Coir is excellent, it makes a great medium. No need to check out of date sources. Most pot growers use it all the time. Someone is really out of touch. Remember anybody can post in these forums. The coir of old is nothing like the present product. I would not go higher than 25% compost, I myself would use 1 part compost, 2 parts coir, 1 part bark, and 1 part perlite. I would add micro nutrients, beneficial fungi and bacteria. I would use all products mentioned as compost, a mix of them, Manure and leaf compost as the base, add small amounts of worm casting(this is a great product!) and guano. The beneficial bacteria and fungi are not essential, but I have found they tend to help if any problems arise, and kick start the plant. I like Mycogrow, and Biota Max. I make a solution of both together, and dip plants in it before planting. But any method of application is fine. Use left over product as a drench or foliar spray for all your plants in ground, in the house etc. http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mycogrow-soluble-1-oz.html http://biotamax.com/ORDER.html

Go to Walmart. It is 8.27 for 2 cuft of hyponex potting mix. It is in a green bag. It is not the old hyponex in the black bag, this new mix is really good and cheap! My house plants love it. Cant wait to try it outdoor.

To Blaze of glory: I use redwood micro bark as a mulch, now that I dumped my lawn. Redwood microbark is cheap when I buy a big amount. Kelloggs amend looks like tiny bark pieces. I emailed Al to ask about substitutes in the mix, but I did not hear back. I was able to get the gravel at price I am happy with but as for the tur face and the fir bark, I have not worked out a price I am happy with yet. I want to do some tests with containers for plants to see if the gritty mix will work. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0519004127574.html?19 Google words like gritty mix failure if you can't see the thread, and it should come up on top I think the problem here, (I hope you can see the photo) the gritty was too big, not screened enough. The pigeon grit could have lime in it. I bought a bonsai mix granite. I was going to use chicken grit but it was made of limestone not granite. Bonsais cost a huge amount of money so if the eBay seller was selling limestone and not granite the negative feed back from angry bonsai growers would put him out of business. The reptile bark was the wrong kind of bark, it was not fir or it was not really bark. He or she did not skimp on the tur face by using oil dri, so that can't be the problem. I think if one cheats on the ingredients you can end up with a disaster. It may be possible to cheat, but I am doing a lot of thinking it over before I start. It would be bad to buy cheaper ingredients and have a failure then go out and buy the right ingredients. That would cost more than doing it right the first time. Someone should create a cheater's guild to the mixes. I have not spend enough time working with containers to be an expert.

I can relate to that! :-) I've used so many different materials to make tags with over the years... and not many seem to weather well or hang in there when attached to branches, or stuck into pots, etc. The plastic ones become brittle after time, markers fade, and forget wooden stakes which just decay along with the mulch! I finally ended up, about 8 years ago, buying a roll of aluminium flashing and some suitable metal shears to cut pieces of it into the size(s) I wanted. I borrowed my husband's tool engraver and made some nice, serviceable tags. I drilled a small hole at one end with his Dreml tool on it's little drill press stand, then used long pieces of heavy gauge wire, more like some of the thinner welding type rod, (similar to your older coat hanger material), to bend into what are doubled loops at one end to hold the tag, and sink the other end into the soil next to the plant fairly deep. One could just buy those nice metal engrave-able tags, but they're very costly. The copper ones are nice, but again, they only come so many in one package and they cost an arm and a leg! I figured it would be better to make my own. I also use the welding rod-like wire to make stakes with loops that effectively hold the leaves and flower stalks of my Amaryllis bulbs more upright in their containers while they're blooming. Again, I can buy those... but the loops are always a little small for my application, or too big, or rather costly, and I end up having to cut off half the height, anyway. Most of the tags hung in there nicely... and many are probably still there, under what are now massive ramblers that have taken over fencing, or climbed the side of the house. On the west side, we have a massive Paul's Himalayan that has taken over part of the porch and a doggie door with an extension exit that was built onto the house to help mitigate dirt from paws and the entrance of cold winds, etc... and that moves right into a row of alternating Rugosa Rubra and Alba roses that run along a fenceline that contains a small herd of goats. The goats keep the roses trimmed on their side. :-) Those are the hips I use for making jelly with. They mix nicely with organic Fuji apples we grow elsewhere on the property. It's a farmette, you might say. Not big enough to label a full fledged farm, but not small enough to call a "city lot", either. My husband and I actually help care-take the property for its elderly owners, but we're reaching retirement, ourselves. We're very slowly paring down our material possessions and readying for a move to live with our son and his family. I plan on taking some nice rose starts with me, along with all the knowledge I've gained. We hope to live out in the country with our family, grow an organic garden and small orchard, and teach our grandchildren about self-sufficiency and living close to the land. :-) If you have the ability and tools, you may want to look around your local home center type stores, like Home Depot, Lowe's, or Menard's, and find items that will make better, larger, longer lasting tags for your roses. I had thought about going over the engraving work with brightly colored paint or some other permanent type craft paint pen meant for outdoor use... which might make the names easier to see or read... like in a white or bright yellow or other color, but I never got around to it. I'm sorry... I do get carried away. I love getting up early and using my quiet time to visit these forums while having my coffee. Happy Gardening!