perfection. I hope that you are happy with your decision. I'm going to scroll down and look for your other post now.

I am currently shopping for replacement bar stools. We just had our kitchen redone and need to replace stools. We live at our kitchen island and never use the table unless we have guests. In my opinion, swivel is a must for a couple of different reasons. It is hard to slide a bar stool in and out because usually your feet don't hit the ground while on a stool. Swivel allows you to leave the stool stationary and just swivel in and out of the seat. It's also nice to be able to swivel to see the TV. Also having a back is nice if you plan to sit for any length of time. It's hard to buy online because you can't tell if the stool will be comfortable and return shipping on a heavy stool can break the bank. I'll keep watching the thread. Please let us know what you decide on.