I liked the idea of the plastic berry baskets. Considering the frequency necessary of digging up small S.A. bulbs I should think that even if they last only 3 years that ought to be long enough. I have seen acquatic baskets too and they are expensive. But I saw some at Home Depot a few months back and they would probably be less so there. For John L, you might contact an acquatic supply company and ask them for their source since you want several hundreds of them. John just made me several square baskets from 1/2 inch (the squares), 19 AWG hardware cloth. These are big (for Colchicums, since the gopher ate mine!); 1 ft (30 cm) square fastened with a few hog rings on each (cut) side. They cost $3 each for material to make 3 or 4 and would cost about $2.65 ea for material to make about 17 or 18. So would cost just under $1.00 each for a 6 in x 6 in x 6 in basket if you bought 50 ft of materials and you could make about 65 of them. They are pretty labor-intensive requiring 8 cuts each with tin snips and four joins with the hog rings and hog ring pliars (if you live in the Southern US that's "plaaarrrs"). I have an idea for a different design that would reduce the labor and cuts a lot and if anyone is interested I will go into that. Even though hardware cloth is galvanized, once it is cut the cuts will eventually rust, according to John. But they would still last several years.