I started this in fall of 2002 and am still using those original 3. So the wood has lasted 20 years although we did add some boards to make some of the raised beds taller. We turned the rectangle vegetable beds after giving up fighting the roots into bulb beds and then Bob made some square beds as well. In reading about plunge beds I could never figure out how you could pull out a pot without the plunge collapsing. When I repot in summer, my sand gravel mix is dry and occasionally when I've accidentally pulled both pots what I thought would happen, happened and then it was challenging to get the bottom pot back in place as the mix filled the hole where it was. Two newer square ones are elevated so the redwoods can't make it in. I use hardware wire on the bottom and cover it with the cloth Jane suggested and then add some gravel/sand and then the pots so there is an empty space between the bottom and the ground on those. If I were to do it again all of them would have been done that way. I think I made it worse by cutting some holes on the sides of the pots I planted in so they would drain well which made it easier for the roots to find an entry place. I've changed that when I've repotted. If you plant more than one thing in the pot which I have, it's important that you can tell them apart and I often plant things that need to be on different levels. What is fun about this is that often you have something flowering at different times of the year in the same pot. Right now I have Cyclamen and Colchicum in flower and an Acis and a few leaves starting to show up. The last Brodiaea finished early August. I'm not sure what grade gravel we used. It was whatever was easily available and mixed with builder's sand. Occasionally something grows in the gravel-sand mix, probably after a seed I didn't deadhead made its way into the gravel. You don't have to worry about black pots baking in the sun with this system and if you run out of time to repot, often something in the pot still flowers. I hope this helps. Mary Sue On 8/30/2022 6:01 AM, Johannes-Ulrich Urban via pbs wrote: > Hello Mary Sue, > > Thank you for sharing your experience with bulbs in pots. I looked at your pictures in the wiki. I think your solution with pots in pots embedded in gravel could be my solution, too. Pots standing on the ground become much too hot in summer. I do not have the tree root problem to the same extent as you do. > For how long have you been growing your bulbs like this? If you did build the raised beds again, would you do anything differently? What grade gravel do you use? > It is a daunting task to build this kind of structure but once done, it looks good and seems perfect. Do you have any comments or recommendations on that? > > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…