I was at HD yesterday & saw (in a white bag with orange lettering) "Golden Trophy Premium Landscape Pine Bark Mulch". I bought about 25 bags of this near perfect mulch last year & have it stockpiled with other bark products. I've seen great product at many places this year, so it's out there and available. The wick can be any absorbent material, and the width is of no consequence. I use strips from 100% rayon mop-heads or man-made chamois. Rayon is made from cellulose & microorganisms break it down over time, but by the time it's no longer useful, your planting is usually matured to the point where roots have fully colonized the entire soil mass & it's no longer needed. Wicks are most effective when they hang a couple of inches below the container or they are in contact with the earth, which acts as a continuation of the wick. Multiple drain holes or multiple wicks are no more effective than a single hole or wick at removing perched water, except for the insignificant extra effectiveness that comes via evaporation. Al

Sometimes I think living out in the boondocks is the best life ever. Then I try to find something like Pine Bark Fines at my local small town hardware store or feed store. Thats when I begin to think city dwelling has it's advantages after all. I've tried to find Pine Bark Fines or Greensmix Soil Conditioner at WalMart, K-Mart, Menard's, and local garden centers. I've called the Greensmix factory and talked to our regional sales rep at Greensmix here in WI. You'd think it would be easy to find since it's made in Wisconsin. At Greensmix's recommendation I've called a nearby Lowes & Home Depot and a Blain's Farm & Fleet, but to no avail. I finally found some Pine Bark MULCH at a nearby "big town" garden center. I put together a soil screening rig made from 1/2-inch hardware cloth. I had successfully screened about 1-2 cubic feet of mulch into fines, when I NOTICED SOMETHING CURIOUS: these Pine Bark Fines smell an awful lot like Cedar chips. ??? DID THE GARDEN CENTER SCREW UP OR IS PINE BARK SUPPOSE TO SMELL LIKE CEDAR?!?! On a happier note...... I successfully found a good source for Turface at about $10 per 50lb bag, but it's about a two hour drive. I'll have to stock up when I make that trip because buying from my local Hardware Hank costs $5 for a 5-pound bag...OUCH!. And surprise of surprises, the perlite that I've been paying $3-4 per 8 qt bag for is right here at my local garden center in a 4 cu ft bag for only $10. That's better. But I'm baffled about these "Pine Bark Fines" that smell like Cedar. Is another trip to the big town garden center in my future to exchange these? I am determined to pull all the ingredients together to make Al's mix, but so far it been tough. Maybe container growing is just for city folks and us country bumkins are just supposed to plant stuff in the ground. :)

I am at at Tim Horton's parking lot (free WiFi) so that I can get on my macbook to find a thread in the Hosta forum somewhere that could help me remember exactly what size pine to use in my media for my pots. Well, lo and behold I found this perfect thread and I thought it could use a 'bump' for this season considering there have been media questions. Anyway, now I can go back into Canadian Tire feeling confident that I will buy the right stuff. You should have seen the young lads face when I couldn't decide what to buy and I told him that I would be back after I visited my forum and asked my hosta friends :) Again...thanks so much to all of you really experienced folks who share your knowledge with the rest of us!

Hey Josh: I just opened the three bags of the Timberline Pine mulch I bought. I have them laid out on a tarp to dry. The pieces are bigger than I expected along with more woody pieces than expected. Maybe a different lot than the others I looked at a week earlier. I am wondering if I should go and check out the other brand "Gardners Pride". I dont want to spend too much time sifting and sorting and my back won't take too much of it any way. With the Fafards52, I dont need a ton of the stuff anyway. Bruce