HI Graficaamy: Home Depot sells the concrete reinforcing mesh in both rolls and sheets. I believe the roll is 150' feet and cost about $100. That was more than I needed, so I went with the sheets. You can shape either form (roll or sheet) into a cylinder. See the original instructions I posted at the below link as well as the other materials you'll need for the project. I would not recommend trying to flatten these out at the end of the year; it's not that you couldn't do it, just doesn't seem like it would be worth it to have to redo them each year. Here is a link that might be useful: Best DIY Tomato Cages

Hi Gardenweed, Thanks for the tips re: planting schedules - that makes sense to me, and is pretty much what I would have guessed, but nice to have it confirmed by someone with more experience. How fortunate you are to have grown up with gardening parents, and to have inherited all that good soil yâÂÂall built up over the years! IâÂÂm in the house my husband grew up in, and I donâÂÂt think his folks were much into gardening, so each year I try to carve out and claim another little bed or corner as time and energy allow⦠That is a shame about your laptop (and job) crashing. My husband & I have a computer shop here in our small town, and he also teaches computer classes at our local library, one of which is photo editing. For that one he has his students use Magix Xtreme, which I believe is a free download - might be a useful (and cheaper) alternative to Photoshop. Not to get too far off gardening here, but we are also sometimes-sailors! We bought a MacGregor 25 in 2006, and took it on a big adventure sailing down the gulf coast of Florida for 5 weeks in 2007. Since then, we try to get out on our nearest lake for a month or so each year, where we can dock it and leave it for a few week end visits with friends. HavenâÂÂt had a chance to do any sailing this year, since our shop assistant quit at the end of Feb - too many computers to fix in this town. He has occasionally hinted at chucking it all and taking up the live-aboard cruising lifestyle, to which I always have to point out that as appealing as that sounds, it is very hard to garden on a boat! :) CanâÂÂt have all our hobbies in one basket, unfortunately. IâÂÂll keep those hostas in mind when I get around to planting. (Good tip about the egg shells!) IâÂÂm in our local garden club, and that seems like something some of my fellow members might have, so maybe I can get some shares, if thatâÂÂs not too hard to do. Once again, thanks for your helpful insight & genial conversation! Best to you - Amy

Yeah, I should do something like that, too. In fact, I may go back in now and wipe it down. (I did just switch to a soap dispenser that produces the foamy version of soap--I am SO in love with it!) Actually, talking of inventing a gadget--here's what I *really* want: I have one of those collapsible silicone colanders (I have the rectangular one, which I like better than the round for a couple of reasons--for a colander, anyway). (these are from Bed Bath & Beyond) I want a BOWL made this way (no holes)--the rectangular might be good bcs there'd be "swishing around" room. But the round one here is nice and deep. If it were *perfect*, it would have a plug in the bottom for drainage. And duh me, they make collapsible silicone bowls. this is even the same brand as that round colander, I think this is from the U.K.--doesnt say how big (but I still think I'd rather have a rectangular one, bcs there's more elbow room to swish, but I bet the round one would fit in the sink better.) But of course, that's not *free* infrastructure, and I should probably *create* this infrastructure by simply rearranging the bowls in my bowl cabinet so that a big one is down lower where it's easily reached. And then I can wash in the kitchen sink.

Thank you Toddimn and EcoStarRemodel. Toddimn, thanks for the warning about the need to install a header if we combine the windows. We'll definitely look into what is involved before deciding if we want to go that route. I went to another window store that had a better variety of display windows. They carry only Milgard. Milgard seems to have the corner on the market in this area. After seeing the both the Style Line and Tuscany windows, I would definitely choose Tuscany. The Style line have thin, unimpressive frames and look very similar to our aluminum windows. The Tuscany frames are much beefier, more like a wood window. The uneven sight lines in the Style Line windows doesn't look good to me. The operable windows have glass that is at least 2" smaller, whereas the Tuscany windows have matching glass sizes. The Tuscany locks are nicer and the weepholes are covered. Montecito is the same frame as the Tuscany. The Montecito lacks a few of the nicer features of the Tuscany and doesn't have the glass breakage warranty. The saleslady told me that the price of the two lines is almost the same ( usually within $2 to $5) so she doesn't ever sell the Montecito. Home Depot gave me a quote for Montecito windows. That might be one good reason to buy from a window supplier rather than Home Depot. Neither window store that I visited had any double hung window displays. I would be interested to see one. I was told that the double hung windows have thicker frames than the single hung. I don't think I would want an even thicker frame for our narrow kitchen windows so the double hung might not work for our home. I guess the single hung could look mismatched since the screen is only on the bottom but I wonder if it would be annoying to have to look out a screen at the top? I will do the contoured grids just in the top of the windows. They don't come in a smaller size. EcoStarRemodel, the window salesperson said that they can order picture windows with frames to match casement windows. She suggested making the two center windows into one picture window and putting casements on the sides. That way the view in the middle wouldn't be obstructed by the center bar of a double casement. However, she said that the picture window in a casement frame would cost almost as much as a casement window. I didn't realize that all of the windows in the house should be of the same type If that's the case, then I wouldn't want to go with casements. We would need 13 of them which would be way too much $$$. Would it also look weird if we combined the two center kitchen windows into a picture window with single hungs on all the other windows?