Sounds like you have a big project ahead of you! So I will help you out with a few of the questions. Let's start with the soil cost: Mel's mix is expensive, and it is not the only option out there, but it is a very good one in my opinion. Honestly, soil costs are going to be your largest investment no matter what. You can probably get the wood donated from a construction site. You will find that many people on this site are against using any soil in container gardening. The idea is that soil compacts too much and creates a muddy drainage issue when used in a container. Mel's mix is essentially a soiless mix as there is no "dirt" in the recipe. Now with that being said, I do have a box that I used 90% garden soil in. The same kind of soil that is 4-5 bucks at home depot. I just added some peat moss to go along with it. You should probably do a quick search of soil mixes on this forum and will find out what does work and what doesn't. I have heard a lot of warnings against using solely top soil due the reasons I listed earlier. I am sure you could amend it with compost and vermiculite, but then you are back to the same cost issue! Now as far as plants go: Think spacing and think ease of growing. What I mean by this is that some of the plants you have mentioned need a lot of space/care. Easiest things to grow: Lettuce, Peppers, Tomatoes, Beans (bush), herbs, spinach. Things to consider: Corn: Heavy feeder (needs a lot of fertilizer) and needs a lot of plants to successfully open pollinate. Unless you plan on manually pollinating the silks (easy to do, but may be tough considering your situation) you should probably avoid unless you plan on using an entire 4X4 box for solely corn. I actually grow only 8 stocks at a time and self pollinate, so it is possible and may be educating for the children, but corn is also very big so pick a smaller variety. Squash/Cucumbers/Zuchinni: These grow very large and one plant can easily take over 16 sq feet. You can do these, but you may want to take them vertical. They are very large plants once they get going, but are also very fun to grow. Strawberries: Easy and fun! You should really do a couple squares of these for the girls, but understand that strawberry plants do not really start to produce big fruit until their second year and you need to clip the runners that grow from them, so they require some pruning. You also want to pinch buds for the first month or so in order to promote rooting. Egg plants, peppers and Tomatoes: Start from seedlings if possible. It will be a bit late in the season to start from seeds and these grow slowly. Eggplant is the more difficult of the three, but you will be fine. There are two types of tomatoes, Indeterminate and determinate. The determinate are probably easiest to grow as you really do not need to prune them and you can just cage them. Beans: Bush beans do not need a trellis to grow, so if you do not plan on having trellises then only get the bush kind. Pole beans need a pole or trellis to grow. You can plant bush beans along any of your heavy feeders as they actually pull nitrogen from the air and put it in the earth for your feeders to eat. you can also try a "three sisters" box (corn, squash, and pole beans). This was the way the Iroquois Indians planted theirs. Search this forum for directions on how to do this. Like I mentioned earlier you may have to manually pollinate the corn, but this can be done by shaking the stalks if you have enough in the container.

Should I expect the smaller nurseries to carry them, or a bigger chain like Home Depot? Well Home depot carries the rolls of CRW (concrete reinforcing wire) but no, they aren't sold pre-made. You have to make the cages yourself or have someone make them for you unless you can find a gardener with extras who will sell them to you. There are many discussions here about how to make them and I'll dig up some and link them below. Online you can order Texas Tomato Cages (http://www.tomatocage.com/intro.html) already made but they aren't cheap so most of us make our own. They last 10-15 years and all you need is the roll of wire, a tape measure, pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: CRW Tomato cage discussions...

I see the parenting dilemma here. This little girl is one intense package. We've been dealing with her tantrums and drama for a long time. We even had a private session with the child development expert in town who assures me that part of her intenseness is her age. Developmentally, the six months between 4.5 and 5y.o. is apparently THE worst time to make it through as a parent of a young child. I usually am the bada$$ parent. I do not give in to her tantrums. I repeat daily to her that "a tantrum doesn't get you what you want." And it doesn't. I agree that always giving in at a young age sets a bad precedent. This was different. It wasn't a tantrum. It was a sad little heart thinking for more than a month that she was going to get a pink bed then being told she wasn't. I think a 4 3/4 y.o. is old enough to have *some* input on what her room looks like.

So, girl! How are those sanding muscles? Your "wings" getting a workout? Haven't heard from you in a while. Did you shame your DH onto the bandwagon? Do tell. Inquiring minds and people like me with no life want to know