BZ, the car will get her rims before winter, as long as the hours I work pick up this summer. My main hobby is not this, I'm a photographer ( not a paid one either, despite my best efforts. lol ) My garden buddies not only hopefully will give me food but beautiful subjects that mean a great deal to me. I take macro pictures and the blossoms on a tomato plant ( as an example ) are simply exquisite to me :) I didn't think this was going to run me the cost of new photography equipment but such is life I guess. Despite the setbacks, I hope it will ultimately be very satisfying. The water retention thread is what threw me into this loop in the first place ! I was like "YIKES! What have I done? " So my wonderful Momma ( Hi Momma if you ever read this ♥ ) and I went out today and despite my searching, the mini pine bark and pine fines are nowhere to be found. I ended up with a huge bag of MG potting mix and two bags of perlite. Then I found something better, I hope. Once it's out of its cube it should be a good amount of good plant stuff? lol It's called Lambert LM-3 , I've put the link at the bottom. I know its not 5-1-1 but it's got to be better than what I have going. My plants are pretty much in mud at the moment. I reiterate a YIKES :p I am curious though, as I look on the site, it says Drainage - average. I have two bag of MG Perlite ( 8 dry quarts per bag? ) . Should I mix this into the Lambert and at what ratio? Uaskigryl - You're very sweet, thank you. I'm doing what I can. It's amazing how much you can come to care about your plants. As for black thumbs, I've killed cacti ( well succulents ) and I thought I was doing everything right lol If I can kill a cactus, I imagine I sure can kill a tomato plant lol I am also a little low on the patience, and I like things --just so, you know in my control. Plants, veggies --flowers I can only control so much and nature to an extent just does what she does. Not being able ( and also being overwhelmed by the vast amounts of information to digest ) to control everything is a bit of an uncomfortable place for me lol When I transplant ( which is pretty much when I know if I should mix in the perlite or not ) what would you suggest I do with them afterward? It's going to be rainy all week, should I put them back outside? Fertilize them ( I have Scotts 10-10-10 and some seaweed stuff ) and then put them outside? Keep them in the garage for a few days? Fertilize AND keep them in ? Decisions decisions lol I do want to say broadly speaking that this forum ( these ) has been an IMMENSE help and resource. I'm not generally a poster of things but I have been reading here off and on for a long time. I may have to visit the bulb forum soon because if I thought I was lost with container plants, bulbs are a whole other deal. Anyway, I sincerely thank everyone who contributes to this place. Hopefully some day I'll know what the heck I'm talking about and can help someone along the way as well :) Here is a link that might be useful: Lambert LM-3

Sheila, Bananas can and do fruit in pots. BUT, the pots need to be very large, you'll probably need to trim back any pups to keep the energy in the main pseudostem, AND they'll likely take longer in containers to fruit than when planted directly in the ground for the growing season. For some reason bananas always do better in the ground. If you want it to fruit in a pot, don't let it ever 'die back' from a hard freeze. That could kill any flower that is developing in the main pseudostem. The flowers actually come from the corm, but near flowering, they quickly grow up thru the pseudostem and emerge at the top of the plant. It may take 3 growing seasons for them to fruit in ground (considering that you dig for inside storage for the winter). If in a pot year-round, it could take years longer because the plants grow slower. I currently have a Dwarf Cav and Brazilian Tall in my garage. I dug them and potted them before frost. I trimmed them up to the last three leaves before I brought them in. They will resume their fast growth once they are planted back in the ground in May. This will be their third growing season. Hopefully I'll see some flowering this summer.

pife, Painting nestboxes is not necessary, but if you want to preserve the wood, you only need to paint the outside. To keep them cool, use a light color. Painting the exterior of the box white or light tan (before nesting season begins) can help reduce interior temperatures. Here is a great site for reference about nestboxes, safe setup, and monitoring. You can also do a site search there for more info about paint and nestboxes. BlueBars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/index.html

I've noticed that my counters (Labrador Golden Flake) are much easier to clean without streaking, smearing....for a period of time after I've applied my sealer (which states on the can that it brightens/polishes/protects). I had re-sealed them in December and have noticed over the past few weeks what a PITA it's been to clean the tabletop section (which happens to be more highly polished than the other sections). I kept having to go over it with a dry microfiber after cleaning it with our granite cleaner to buff off the residual haze left behind after spraying on the cleaner and wiping/buffing it with one microfiber cloth. I did a quick wipe on-wipe off with the sealer earlier today (just to "polish" the counters--it makes them very glossy, which we like). If past experience is any indicator, it should make it easier to clean without the haze and repel some fingerprinting and smudging as well. I'll let you know if that's not the case this time.