I have five cats, so I go through a lot of cat litter. I began getting the 28 pound buckets when I realized the uses they had. (There's no way I can lift a 40 pound bucket.) Two of them are now housing tomatoes, and one is home to a bell pepper. What I'd love to do is turn them into self-watering containers, but the reservoir thingies I see for sale are for round pots, not for square ones. I have a massively huge tomato plant in a self-watering "square foot success kit" that I got from Gardener's Supply. Be nice to make a homemade one.

Ok just wanted to post a follow up. I lost my first set of cuttings, but wanted to try again. A trip to the local nursery to get supplies and ask questions proved there are no red CM to buy :( so...I got my new cuttings and used my new products... the perlite and dip & grow. I got a ton of semi-hard wood cuttings. Cuttings: 4-8 inch range, striped all but a few leaves at the top, used a 50/50 mixture in 3 pots of my old sand and peat mix with the perlite, poked a hole with a dibber, dipped cut tip in rotting hormone, put my cuttings in the holes, moistened soil (not too wet) damp, kept in location that sees light, but not direct sunlight. (only bad thing was due to time issues I had to leave the cuttings in water longer then I planned before I prepared them and got them set up in pots) This time I left off the bags and instead misted in the morning before leaving for work and when I got home from work in the evening. The leaves browned on me still and I was about to give up and a few days ago 2 gave me some green leaves. So I have 2 out of about 30. I guess that is good considering I have no greenhouse and can't mist them more then 2x a day. The question now is leave them alone and kep doing the same thing and let them get stronger or try to take them out of the rooting pot and into a new pot of their own? I'm leaning towards leaving them till I know if any others are going to try and throw up some green. I worry about the delicate roots and trying to separate them out w/o damage. When, or do they even need to be transferred to a new pot with a different soil?

Thank you Mongo for the explanation. It came just in time. I just had two other tile guys come in today and YOU WILL NOT BELILEVE...okay you pros out there probably will believe...what I heard today. When I mentioned what the original installer said, I think David you called it laziness, Mongo you called it uneducated. Here's what I found out. I had two additional tile installers out today. I was still not hearing what I wanted to hear when I asked for details about their process, esp. regarding the moisture barriers behind the cement board and the membrane on the shower pan floor. The last guy seemed very knowledgeable and I said to myself, I've got to come on out and just point blank ask because I am not getting anywhere. He said the same thing about cement board as the previous guy, but at least HE mentioned, taping those seams of the cement board with a mesh strip and thin setting it. So far so good. I asked about some other moisture barrier for the framing before cement board. He said they use a poly liner thing behind the cement board on the exterior wall. They don't normally do it on any other wall but they could... no problem. He mentioned some of the new boards that are lighter and made of foam, but he said they don't use them. Same deal, unproven and he would prefer cement in his own home. We talked about the shower pan membrane and he too talked about sand mix, membrane, build slope and tile. I finally came out and said, "I read somewhere the membrane should be put on a slope or something." He said we generally do it flat but what you are talking about is the pre-slope. He KNEW ALL ABOUT IT! What he said next floored me. He said yes in the Highland Park area we do a preslope. They have million dollar homes there. Not to say your house is not nice, but that area has more restrictions. Mongo, David and Bill...he described the steps just like you said...I guess my less than million dollar house didn't warrant the "correct" installation technique. :-( He even said why it is better to put it on the preslope, but I guess "cheap" houses don't get the extra steps. LOL I asked him about the membrane placement and he described what I had seen in the Harry Dunbar website. He did say he goes up about 8" on the walls, not 12 inches. He did say doing the preslope would make the shower pan area higher, but I told him I did not have a problem with that as long as the membrane was on the preslope. He did not have any problem doing it, but I am sure it will be reflected in the estimate he gives me. :-( Thought you guys would be interested in what I found out today. Thank you so much. I definitely will not be using the first guy.

Are you closing the 'fesh air" vent when the AC is on? There is an option to 'recirculate' the air or let outside air in. Maybe you're doing the latter? If the humidity is that bad, I would get a dehumidifier. Another note...Is the AC tilted out enough to drain properly? Maybe it's draining into th wall?