My original post might not have been too clear. I am just looking for ideas for foundation planting ideas, not a total landscape design. Gosh. I do not find this rude nor dismissive. The OP simply apologized for perhaps wording the original post poorly (which he did not) and restated his desires. I find it amazing that someone could belong to GW for less than a month and feel it appropriate to comment on the suitability of a post for a given forum. As it is, you have probably driven away a poster who was gaining insight from the kind people on this forum who chose to respond. I personally have learned a lot from the people willing to give their time to help those of us who have no idea what we are doing. Many of us have posted questions that are not "landscape design", yet the mainstays of this forum have taken their time to answer our questions, address our concerns, and carry us into the next (perhaps incremental) stage of our development. Many of us now mostly lurk, but we are learning with each thread that occurs (well, maybe not with every one, but with many). It seems to me that perhaps you, as a landscaper yourself, could take the time to read some previous threads, learn the culture of this forum, then find a way to offer your insight such that it will be appreciated. Ink offered you the same advice. And, it might not hurt to take care with posters screen names. You still (probably deliberately) have maro's wrong, and inkognito's as well. If you want to talk about courtesy, then show the people on this forum some as well. ducking back into hiding now

Not a pro here, but if this helps, here's my fruit fly experience; I took up vermiculture (worm composting), following online instructions. The instructions indicated to have them live in newspaper shreddings, I don't know if that worked for anyone else, but for us it began a fruit fly issue that did spread into some of our houseplants. For one thing we hadn't sterilized the worm castings before using them, that was a definite thing that allowed the fruit flies to spread to the plants. Google search some safe ways of sterilizing compost and soil that you think might have parasite eggs in it. But to get the fruit flies out of my worm castings, I changed the system. I brought in a bucket of sand and a bucket of old dried out clay/dirt from outside, and every time I added a bucket of plant waste to the mix, I'd bury it in the surroundings, then put a fine layer of dirt and then a finer layer of sand on top of all of the mix. That made it apparently entirely uninhabitable for the fruit flies. My theory is that to lay and incubate eggs, they need specifically the surface to be moist and rotten, I don't think they do a lot of burrowing, I'm guessing their wings would get damaged. So regardless of how organic the compost underneath is, they couldn't use it as a breeding ground so long as there was a barrier of dry sand and old clay-heavy soil. After figuring that out, I always pot my plants with a drier, older, nutrient parched soil for the top couple of centimeters. Haven't had the fruit fly issue since. Sorry if that wasn't concise! I thought it might help.

I don't think the shards/broken pottery at the drainage holes are recommended any more, emphasis is on best draining potting mixes. I don't let my city water stand, I water my biggest containers straight from the hose, carry water to pots on the front porch with freshly filled watering can. (I've got a soft soak setting on my hose nozzle, cannot bottom water pots that take two men to lift!) Tapla (seems to take the lead when it comes to containers and that forum) recommends Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 water soluble fertilizer and uses a weak solution really often. I want to say always when watering but I'd need to read through some older posts to verify that. I've never seen the product and since I stocked up on about 3 yrs worth of Peters when a local store had it 75% off, I haven't ordered it. Tapla: "Most soluble fertilizers do contain the primary macros and the micros likely to be deficient in either bark or peat-based soils, but most lack the secondary macros Calcium and often magnesium. Some contain small amounts of magnesium. Miracle-Gro, Schultz, Jacks, Peter's are examples that lack calcium and possibly magnesium. Foliage-Pro does contain all the essential elements in the average ratio in which plants use them, including calcium and magnesium. It also provides most of its nitrogen in nitrate form, which helps plants remain sturdy and full. I'm sure there are probably other solubles out there that provide nearly the same formulation, but I don't know what they might be. " My Cornell formula potting mix that a local garden center has a bit a lime (the calcium) and once in a while I put a bit of epsom salts in with the Peters when I'm fertilizing...seems to work.

There are now more and more companies selling these black plastic raised bed kits. What I have been seeing, these are expensive to spend to get a small garden.I have 6 beds all wood,made of 2by lumber. If you are really interested in those plastic beds, deal with reputable seed companies who back there products they sell. GOOD-LUCK :)