orchiata bark: i don't think you can truly hydrate coarse bark by just watering it to dampen sphag in it. overtime it will become bone dry and will completely shed water. unless you patiently douse it with a fine stream of water from pressure sprayer sev times over sev days - which takes quite some time. .. not sure about shower - depends how leaves cover the surface of the bark, it's possible to shower leaves and not get much into bark...and the water will just pour thru like with reg. watering. i did read posts about orchiata - saying it sheds water, hard to hydrate it. if dolomitic lime is of such great importance - it can be sprinkled in top layer of bark from time to time - though usually it's mixed into medium. so i am not sure if light surface application is OK or not. This post was edited by petrushka on Tue, May 6, 14 at 17:48

Well I only got a little bit of snow and my bag managed so stay up by itself. A cat did jump on it and I found me a nice foot print in the middle of my bag other than that I have had no problem keeping my bag up. Just a thought here, but you could maybe get a little bench or make a homemade bench and set the bag with its contents underneath. So that the bench will protect and maybe make an igloo effect around the bag and maybe to protect the snow from crushing the bag. Just a thought, I do not know how feasible it is. Someone else was saying something about a stick in the middle to elevate it, well I screwed myself up there cause I cut a huge vent hole in the middle. Plus I seriously doubt a stick will hold up any significant snow. My mind goes back to the igloo effect!!

You mentioned that the bottom is sloped and that's a good start. I'm assuming that every point in the bottom of the planter slopes to an outlet - the more outlets the better. I'm also assuming that the slope is, at the very least, a 1.5% grade. If not, you'll have problems. Think about where the drains are and the shape of the planter. For example, if you have a single drain at the lowest spot of an 'L' shaped planter, water can get hung up at the bend. You may have to drill out more drains depending on the size and shape of the planter. The fabric can indeed keep your soil in your planter, but over time it will plug with soil that you're keeping in and drainage will be a thing of the past. Once it's in, there's no way to go in and clean out the fabric. The gravel may help with drainage at first but over time, soil will sift down and maybe next year, the benefit of the gravel will be gone. The key to a long-lived planter is to keep water moving over the long haul. If the bottom of the planter gets mucky water won't move and you'll end up with anaerobic soil conditions and/or an environment that favors the pathogens responsible for root diseases. Silt and clay will end up settling to the bottom and doing just that if you use a good old fashioned "import soil" which will typically fall in the sandy loam category. Your best bet is to use a high quality 'medium' sand with less than 6% silt and clay. Organic amendment will help improve nutrient and water holding capacities. However, organic matter below ten inches in the planter can also muck things up and lead to an undesirable amount of settling as the O.M. decomposes(I would only put it down to 6 or 8 inches but other go a little deeper) so if your planter is deeper than 10 inches, fill the bottom with sand and then include organic matter in the top and do not exceed 80% mineral soil to 20% O.M. by volume. Keeping the organic matter% relatively low in the sand will keep the water moving and also avoid settling. The O.M. will decompose over time. If that O.M. is placed deeply and/or at too high a volume, the settling can result in exposed roots and planter flashing. I don't know where you are or what's available to you, but redwood bark is a nice long-lasting source of O.M. for these types of projects.

First -- Don't worry! Don't plug your drain holes. They're there to drain if you have excess liquid. You don't want to have excess liquid to drain, but if there is, that's what they're there for :). 1/2 pound of worms aren't going to eat a whole lot at first, so don't overfeed them. Don't worry about the grit. I threw in a handful of garden soil in my first bin, but I haven't added any since and they haven't complained. You can't prevent escape with screen. Just make their home comfy and they'll want to stay. If they're not comfortable they'll leave through any opening -- no matter how small (unless it's airtight and then they'd suffocate). Otherwise, your setup sounds fine. Here's a link to the design I used for my first bin Here is a link that might be useful: worm bin