Al - Thanks for responding! I will try sneaking up on it at night with a flashlight, but I really don't think it is something (a bug?) little enough to live in the soil of the window box - whatever it is has eaten 3 entire new impatiens plants down to the ground in one night in the past - that's a lot for bugs! Also, yesterday I replaced all of the soil. There was nothing visible in it. I have never planted bulbs there before, just plants. Yesterday I planted some daffodil, grape hyacinth, and spanish bluebell bulbs. I am waiting to see what happens. We are having really warm (in the 70s for the past week) weather, so the bulbs may come up this month or next month. This morning one of the hyacinth bulbs was laying on the surface of the soil - seemingly uninjured, so I hope that means it didn't smell delicious, and I replanted it. Jackie

Okay, I've got a few minutes. Let's take a look at some of the questions and objections others have raised. First, let me say this: IMPORTANT SIDE COMMENTS: My purpose in starting this thread was to get help from others in evaluating whether this idea might be viable or not. (It wasn't to try to convince you that doing what I've suggested is the way to go.) Hearing your objections is helpful in figuring out if I've overlooked something important or if there is something that makes this idea a no-go or not worth it from an effort-reward standpoint. In responding to your objections, I'm not trying to be argumentative; rather, my interest is in evaluating whether they are a serious issue or not really a problem (or a problem that can be worked around fairly easily). On this subject, there was a bit of mild sarcasm in my first post on the 16th. I'm sorry. Please excuse me for that. AND NOW THE ACTUAL TECHNICAL CONTENT... Objection #1: Heat build-up is going to be a big problem. Answer: I'm not really sure why that would be, although maybe I'm missing something. If I have what's basically a cage made from insect screen/netting, the sides (and potentially the top) should all have a decent rate of air exchange through them due to air diffusion, if nothing else. This isn't a greenhouse with solid sides and roofing. I would expect it to be a few degrees above the outside ambient temperature on sunny days, but that's about it. Am I estimating temperature build-up incorrectly? Related Objections: Ventilation! Humidity! Regarding ventilation, we don't get a lot of wind around here in the summer and plants still manage to do okay. As mentioned above, air will diffuse through the screen, resulting in a situation that I would guess is not that much different from what it would be with no screen at all. Nevertheless, I could periodically run a fan if needed to circulate the air. Regarding humidity, air diffusion through the screen ought to keep it in line with the area outside the structure. Objection #2: It won't stop pests, or at least not plum curculio - no screen mesh anywhere is fine enough to stop plum curculio. Answer: Are you sure? The screen ought to stop moths (e.g. the Oriental Fruit Moth). As for plum curculio, check out http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/Anti-Insect-Screen/productinfo/IS-AI/ - they say this stuff will stop western flower thrips. Compare the size of western flower thrips (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_flower_thrips) to that of plum curculio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_curculio). Although I'd like to finish this post, I really need to go now - hopefully can get back with you all in the next couple of days. Thanks!

So funny. I have to add some. When you fill your pots and/or pot your plants behind your car in the parking lot because you don't want to have to carry whole bags of potting soil up stairs. When you park in a sunny parking spot just so you can claim the rest of the space for your plants for the afternoon. When you use a tarp under your planting/potting activities so the neighbors below you don't have potting soil all over their patio. You store plants under the staircase so you can put them out in the sun without having to carry them up and down stairs. You have counted carrying 5 gallon buckets up and down stairs as your workout for the day. You have stolen every plastic folding table in the house to give plants access to better sun. You have hit your downstairs neighbor dumping water out of a drain pan. Your balcony is now secluded and enclosed almost entirely with plants, which you use not only as a pleasant place to sit, but also as a hidden vantage point from which to spy on the goings on in your remote part of the complex that has recently been hit with car break-ins and has been attracting all kinds of shady people lately. You have had conversations with multiple people through your tomatoes and snow peas about why they need to park in the guest spots rather than taking the spots of the people who actually live here. You interrupt your gardening to do any of the following: write down a license plate number, ask people if they live here/what their business is, tell the teenager(s) from other apt complexes who park in the corner to get high to get out, tell the teenager(s) from other complexes who are "just hanging" in your neighbor's bushes to get out, tell that shady guy to clean up that big mess of wires and junk that he left in the middle of the parking lot when his car caught on fire last week, write progressively more angry and sarcastic notes explaining what is and is not a parking space, talk with maintenance men, contractors, or movers who are working on other units about your plants, or if you have ever said something along the lines of "I don't care if you get high/kill each other/worship satan here as long as you don't litter, make noise, or touch my plants." You have had to explain to a dozen drunk partiers from downstairs why you are sitting under the staircase at midnight wearing a headlamp so you can squish blackflies. You have ever hidden behind the plants on your balcony to avoid saying hi to the neighbors because you are grungy, in a horrible mood, not wearing a bra, hate everybody today, etc. Your plants compete with the cats for sunny windowsills. With respect to plant "requirements," the "I'll do the best I can" attitude becomes a "you're not the boss of me, plant" attitude. You have grown tomatoes in the shade and greens in the summer and you are not. apologizing. for. it. Because your garden is gangsta and it doesn't give a $%&*. And I have to second the using kitchen utensils in the garden thing. Just the other day I decided that I shouldn't be using my wusthof kitchen shears out there because I an't afford to replace them. Also seconding searching the forums for that one person who says it's okay to grow tomatoes in part shade. lol And I have to put this in there for any other knitters. You know you are a city knitter when your neighbor's guests park their bicycles on the lace shawl that you have blocking.

Lots of good advice to my pondering about all the animals. I forgot to mention that I'm dealing with about 14 cats at last count! Nutrias were brought to various areas back in the '40s or '50s and raised in cages on farms for fur, to replace mink. When that didn't work out financially, the farmers let them out, and they have bred all over the US as far as I know. The nutria didn't kill many of my bamboo, they just gnawed the outer layers on newer stalks. My son went out on several evenings with a big stick and made lots of noise chasing the nutria, which seemed to help. Also, I read that the nutria, like beaver, HAVE to gnaw, because their teeth are growing---I think they are filing them back down. It is definitely not too cold for nutria-- Here in the pacific northwestern part of Oregon, it freezes a bit once in awhile in winter, but a snow or a real freeze is a big event here. It mainly just rains. I now have a water gun ready to shoot cats, I've planted plastic forks--tines up around my garden and hummingbird feeder; at least there are Anna's hummingbirds here year-round, and I'm preparing to put bird feeders up on posts where no cat can go. I'm also getting rid of the brush pile that I built up as a wildlife habitat---guess I don't really want the wildlife in my yard---just selectively. I'm taking all of your advice, thank you. Looking forward to a peaceful spring!