Sounds like you have a big project ahead of you! So I will help you out with a few of the questions. Let's start with the soil cost: Mel's mix is expensive, and it is not the only option out there, but it is a very good one in my opinion. Honestly, soil costs are going to be your largest investment no matter what. You can probably get the wood donated from a construction site. You will find that many people on this site are against using any soil in container gardening. The idea is that soil compacts too much and creates a muddy drainage issue when used in a container. Mel's mix is essentially a soiless mix as there is no "dirt" in the recipe. Now with that being said, I do have a box that I used 90% garden soil in. The same kind of soil that is 4-5 bucks at home depot. I just added some peat moss to go along with it. You should probably do a quick search of soil mixes on this forum and will find out what does work and what doesn't. I have heard a lot of warnings against using solely top soil due the reasons I listed earlier. I am sure you could amend it with compost and vermiculite, but then you are back to the same cost issue! Now as far as plants go: Think spacing and think ease of growing. What I mean by this is that some of the plants you have mentioned need a lot of space/care. Easiest things to grow: Lettuce, Peppers, Tomatoes, Beans (bush), herbs, spinach. Things to consider: Corn: Heavy feeder (needs a lot of fertilizer) and needs a lot of plants to successfully open pollinate. Unless you plan on manually pollinating the silks (easy to do, but may be tough considering your situation) you should probably avoid unless you plan on using an entire 4X4 box for solely corn. I actually grow only 8 stocks at a time and self pollinate, so it is possible and may be educating for the children, but corn is also very big so pick a smaller variety. Squash/Cucumbers/Zuchinni: These grow very large and one plant can easily take over 16 sq feet. You can do these, but you may want to take them vertical. They are very large plants once they get going, but are also very fun to grow. Strawberries: Easy and fun! You should really do a couple squares of these for the girls, but understand that strawberry plants do not really start to produce big fruit until their second year and you need to clip the runners that grow from them, so they require some pruning. You also want to pinch buds for the first month or so in order to promote rooting. Egg plants, peppers and Tomatoes: Start from seedlings if possible. It will be a bit late in the season to start from seeds and these grow slowly. Eggplant is the more difficult of the three, but you will be fine. There are two types of tomatoes, Indeterminate and determinate. The determinate are probably easiest to grow as you really do not need to prune them and you can just cage them. Beans: Bush beans do not need a trellis to grow, so if you do not plan on having trellises then only get the bush kind. Pole beans need a pole or trellis to grow. You can plant bush beans along any of your heavy feeders as they actually pull nitrogen from the air and put it in the earth for your feeders to eat. you can also try a "three sisters" box (corn, squash, and pole beans). This was the way the Iroquois Indians planted theirs. Search this forum for directions on how to do this. Like I mentioned earlier you may have to manually pollinate the corn, but this can be done by shaking the stalks if you have enough in the container.

Any of you who are kind enough to offer the African violet, a leaf is enough. That's why we love them. Anything fun would be appreciated. I was just trying to ask for the more common things, not being too greedy. I also lost my meyer lemon, 2 orchids, a fuschia, etc. I was especially bummed by all the tender succulents I lost since I had been "rescuing" them from floors and shelves for quite a while. Thank goodness it was a great trip!

Thanks for looking everyone! I hope that I'll be able to get many more photos as the season progresses. Mike: Agreed that the hole is a bit large. What happens is that because I leave the boxes up over the winter, woodpeckers enlarge the hole and then use the box to roost in. I have had downy woodpeckers and nuthatches use them for roosting. What I do is leave the box alone, until after the bluebird or chickadee has laid its first egg. Then I'll put on a hole reducer of appropriate size. If you look closely, you can see holes left from the screws where a hole reducer has previously been in place. I take it off after nesting is over, so the winter birds can use it again. I haven't had a problem with raccoons, but I will take your suggestion and look into putting a predator guard on the hole as well. Donna: Correct that it is a smaller baffle. I do have some ducting sheet metal that I can secure around the bottom of the post which will give it additional protection. Ann: Thanks for the info. It has been unseasonably warm here as well. So far the bluebirds seem to be sticking around, busy adding pine needles and aggressively defending the box, but if they don't then I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next wave to come through! Last time I had bluebirds nest in my yard was a few years ago, and it was later in the summer.

Eld61621 ... DD was in Girl Scouts from Brownies through most of Cadettes. I was a leader or co leader for Brownies and Juniors. DH was Packmaster for the local Cub Scouts and it seemed like I wore the hat of everything else. Award chair mostly. Parental involvement was difficult to get even back in the 80's. One year DH led a group of Webelos because no leader could be found. He was also leading our DS's Den at the time. DD has good memories of Girl Scouts despite the usual glitches of some crazy leaders and cliques. She had hoped for the same experience for DGD. But the new program is just nowhere near as interesting as it once was. Plenty of leaders and girls complain it is just like school. Now Girls Scouts are allowing, even encouraging mixed level troops. The Troop DGD would have been in would have been a mix of Daisies and Juniors. Some of the Juniors would be bridging to Cadettes the following year. DGD would have been the youngest and the only Kindergartener in the Daisy group of 8. As DD learned more of the leader's plan she saw a train wreck ahead. The leader decided all the parents would take turns leading the two levels. Sure they will. ROTFLMBO She has a girl in each and wanted them to do the same things as much as possible. A 1st and a 4th grader. Shaking my head. Never been in scouts, didn't want anyone harshing on her mellow with constructive advice. Then she decided all the paperwork was overwhelming and wanted to have DD do it for her so she could "lead". See the problem? DD felt she would be left picking up the pieces after the train derailed. The Journeys are boring. The crafts were all that would have mattered to DGD. They are friends. DD is open to the friendship remaining outside of scouts but she concluded there was zero hope if she stayed on out of guilt.