These are some tips for making Als gritty mix. I hope people on the forum and others who googled there way here will find it helpful. Screening  I would buy a large 18 gallon rope tub container which is only around $5-10. Then put an insect screening on top of it and use holding clips to secure the screen onto the tub. Make the screen concave down to the tub so the materials wonÂt fly out when screening. I believe all insect screening is 1/16 inch. Hardware cloth  I bought mine at Orchard hardware supply for around $2 bucks a foot. I bought 2 foot each. They fit perfectly on top of the tub with the insect screen right below it (see photo). I use 1/4 inch to screen out the pine barks. Fine bark  leave these laid outside in the sun so they will dry. Mix them around every few hours as the barks underneath will still be wet. Drying the barks will make it easier when removing the dust and powder when screening. Preparing to mix the soil - I would wash the granite really well, I can basically smell the salt coming out of it from the brand I was using (A1 granite grit #10). Mix your batch up first then wash it again really well before moving them into the pot container. Use insect screen to cover the holes inside the containers so the mix wonÂt fall out. Supplies  Use google map to find stores locally and just call the stores to find your supplies. Use "feed stores" for granite grit. (Gran-I-Grit  grower size, is the best). For turface, use this link, http://www.turface.com/distributors/state/. John Deere stores will carry Turface Allsport which is the same as MVP. "Allsport Pro" will be too fine for use in the gritty mix. Gypsum  if you plan on using a lot, just buy a 50 lb bag, I got mine for 6 dollars. Fertilizer  I am using a 9 month slow release fertilizer, brand = Dynamite. Some of these slow release fertilizer will also have the micronutrient you need so you wonÂt have to buy it separately. Remember to buy a few empty buckets to store your supplies.

This thread is so entertaining! I need to stop on this side more often. Each one of you has a fun and unique point of view. I agree with everyone else about #5! Then I read #6 and laughed my butt off. Then came #7. I am just sitting here chuckling. Because I'm guilty, guilty, guilty lol. And good to see you again Sherri, been wonderin' why I hadn't seen you post lately. Luna I noticed you where gone too, but I'm new and just getting to know y'all, not trying to be nosey, no explanations needed, just missed ya :-) and Jeanne, I'm like you, when I have time to sit down and do what I like to do, it's usually check emails, local paper, then over to GardenJunkers. that's my kind of a break, just like going junking around town is my idea of fun. Hey ... I'm very picky about my junk LOL. OK I'll shuddit ... ~tenderlee

Linda, Thank you for asking. Yes, I confess. I love cannas. In my climate, there are only a few people I know that can leave them in the ground year round and I consider them magicians with microclimates. The rest of us must store them over winter somehow. I prefer not to dig mostly out of laziness. You are exactly right about the bubble pack and brown paper. Brown paper for darkness and bubble pack to provide some insulation since my garage is not heated. Once they all green up, I will pull out all the brown dead leaves from last year and clean them up. In late May, they will be able to stay outside all day. For now, the canna trolley it is. I also gave them some kelp water about every 3rd water. And this year, I gave them a sprinkle of milorganite because I read that it can give you huge cannas. I don't know all the variety names that I have. I never really kept track. I do know that I have Bengal Tiger which I bought last year and a yellow one called Harvest Yellow. I actually found that out by posting on this forum which was so fun! I have a red one, a hot pink one, and I have a dwarf variety as well. The pots are pretty full and I should probably divide. I did divide the yellow one last fall so I'm waiting to see how that turned out before dividing others. I don't have the best pictures of mine, but promise to try to get better photos this year. Harvest Yellow - photo taken August 2016 (this one blooms really late)

Thanks to many of you, my square foot garden beds were fabulous this year! That full compost mix to fill them worked wonders. Heck, I even built another 4 x 8 bed on the back driveway to put more bush beans in. I guess the things I've learned this year: - Cauliflower isn't worth the time, effort, and space in the garden for the produce it makes. The broccoli produced much more out of the same number of plants. - I won't plant any more peas in the garden. They take too long to pick and after we froze them and thawed to use, the fibers were pretty bad on the sides of the peas (I used the Dwarf Grey Sugar peas). Green beans take much less time to pick and there is double the pounds of green beans. - I will plant more cherry tomatoes. I planted four last year and we were carrying gallon buckets of them out of the garden. This year, something happened with the tomatoes where all the leaves were dying from the bottom up and stems dying. Out of the two planted, we've maybe got a pound of them. - I will plant more Best Boy tomatoes. They tomatoes were between 8 and 12 ounces and were very meaty. Heck, even the Roma tomatoes planted weren't as meaty as the Best Boy tomatoes. - I will start cucumbers indoors first and then transplant. Out of three each of Marketmore 76 and Burpee Picklers, only one of each came up. In addition, I will only plant the Burpee Picklers next year as they seem to be crisper, have little to no seeds, and don't go bad as quickly (we use them mostly for making pickles - but can also be eaten fresh). - I may give up the idea of using a potato box because only one of the four potato plants survived (this may have been my fault with covering them too quickly). I'll know what to do next year after I see if any good-sized potatoes are dug up. - I will only plant the yellow onion variety instead of white onions. There was a harvest of ten less yellow ions versus white onions and they both weighed in the same (meaning the yellow onions grew larger). - Radishes simply cannot tolerate any kind of shade. I planted them between the onions and peas and out of 150+ planted, maybe only 25 were worth using. Things learned from prior gardening experiences: - Compost mix works much better than just putting plants in the ground not knowing what it is composed of. - Square foot gardening is MUCH easier, takes less time, and produces much better results. ---- The garden this year has been fantastic! We've pulled almost two dozen bell peppers so far (with at least three dozen left to pick on the eight plants). We've pulled well over 20 pounds of green beans from about 80 plants and more is still on the way with the newly made container holding another 50 plants (we snap em and then freeze them immediately). After spending a lot of time sifting the compost and make it fine to put in a bed, carrots were placed in there and we netted 18 pounds of carrots. Peas left more to be desired - although we did get about 11 pounds from them. We just found that either by cooking them first and then freezing - or just by freezing without the cooking - that the string-type fibers make eating the peas useless. Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Garden