I use a woodburning tool, works great, took care of everything so far, two new pots very thick on the bottom. The only thing is that the juice jugs are heavier gauge plastic, and it takes longer to cut around them with the hot knife, no way with knives or scissors, have all different kinds, but burning drainage holes not bad at all. Gallon jugs are much easier, I do burn the drainage holes in the bottom but make a slit and can easily cut around with scissors, faster and more precision than the hot knife for me. I only had a couple clear juice jugs anyway as I usually buy frozen. Prune juice ones are too dark. 2 liter bottles are a lot easier. I do have a good drill but no way to secure by myself, and would be harder to control, the woodburning round tip goes very fast for most things, feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of that investment already.

Usually, plants that come from different sources have different tags... some are paper, some plastic... but most fade fairly fast! It would be so nice to tag a plant once, and not have to worry about reading that tag after winter or heavy rains. Soda cans would be a good source of aluminum, and it would be good to recycle something... but I bet aluminum could also be found at craft and hobby shops, or in the aluminum siding or gutter sections of home improvement stores. Thick aluminum food trays or pans might work, as well. And the only tools required would be a pair of tin snips or heavy duty scissors, a hole punch or sharp object, and a pen or stylus... something to emboss the tags with the plant names. It's so frustrating to write out wooden or plastic tags, only to have them fade blank by spring!

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

Well, I just got my plants from E & R, an Amish company in Indiana.I wasn't able to insert a picture but have posted a link to a picture of them. See how much smaller the Black Cherry plant is on the far left? Next to it is Cherokee Black, which is taller. Then you will see a Caspian Pink out of its 3-pack and a Sweet Little Girl (already with bloom) out of its 3-pack. Surely they didn't send the wrong, mislabeled plant. Does it start out so small and then make up for it big time? I thought these were a good deal. No minimum purchase. The two 3-packs were $1.99 each and the individual plants were $2.25 each. It was the shipping that was killing: $8.35, for a grand total of $21.33 for 6 plants (I also got two ground cherry plants.) But $3.56 a plant isn't bad. Here is a link that might be useful: