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.

Hello Friends ~ Well..I guess I would be considered an 'oldie' and I too remember the days of Spike! I believe it is beneficial for a member, any member, to occasionally remind everyone of the rules (and 'yes' they are the rules of Garden Web) to keep some semblance of order! If a member is unsure of where to post a topic, just ask! We are all here to help and learn from one another. Also, if you notice your post has been moved from one side of the board to the other, do not take offence rather look upon it as a favor from a fellow Junker! While I do not want to revisit previous situations, I believe that Wired's post regarding two members needs to be clarified. I cannot address the member 'Brenda' as I do not remember her nor that situation but I do recall the member named 'Connie' and too insinuate that members were "Jealous" and "Ran her off" is to misstate the situation. Connie did indeed have some great Junk and was a creative person as Wired states but she began posting pictures of her interior design skills, which would have been appropriate on the Conversations side of the board but she insisted on posting them on the Discussions side. The more members tried to help her understand this error and ask her to move her postings, the nastier she and the situation became! Unfortunately, it culminated in her leaving on less then favorable terms. I come here, not as often as I would like to as of late, to learn from other members creativity and experience. I believe both sides of our board have merit. If a member chooses not to share on the Conversation side of the board, that is fine but it is where those of us that want, to get to know each other a little better and share more then just our passion for Junk! *Good order is the foundation of all things.--Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France)* Della :)

You know that cooking forum looks pretty active, but I don't think I want to get involved. I bet there are at least a few forum masters over there. Did you see the post about ginger? I guess if we eat the stuff from China we all croak. Not good. Very nice lemons Judy. Hope no innocent reader takes that the wrong way. My fridge is kind of a mess right now and I really hate that. All the food for T day plus all those hibernating orchids and carnivorous plants I vowed never to store there. Some of them are actually growing new roots inside their little baggies. I wonder if that's normal? Not many posts now before we reach the magic number. Only profound and heartfelt comments accepted from now on.

I agree that composting in place is a good idea, especially if it would enable you to keep all the material onsite instead of sending some to the landfill, saving you both time and money. The concerns you have about turning the compost and covering the bins would be important to address if you wanted compost faster or had limited space. In your case, since you're not in a hurry, you have lots of land, and what you are doing is effective, the less work the better -- I think it 'll be more productive to figure out how you can spend less time on the composting process (move piles only once, to their final locations, for instance). I have 6 compost bins and a relatively small garden plot (at a community garden, so I have to use bins). I turn them rarely, and I get good compost. Without turning, it takes a little longer. My understanding is that turning can speed up the process if you monitor temperatures daily and turn after the temperature spikes and then declines, and that otherwise turning doesn't make so much of a difference. Covering compost does help control moisture levels and help keep the compost critters warm and happy, but if it works without covers, that's ok too. I have one bin made from hardware cloth, which was drying out too much during the dry season, so I added some cardboard to keep moisture in. It's not pretty, but after one dry season, it does look like it has been very effective. Again, the cardboard sides and the cover help speed up the composting process by conserving moisture (and, to a much lesser extent, heat), but I got compost the old way, too. When I do turn my piles, it's because I see ants, which tells me there are dry spots, so I water it and then (if I have time) turn it and make sure the materials are more evenly distributed. But dry spots usually occur if I've put in a bunch of stems and twigs, and not enough small loose stuff to fill the spaces, so the stems and twigs stay dry. If I were composting only horse manure and watered as I went along, dry spots probably would not occur.