I have used black plastic for the past several years and love it. You can either do as denninmi stated, or what i do is after a rain storm I walk around with a pointy stick and see where the water pools up and just poke holes in the pastic, has worked just fine. In my garden, the black plastic actually allows me to water less than I would otherwise due to the fact that it holds the moisture in. As far as slugs - I still have some slug issues, but not a ton. It does cook some both on top and under, but at night when it's cool, they still make it across to the veges once in awhile. As far as other products that are breathable, I have tried some and i don't like them for a few reasons. The main one being is they don't work very well as a weed barrier (weeds will still grow up and through them. In addition, while they do warm the soil some, they don't quite as much as the black plastic (using the wife's meat thermometer - shhh don't tell her!- it was a difference of almost 10 degrees in the spring time). My 5 cents :)

Hi Sancho Panza, First, let's dismiss the notion that there ever is a dumb question. There are no dumb questions. Not here. Not ever. Every single question is an opportunity for each and every one of us to learn something or to look at something in a different way. When the OSU fact sheets specify a range of planting dates, those are the dates that they recommend a plant or seed should go into the ground. The advantage of using a plant that is transplanted into the ground is that it may give you a harvest that is 3 to 6 weeks earlier than if seed is direct-sown into the ground at the recommended time. If you want to sow seeds in flats to raise your own transplants, your normally sow them 4 to 6 weeks before your targeted transplant date. Keep in mind that these are recommended dates only, and adjust as needed based on what you experience in your location. That is something you learn only with time and experience. With the recommended planting dates, you will see they come in a range. For the winter/spring planting dates, the earlier dates are for far southeastern OK and the later dates for far northwestern OK and the rest of us can pick a date in between the two extremes based on our location within the state. With the recommended fall planting dates, which really begin in summer, then it is the opposite. The earlier dates are for NW OK and the later ones for SE OK and the rest of us fall somewhere in between. Take the dates, too, with a certain amount of healthy skepticism or, let's say, be willing to exercise some flexibility. Unfortunately, plants do not grow by the calendar. It is we humans who use calendars to simplify planting times for ourselves. I don't blame OSU for giving us dates at all. It is very useful information. Plants, however, could care less about dates on a human calendar. They grow, or not, when the air temperatures and soil temperatures are right for them, and when they have adequate nutrition, moisture and the right amount of light. Make sense to you? When OSU gives us dates, those dates are generally the time when the soil temps and air temps are in the right range for a specific vegerable. It is just that our weather is highly erratic so we gardeners have to take recommended planting dates with a grain of salt. I think that, with some things, we can be fairly flexible when we plant them. I want to use broccoli as an example. In the winter/spring, broccoli can be planted in March. I am very far south, so ought to plant in earliest March. However, I'm in a low-lying creek hollow in a low-lying river valley, and cool air sinks into those low areas, making them prone to late freezes and frosts. From experience, I have found it is better if I plant broccoli transplants into the ground near the end of March and not the beginning. So, in that way, I am not following the OSU-recommendation exactly, but it is what works for me. You have to be willing to be flexible and adjust planting dates based on what you learn from planting and growing in whichever part of the state you're in. Tomatoes are an interesting vegetable in this regard. They will tolerate soil temps in the 50s and will survive air temps (without frost) into the 30s, though they will freeze at 32 degrees or can suffer frost damage even at 36 or 38 degrees. Thus, we get away with planting them earlier than recommended if we protect them from an occasional cold night. Tomatoes are very flexible in some ways and you can use that to your advantage. I transplanted the earliest tomatoes in late Feb. 2012 in containers, and started parting tomato plants into the ground March 12th and continued transplanting more through the first week in May. That's a huge range. All of them have produced fruit. The ones that were transplanted in late February or early March produced many more fruit per plant and they produced it earlier than those that went into the ground later. So, even though you can plant them through at least the end of April, I find they produce well most years when planted earlier. Why not just wait and plant them between April 10-30 as OSU recommends? Because with many tomato varieties, fruit set stops once really high temperatures arrive. Don't be afraid to push the limits a little with dates, or even sometimes a lot. If someone here thinks anyone is jumping the gun and planting way too early, we'll usually speak up and try to tell you why you ought to wait. Another consideration is that sometimes our weather is just wacky. This year is a perfect example of that. Sometimes spring temperatures arrive early and stay abnormally warm. In a year like that, it really can pay off to plant early if you can. When February and March are "hot" compared to their usual temperatures, I start pushing myself to get everything into the ground early so the plants can beat the heat. Sometimes, being willing to push the limits and plant early like that will pay off a great deal, as it did this year. Under similar conditions in a previous year, I planted early like that only to have a three week spell of late cold weather, including sleet and snow, strike after I had all my peppers and tomatoes in the ground and had to go to extraordinary lengths to save the plants. So, when you decide to ignore the recommended planting dates, you are doing so at your own risk, but it can pay off (or not). When it gets hot early like it did this year, if you wait and plant cool-season crops "on time", you may not get much of a harvest because the heat's early arrival shuts down their production before it can begin. That's why there are issues with relying on dates, and always will be, but it is the best method we have than can be succinctly described in a relatively brief listing. Hope this helps. If you have questions about a specific vegetable, ask them. We know from experience which ones tolerate being planted sort of early or late and why. Dawn

Joe, The bar is there to keep the hole the correct size,I make mine 1-3/8" from the bottom of the hole to the bottom of the bar.The space above the bar is for ventilation.In these plans the bar is also being used as a hinge,the door(front of the box) would then lift up from the bottom.I myself prefer the door to swing down from the top.I only had the bar on the door,not going through the side of the box as shown in the plans,I then made my hinge on the bottom.I just used a seperate piece of the bar for the pin lock.For the bar and pin,I used a piece of 1/8"brass welding rod,but am sure you could use any 1/8"rod you can find,maybe aluminum.I guess you could have the bar like in the plans and still have your hinge on the bottom,but you would have to fish the bar through all the holes every time you opened the box. Matt

Easy to be confused by flooring options. In the vinyl category you have the sheet format and tile and plank formats. Some in each category are installed with adhesive and some are not. Perhaps the sheet you chose can only be installed using adhesive...in that case the estimator would be correct in stating that it cannot be installed over particle board. You have to check to see which can be installed directly over particle board. Information from manufacturers, either on the packaging or in technical specifications on their websites, can tell you what is an acceptable substrate for each product and how the substrates must be prepared.