I have been looking for all these information of top watering and self-watering. I have few questions here. Should I change the soil mixed according to the way I am going to water my plants? The top watering and self-watering may have different result according to the composition of the mixed soil preparation I feel. Most of my containers do not have drainage hole and wick but self-watering. I did not plan very well to start container gardening before I start. After I found this website I started to know a little bit about container gardening. Then I realized that containers without drainage hole are not a good choice for container gardening. Next time I will buy self-watering containers with drainage hole. Still thinking to make holes and use some kinds of water proof plugs to seal it again. For the young plants usually I do top watering a bit because I think the roots are not long enough to reach the water from the bottom. On the other hand the surface of the soil getting wet and small insects started appear and flying around the plants and have fungus too. Sometimes I cover the upper soil with dried coco fiber it looks a bit helpful. Right now as much as possible I avoid top watering except spray the leafs. All the containers are inside my house just like a kind of companion plants. I have only few containers so I monitor regularly according to the health of the plants I do what it is necessary to do.

laurastheme- I thought I answered your question about the metal leaves, but maybe not. I usually find wall-mount candle holders or plaques at GS, GW - just about anywhere. The leaves snap right off. These leaves I found at a garage sale a few weeks ago, the candle holder was 25 cents and had nine metal leaves. I collect Kosta Boda candle holders that look like ice balls. A tea light candle fits inside and lights up the 'ball of ice'. I have a half dozen and set them on my dining table at Christmas time. They are $25 at Macy's. I got one at the sale for 50 cents. I also bought an oil painting on a canvas board for a quarter, from these same people, as well. I had a mat and frame at home and now it hangs in my kitchen - aqua and yellow to match my kitchen. I LOVE IT!! The people made a face when I raved about the painting. It looks like a combo between a Monet and Van Gogh. My sons and I all paint, but for some reason this one grabbed me. One man's trash, yada, yada... Sorry to rant, the thrill of the hunt, and all that. YOU know. -Sprout

I was going to try the wire basket idea - I have a couple from an old refrigerator that stopped working that I can use. I will have to look at the dollar store for wire waste baskets, never saw those. I have found some wire hanging basket frames, but the tiny ones start at $3 here, and the larger ones run even more. Seems like the plants will outgrow them pretty quickly, so I definitely don't want to spend much money on them. Also, I need to try to stay somewhat uniform and not huge and unsightly; I live in a subdivision with HOA rules. As long as the garden doesn't become an eyesore, I don't think my neighbors will complain, especially since I share a lot, and they know that I donate all extras to our local food panty. People feel pretty bad making a fuss when you are sharing fresh produce with people who are having trouble feeding their families in this economy and rarely have fresh produce. They kinda feel like they're taking fresh food out of the mouths of children. My one neighbor directly behind has no interest in my produce, hasn't accepted a single tomato and thinks people using the food pantry should get jobs, and she is a complainer - she turned someone in for having a patio table & chairs & grill in their driveway out front, rather than in the back (this was before the yard was sodded and it was a mud pit, early in the development with few houses finished). I have a brand new neighbor on the garden side, and I don't know them well, so I don't know how they will react. I'm hoping that being friendly, and sharing will make them think positively about it. The garden and composters were already in place when they bought the lot, so it won't be a surprise. The builder never complained to me about it, so I doubt potential buyers ever sited my garden as a reason they were not buying. The clear bottles I think will be fairly unnoticed from a distance - won't show much above the sides of the bed, short and clear. If I start with an assortment of various sized wire contraptions, that may attract some extra unwanted attention. Is blood meal a pest deterrent? I just thought it was a fertilizer. Thanks for the input. Sherri

It really depends on a lot of factors. First you have to define bottled water and tap water. There are a lot of different sources of the generic term bottled water. Some bottled waters are actually just tap water that a city has bottled, while others are spring water, or water that has been purified in some manner. Others may have been created from a combination of sources, such as tap water that's been purified. The tap water depends on if you're in a city or on a well, how hard or soft the water is in the area, how old the pipes are and what material they're composed of, and if the city adds chlorine or other chemicals to the water. If you want to do the project correctly you'll have to address these factors. It may be better to narrow the scope to something simpler like is spring water from X spring better than tap water from Y city.