Ok - just to be clear, I never say anything disparaging about SWCs. They fill a need for those that can't or don't want to get out and water mature plantings every 2-3 days. For my purposes, I have hundreds of plants on varying watering schedules (yes, I water on a schedule because the soils I use easily allow me to do that), so I have to drag the hose around the entire circuit daily anyway, so I just prefer to water from the top. The gritty mix isn't suitable for SWCs. It's designed to eliminate perched water and it won't wick sufficiently to lift water high enough to moisten the soil. Let me reconsider that for a second - if you are using a plastic vapor barrier on top of the soil, it's hard to say what may or may not be suitable. Water vapor condenses on the vapor barrier and drips back into the soil, wetting the top of the soil with distilled water. I've made an assumption that I'm not 100% sure of, so if anyone ever experiments with the gritty mix in a long term container, please report. I think though, that it wouldn't be practical. It's more expensive and heavier than more organic soils (like the 5:1:1 mix), and most SWC plantings are seasonal things. I'm afraid that you might have a salt accumulation that will raise TDS/EC to levels too high over the long term, but that would be true of any soil. If you're including pine bark fines (PBF) in your soil, the mix %s that will work best will vary according to the size of the PBFs. If the bark is very fine, you might be able to use 5:1:1-2, bark:peat:perlite, but if the bark is coarser, something like 4:2-3:1-2 will probably give you closer to the 'wickability' you're looking for. Most often, people start with a quality potting soil and add PBFs and a small amount of perlite until they get the wicking action they want. It is, however, much less expensive to forgo the use of the potting soil in favor of peat. It's much less expensive if you buy your peat/perlite in large bales/bags and add your own lime. You end up with virtually the same product. I do understand the convenience factor, but it's hard to understand that, from the perspective of cost, why anyone would buy a commercial soil when all they are is peat/perlite/lime and maybe a wetting agent. They're at least twice what you can make the soils for yourself. A drip irrigation system is ok, but any failure is often a disaster in terms of lost plantings or set-backs. You know when you have watered a conventional container sufficiently when water starts flowing from the drain hole after watering with a gentle stream of water that only wets the soil w/o splashing water on stems/foliage - assuming your chosen soil allows watering to container capacity (saturated soil) w/o risking root rot. The water that flows out of the drain holes carries accumulating salts with it. You can use either the 5:1:1 or gritty mix in SB towers, but DO make provisions for a wick. The top will dry well before the bottom, so it's important to eliminate any sogginess at the bottom of the tower. If you make one, stop back and we can talk about how you can make a 'drip leg', similar in function to the connection strategy they use on appliances connected to natural gas. It will help you a LOT. A regular container doesn't need to be on supports unless you're using a wick. Then, the wick either needs to be dangling below the container and not touching the effluent, or it needs to be touching the soil so the earth can serve as a giant extension of the wick. Setting the containers directly on the soil so there is good hydraulic continuity between the soil in the container and the soil in the earth changes how water behaves dramatically. You can then use a heavier soil than you could in a conventional container because hydrologically speaking you've turned a conventional container into a small raised bed. One drain hole is as good at draining a container as 100. I would use a 1/2" hole that I melted in a corner of the container at it's deepest point. I would make sore that the hole is situated so water tends to run toward the hole. That's where the wick would go, too. Plants don't care if it takes 1 minute or 3 minutes for the soil to stop draining ...... so 1 hole is sufficient, but if you want more ..... go for it. I only use 1 hole in all my containers (stronger) unless they came with more, and I cover them with Fiberglas insect screening or a plastic mesh used for needlepoint projects (craft/hobby store - cheap). Almost everyone here will offer tons of encouragement, Don. If you have questions, it's unlikely you can't get them answered by one or more of the more knowledgeable gardeners here. As you sort through any answers/advice, if you focus on the positive help and consensus directed toward what you CAN do, instead of what you can't or shouldn't do, you won't go wrong. Best luck. I'll watch for your questions & offer help/comments as I can. Al

I have three of the Grow Boxes and they were pretty easy to put together. They also come with a fertilizer strip that fertilizes your plants for the entire season. I am having great success with mine so far.

To answer the replies to my original post so far: I am thinking self-watering containers to reduce potential problems with insects and other pests (which I can't see) -- a potential problem with in-ground planting, because these containers seem easier to maintain (ie. fertilizer strips), and to lessen the likelihood of me over or under watering. Thank you for telling me about the Florida forum. I will definitely check it out. I also love the cork/wire suggestion for monitoring the water level as well as the suggestion to use bamboo poles to rig up sun shades. My husband, who is also blind, is quite handy with his hands, so he will be able to fashion all these things for me. There is a little bit of an overhang, but it won't offer much shade. Regarding the proper potting mix, I am confused. the earthbox website seems to suggest all you need is their potting mix, dolimite, and fertilizer strip and you are ready to go. Yet on this forum, I keep reading about all kinds of "recipes" for creating the best growing environment and drainage. Mixing up my own stuff is pretty much out of the question, so is there anything that is ready-made that you recommend for the earthbox? And finally, what about mosquitoes? Are they able to breed in the water reservoirs of the earthbox for instance? Linda

To Blaze of glory: I use redwood micro bark as a mulch, now that I dumped my lawn. Redwood microbark is cheap when I buy a big amount. Kelloggs amend looks like tiny bark pieces. I emailed Al to ask about substitutes in the mix, but I did not hear back. I was able to get the gravel at price I am happy with but as for the tur face and the fir bark, I have not worked out a price I am happy with yet. I want to do some tests with containers for plants to see if the gritty mix will work. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0519004127574.html?19 Google words like gritty mix failure if you can't see the thread, and it should come up on top I think the problem here, (I hope you can see the photo) the gritty was too big, not screened enough. The pigeon grit could have lime in it. I bought a bonsai mix granite. I was going to use chicken grit but it was made of limestone not granite. Bonsais cost a huge amount of money so if the eBay seller was selling limestone and not granite the negative feed back from angry bonsai growers would put him out of business. The reptile bark was the wrong kind of bark, it was not fir or it was not really bark. He or she did not skimp on the tur face by using oil dri, so that can't be the problem. I think if one cheats on the ingredients you can end up with a disaster. It may be possible to cheat, but I am doing a lot of thinking it over before I start. It would be bad to buy cheaper ingredients and have a failure then go out and buy the right ingredients. That would cost more than doing it right the first time. Someone should create a cheater's guild to the mixes. I have not spend enough time working with containers to be an expert.