Kenny, The plants are in 7 gallon pots that are about 11" deep. I buried them in the dirt so they do not dry out quickly and it also gives me another foot of vertical height to grow in before they reach the top of the GH. In the middle row, the pots touch each other - I did it that way to maximize the number of plants I can grow, since my GH is only 12' wide. I also use a Florida Weave tie up the plants so I can still walk between the rows (four rows in the GH). Made my own mix (the recipe is in a thread in the Container Growing section) with dirt, compost and pot-ting mix, along with green and brown leaves. Mike Hyphen added to prevent links I may condone from being added to a message I post.

Here is a quote from the U.S. Dept. of Energy: "Installation Concrete block insulation is typically installed for new home construction or in homes undergoing major renovation. Since installation involves masonry skills, it's best to have a certified cement mason do it. When using masonry blocks for a foundation wall, filling the block cores with high-pressure foam works better than most poured-in insulations, like polystyrene beads or vermiculite or perlite pellets. Note that even though filling the block cavities and special block designs improve a block wall's thermal characteristics, it doesn't reduce heat movement very much when compared to insulation installed over the surface of the blocks either on the exterior or interior of the foundation walls. Field studies and computer simulations have shown that core-filling of any type offers little fuel savings since the majority of heat is conducted through the solid parts of the walls such as block webs and mortar joints." In Wisconsin a common construction method is to place a skin of foam insulation on the outside of the wall, whether it is made of concrete, concrete block, conventional or steel framing, then a layer of expanded metal lathing, held on with lath washers and fasteners that extend through to the base wall and finally a layer of stucco. The stucco layer is put on in three coats, a thick base coat, a thiner "primer" coat and the final color and texture coat. The joints between sheets of foam are sealed before covering them with the lathing by using drywall tape (the sticky fiberglass mesh variety) and conventional drywall compound. In order to maximize your ground contact, you should also extend the sheets of poly foam below grade at least 16-18 inches and then outward, away from the foundation at least 4 feet. This implies, of course, that your concrete cast foundation is at least 16-18 inches below the surface. See the document about insulated frost-protected foundations below. The joint between the vertical poly sheet and the horizontal one should be made and sealed with construction adhesive (the water-proof polyurethane type). Here is a link that might be useful: NAHB Frost Protected Foundations

Everyone I know with a chain link fence covered by English Ivy had to literally sit out there for YEARS and weave the vines up and through the fence mesh, the plants won't do it on their own. In fact the vines constantly want to escape the fence and creep away on the ground or climb up into the trees - anything but be intricately woven into the chain link. The process took many many years since English Ivy pretty much sits still for at least the first year (and I've seen it sit still for up to three years in poor soil). Once it has adapted to its new home it can grow very fast but that rarely happens right after planting. The first step in keeping English Ivy from becoming the next Kudzu is to stop it from growing up the sides of tall buildings or tall trees. The vine we see is actually the juvenile form, which it can stay as forever. Once it climbs up around 25 feet the plant will switch to its adult form which is more like a woody stemmed shrub, its leaves will change shape and it will bloom and set seed. So if you see it being used as ground cover or climbing up a small fence it is not able to bloom or set seed in that stage. That is not the plant that we should be concerned with - it is harmless, though a rampant grower. As a garden plant, they will grow in spots that few other plants will survive and nothing seems to eat them so they have a place in my garden but I cut them back every other year to stop them from blooming.

Oh gosh! I should have peeked in here earlier! Thats the Angel feather ornament Country Bumpkin did for my DD after DSIL passed away a year ago in November. I'd think Hobby Lobby would have those hangers... Your a sweetie Patti to think of this, I KNOW how much my DD loves hers. (CB if your peeking in she still has it out) Here is a pic and I think the poem is a bit easier to read. The flip side of the poem has a pic of Steve and is laminated. If you want there are two more pics I can post. CB put two red roses on to represent DD and Steve and 2 white, one for each of the boys. I was in awe when I saw it in person!