Wow, looks like this thread continued without me noticing! It's great to see the interest. Legacy, I think that's a heck of an idea! I'll get to work on it soon. I tried playing around with a few different "molds" tonight, seeing if I could use something such as a tuperware container to form the screen. It partially worked, yet I couldn't get the screen to maintain shape after pulling it out from the tuperware. I used two containers of a few different sizes that were stackable. One container served as the bottom half of the mold and the top container as the top half and also as a compressor. I had mixed results. Ultimately I was attempting to compress a shape without having to make vertical cuts in the sides as you had suggested. I was hoping it would maintain shape while I pulled it out of the mold so I could staple the sides without having to make cuts. But alas, I could never get them to hold shape no matter how much force I applied compressing the two containers together. So I'm going to try the vertical cut technique you had suggested. I'm really exited about it as it should make the process very efficient if I can get the process perfected. Tim, that's a great idea too with the tomato planter. I've got a similar situation in my back yard: lots of concrete, but little soil. If I'm ever struck by the tomato bug, I'll definitely give it a shot. If you decide to try it next year, please let us know how it turns out! James thanks for sharing your experiences too. I'm glad you're having success with the air pots. That drives me even further to try and perfect this DIY attempt. I like your idea of using plastic buckets with holes burned in them, however I am at a loss for spare buckets at this time. But in the long run such a container would definitely be more structurally sound and last nearly forever. If anyone has more ideas, please share them with everyone. Thanks again! -Brandon

Discoloration can be due to many reasons the additives you are using and temperatures. Preheating of molds and jars should be done for better results.

Crabgrass. You get some control with atrazine but it's not great on crab. Next year use a pre emergent in spring to control crabgrass.

Adam, you certainly know how to make roses flourish in pots. They're so robust they're practically climbing out.