Ljbrandt, Excellent experiment, and right on time! I'm about to start my fall/winter garden here in Houston, and need some advice. Been trying to catch up to Al, but, seems he's outta pocket. I used a modification of his 5:1:1 container mix for the first time last season, growing the best crop of healthy tomatoes and plants ever. On Al's recommendation, I used a 3:1:1 mix of PBFs:peat:perlite in 5-gallon, self-watering eBuckets. I used MG Potting mix as my peat component, and I mixed in 1 cup of powdered Dolomite lime + 1 cup of 10-10-10 per eBucket. Very healthy crop! Only concern I had was at the end of the season when I ripped the plants, I noticed the mix at the bottom 1/4 of the eBucket seemed to be holding a bit more water than throughout the top 3rd. Also, I stayed confused on the watering schedule, because I could never tell if I needed to water or not. I might try your dowel this go-round, and try to adapt that as a measuring system. Now, I'm prepping my eBuckets for my fall/winter garden. I'll be growing cabbages, cauliflowers, Brussels Sprouts, and broccoli in the 5-gallon eBuckets. These are high feeders (they like organic mediums), and they are water hogs! I'd like a recommendation, please, on how to reuse the 3:1:1 mix from last season, and in what proportion to fresh MG potting mix, fresh PBFs, and fresh perlite? After reading your experiment, I'm inclined to go forward to a 5:1:1 mix in at least some of the eBuckets (I'll have about 48) just to see what would happen. Also, I need a recommendation on incorporating Black Kow Composted manure into the mix, as the plants are heavy feeders. I've grown them quite successfully in eBuckets before, in a mix of 50/50 MG Potting mix/Black Kow Composted manure. I'm still trying to get a feel for Al's container mixes, and how the plants respond (last season was my first time). I loved the lightening fast drainage, and felt there was definite oxygenation going on in the mix, because the seedlings took off like a rocket when they were planted, and stayed so healthy through our Texas heat. They grew faster than I ever saw before. Please note that not all my containers were true eBuckets. I made 1/2 of them free draining with holes drilled in the bottoms and 1/4" up the sides. These were top-watered with MG Water Soluble Plant Food for Veggies. The remaining were enclosed with the built-in reservoirs. Early on, I experienced an anaerobic odor emitting from some of the self-enclosed eBuckets, and discovered the overturned colander soil platform had collapsed in them and the mix was sitting in the water. Once I rebuilt them, there was no further smells. One other observation was that the eBuckets didn't seem to wick the water high enough, which is why I started top watering them, before the season ended. I know I've offered a mouthful here. Hope to hear some feed back as soon as you can get it posted. Almost forgot. I've started sifting dead tomato root hairs from the old 3:1:1 container mix, and will be ready to re-purpose it for the cole crops by the end of this week, so a speedy reply would be appreciated. Thank you so much, Linda

Thank you for the nice comments. I do believe she will be my 2nd favorite after Evelyn. And great fragrance. Jim ~ the purple spire is Linaria, purpurea I think. It's the perrenial one and this is a new seedling! Thrilled to have it. Moved the camera on purpose to include it.

quote" I have to ask, why the dark drain covers in a light colored pool. Is that to keep the daughters boy friends from bonking their heads on the bottom? "quote Micheal and I spot the deep end drains as an intended landing measure for jumping off the roof of the Pavilion, LOL!!!!! Actually I ordered out everything in the front end of construction and had planned on Midnight Blue. Later when we moved to plaster, due to cost overruns, I switched to Caribbean Blue to save money but forgot about the frames/grates and wall fittings that I'd bought 6 month before being black. I told the applicators to just install them anyway. Dave, I'd love to ride Glamis, I've seen a lot of videos of the riding and jumping going on there. I'm certain I don't have the Cajones to jump those insane 5th gear pinned dunes. They're wicked and insane. You sound a helluva a lot like me, I've been riding since 72. We have lots of kids and toys. 2 ZX10R Ninja's, 13 dirtbikes, 4 jet skis, and 2 450 race quads. In the National Forest my favorite ride is a 03 CR250 stroke with narrowed bars/barkbusters and an off road lighting kit. At the track my favorite scooter in an 07 YZ450, and for Hare Scrambles an 05 CRF450R or a 01 WR426F. I have 3 of my old Husky's and the kids have like 6 different bikes to choose from, 2 125's, 3 250's and a YZ426. My major malfunction is that I love to buy toys but it takes an "Act of Congress" to make me sell one. Shoot me an e-mail the next time you come to Texas and have a weekend day here. If I'm not obligated for anything to do we'll go ride. Street or dirt makes no difference to me, the best moments in my life have been on bikes. Check out this link from a recent ride I had in Europe, it was pool related so I made a thread for it. See ya, Kelly Here is a link that might be useful: European vacation

Greetings northern states folks, I have a get-together of some Canadian former Korea missionaries on June 20 and family reunion (Dad's side - they've had one annually for 110 years) on June 21. Weekend of June 28 is free. But that may be too early for many of you. July 5 is your big holiday weekend. July 12 is Mom's family's get together at my brother's. July 19 is free for me, I'm pretty sure ... but getting close to when I need to be in NC, the following weekend. I'd planned to be back in London before going to NC, but if I were to go direct (which is somewhat closer), that weekend should be O.K. I'm pretty sure that the Korea missionary reunion is the weekend of July 26 in Lake Junaluska, near Asheville, west end of NC, then plan to visit niece in Gainesville, GA, north-east of Atlanta, for a few days, as convenient for them, before returning to London. Possibly visit Pooh Bear along the way, as I did last time, 3 years ago. If meeting some of you as individuals, I'm thinking in terms of a few hours, perhaps meet somewhere for coffee, etc. Possibly overnight, if convenient - I usually travel with sleeping bag, and couch will work ... even a piece of floor (preferably carpeted): I don't have an operable air mattress ... but I'm fairly sure that son may have one that I could borrow. And, of course, I could spring for one! Rumour has it that moths fly out of Ed's wallet when he opens it. Good wishes for an interesting week, with something new happening to keep your interest up ... or should that be, with you doing something new, to add some spice to life (yours as well as others')? ole joyful