Weed barrier fabric will work to keep the soil in. Geo-textile fabric is really the proper item, but it's hard to find in small pieces and the weed barrier stuff is similar. Make sure you use the kind that feels like cloth and not like plastic. You could also use newspaper, several sheets thick with many small holes covered with stones. This article about vegetable gardening planters has some more information that might help.

I need to figure out something as well. My second year of W/S (last year) was dismal. I set my containers on the ground, but i guess i didn't see the sign that said "Slug-Village" and lost all but 4 (out of around 30) containers of poppies to last years batch of baby slugs. This year, I've started setting my trays in my fenced garden. Which is good for keeping my mutt off of them. But come spring, they will be sitting in mud. Stupid question. . . do you just shovel snow on-top of the tables you put your w/s'ing?

Here's a few off the top of my head that might fit the need. I picked some large hostas since you are trying to replace Sum and Substance. None of these get quite that large though. Blue with gold edge: Tokudama Flavorcircinalis - An oldie but goodie Brave Amherst Wooly Mammoth Aristocrat - Very bright These ones have more of a cream to white margin: El Nino Regal Splendor First Frost You can see pictures of these at the hosta library but I would go to the hosta forum on Garden Web and serch for other pictures as well. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Library

There weren't any pics of the inside of the barndominium. I am assuming it is pretty basic. I don't really care very much about it. I am sure whatever it is, I have lived in worse. We lived in an old R V for a couple of years. Yes, this is the same area. I love it here. We don't normally flood. When Raven flooded before, we didn't have any problem. Houston has flooded many times and we don't flood. We have to live close to the coast. My husband is a commercial shrimper. Anyway, even so....the "new" place didn't flood because the bayou is even wider there than it is here. Also the barndominium is built on a pad of soil that was built up before it was built, so that raises it some too. You can tell by driving by the place that no flood water reached it. There is no debris tangled up in the fences. I drove down the driveway almost to the bayou and no evidence of anything that floated up from the flood. The flood was a freak storm. I call it a flood, rather than the hurricane, because the hurricane didn't do any damage to us. It was after it passed, it made a loop and came back around and stalled out right over us. That is what caused all the problems...at least for us. They call it an 800 year flood. I don't expect to see another one in my life time....we have never had any water on the place before and we have been here for 20 years. If I thought it would flood again like that, yeah, I probably would move, but even so, that place down the road didn't flood. I really love this little town. People were so kind to us and so helpful. It is a tiny little community but the people are absolutely the best.