I have always used peat moss but it wouldn't hurt to experiment with the moss on a small project. I used to throw in some of my husband's leftover sawdust, and the projects were fine. On the basket...I love using baskets as molds. Just cover your basket with about three or four plastic bags. That will not only preserve your basket, but add strength to the lightness of the basket. One of my favorite hypertufa fountain bowls is molded from a large basket. I've probably used it 20 times and it stills sits in my house holding magazines. Go for it!

Late winter to early spring is generally the best time to prune a camellia in order to promote new wood in spring and summer. There in the southern hemisphere I assume you are about mid-spring? If so, I would go ahead and do it now.

Jeesh, I posted similar questions almost a year ago now, so please disregard this post. Sorry. Getting old. Pat

You'll get a million opinions in answer to your questions and the final decision is up to you. I suggest you spend some time on the web doing google searches and get as much info as you can and you might run into other product possibilities that may grab your interest. Maybe you already have, and are looking for even more opinions. Your questions caught my interest and here are a few bits of info I found, along with the urls for each blurb. (non-wood siding for example) The felt or wrap question is at : http://www.umass.edu/bmatwt/publications/articles/housewraps_feltpaper_weather_penetration_barriers.html A blurb from the link: Housewrap or Felt? Based on our testing, if I were buying a housewrap today, I would choose either Tyvek or R-Wrap, because they display the best water resistance. But so far, I've avoided the million dollar question - housewrap or felt? The truth is, there's not million dollar answer. In general, I don't think it matters a whole lot. If you get the flashing details right, and are careful installing the building paper, you will prevent 99% of the moisture problems caused by wind-driven rain and snow. Either product, housewrap or felt, will provide an adequate secondary drainage plane. And either product is permeable enough to allow interior moisture to escape. As it happens, I have felt paper on my own home, and if I could choose between felt and housewrap and do it over again, I'd still choose felt. That's because I believe that under certain circumstances, felt outperforms housewrap. For example, an ice dam or roof leak may allow liquid water to get behind the felt or housewrap. It's also possible for the sun's heat to drive water vapor through the housewrap from the outside, where it can condense on the sheathing. In either of these cases, you now have liquid water on the wrong side of the wrap. Under these conditions, the liquid water would be trapped by the housewrap, which is permeable only to water vapor. Felt, on the other hand, will absorb the water, and more quickly dry to the outside. AYE grade? See this link to read more. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:sImunOohV0cJ:www.cabotstain.com/cabot/pdf/TchBul13.pdf+wood+siding+grades+aye&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 The next grade is Aye or betterÂwhich may contain one to two tight knots and could contain up to 10-15% flat-grained siding. On T1-11: http://www.soundhome.com/consult/221to230.shtml T1-11 is a very fine siding product. Make sure that you get plywood T1-11, not the oriented stand board (OSB) imitation. (I have seen such OSB siding expand just like the LP siding). T1-11 siding needs careful installation and proper use of "Z" flashing between rows of material. A good paint or stain will last for a long time. Light-bodied stain may have to be re-done every 3-5 years. Medium-bodied stain will last longer. T1-11, which is primed and painted, should not require a re-coating for 15 years. Enjoy, George George and an important hint from a reader: I completely agree with all that you said but I think you left out a very important part of installing T1-11 if someone plans to see it last longer than most other installs. Prime, paint or stain all edges prior to installation. When the stack arrives on site, get the roller out and go to town on the stack. With every cut someone needs to be there with a small roller and coat the cuts. I have found this to work very well with any plywood siding combined with proper caulking. I hope you didn't mind the unsolicited opinion.