Hi anngio, The members of our gardening forums are very informative and are always glad to share their knowledge. You might try posting your question on either the Square Foot Gardening forum or the Container Gardening forum. I hope this helps!

We recently bought steel patio furniture brand new. I know the downside is it will rust vs aluminum. I didn't know that after 1 month and some rain there is rust spots all over our cement patio. Can anyone recommend what we can do to avoid this? Should I buy deck tiles, patio tiles, etc...? I would have the same issue though wouldn't I? For example when I move a chair after rain the water slowly pours out on the cement patio and leaves a rust spot that is very hard to clean.

Thanks for the endorsement. 18 years of continuous change. The pergola is entirely DIY - design, fabrication and assembly. VERY careful measurements. Drilled holes at the corners, then made the notch cuts with a circular saw as far as possible and finished with a hand saw. Cut the narrow edge using a saber saw. Cleaned corners using a chisel. Following assembly, I installed a lag screw at each nested connection. The ogee ends were also cut using a saber saw. My double outside rails are not notched into the post, rather lag bolted using two, 1/2" bolts (2 each direction, 4 at each corner). Post are 6 x 6 pressure treated then skinned with cedar. Been standing over 7 years though the footings were set as part of the patio build in 1998. Good luck with yours.

"I think it is unkind and unhelpful to poke fun at someone ..." Yes, while it wouldn't necessarily be, it could be unkind to poke fun at someone. But that wasn't what I was doing. There is a difference between adding levity to the discussion, and saying something actually mean and hurtful. As Wendy points out, sometimes the written word does not come across as the humor it was intended to be. But I was pretty sure it would here because the circumstance -- baking food to counteract carpet wear -- was so obviously ludicrous that no rational person would believe there to be any link whatsoever between the two. Apparently, I was wrong and at least one person can conceive this link. So I have to be duly charged with forgetting to add the smiley face or LOL, and make it blatantly obvious to everyone, that it was said in jest ... not poking fun at someone because of their circumstances. I was playfully making light of their reasoning about how to deal with those circumstances, in an attempt to get them to see that there is a disconnect between their problem and their projected solution. The flip side to this discussion is that there ARE people who literally have none, or barely any sense of humor. They can't hear a joke without thinking it is serious and that there is ill intent behind it. Addie, you might consider not looking so hard on the dark side of whatever is said. If something --- especially something that is wildly ludicrous -- is said, you might just ask yourself if it could possibly be intended as a joke. If it's possible, then you might just let it go, giving someone the benefit of the doubt. If you're 100% certain it's not a joke, then it might be worth commenting about. Other than that, it seems you're just as likely to wrong as right.