This is all good info. I have my shopping list, and believe me, I shopped. Sat here and called, and priced, and finally came up with the best prices I could get for the custom designed mix for the Desert Dwellers that Al made up for me and my heat living buddies. Cost me $130.00 to fill about 80 3 gallon containers with the custom mix for HOT locations. The containers are arriving on Thursday. Problem is, in two years, move em up from 3 to 5 gallon, and another two years, up again, see? Refreshing the old soil and adding to it, sounds great to me! Suzi

I'm in the same 'boat' as you are. We have sand, sand and more sand. Heck...we couldn't even grow grass until we had topsoil brought in...ughh!!! Assuming that your container soil is basically peat with some perlite and vermiculite, why not try layering that in the area that you will growing in next year with some newspapers, manure, leaves, compost...anything that will breakdown over the winter. In the gardening book, "Lasagna Gardening", this is precisely what the author does. She 'creates' good soil, by adding organics and then letting the whole pile just decompose. Come Spring, she just pokes holes in the now compacted pile and puts in the plants or seeds. As far as the bugs go, unless you have brutal winters that can kill them, they'll probably just overwinter and reappear next year. Sorry... I'm not an expert by any means, but your post reminded me of why I choose container gardening over in-ground gardening. Well...that and the fact that my entire property is on a slope ;-) I hope others will be along to help you. Donna H.

The EarthTainer 3 Guide is being written at the moment, and I plan to publish it by Feb. 1. Regarding the cage system, here is the Link to the correct Pea Fence at Gurney's. http://gurneys.com/pea-fence/p/12826/ It is actually 6 sections, each 14 inches long (their description is wrong - 7 ft. not 8 ft.) but the 6 panels form a nice rectangular fit along the outer edge of the EarthTainer rim. I use Wire Rope Clips to secure the ends of the cage together: The cage system folds up for storage at the end of the Season: Raybo Here is a link that might be useful: Gurney's Pea Fence

Dahlias are showing up Linnea, they are about 4 inches tall right now, you don´t have to worry about moisture where I live ( central Mexico ) it´s hot and dry and "winter" is just a word, we don´t really know what that word means. From the gardening point of view we only have two "seasons", dry ( Oct -> Feb ) and rainy ( March -> Oct ), or let´s say, from the outdoor activity point of view we do have 4 seasons: pre-spawn, spawn, post-spawn and hunting. Kidding aside, I personally don´t like the saran wrap method, Jan´s method is what I use when I lift to divide the clumps ( every 4-5 years, it takes a 5 gal bucket just to hold the clump ) and they do fine, the wood shavings used for hamster cages is usually cedar. Yes, you close the container with a lid, just be shure to ocassionally take a peep at the tuber to see how they are doing and to feel if there´s no moisture forming inside the container. Divide when you see the sprouts, then allow a the tuber to heal for about a week or week and a half. Do not wash the tuber after lifting, just allow the soil to dry out and crumb appart on it´s own. The enemies of dahlia tubers in storage are: 1.- Moisture ( fungi ) 2.- Low temperatures ( keep above 45° ) 3.- Dryness ( shriveling )