UPDATE! i wanted to report back with some preliminary results if anyone is interested. per everyone's advice, i ditched the vermiculite and went with a strictly bark-peat-perlite mix. last weekend, i whipped up 16.4 cu ft of mix, which filled 5 big sterilite tubs. it worked out to: 36.5% (6 cu ft, 3 bags) bark fines 36.5% (6 cu ft, 1 bale) peat moss (expanded) 27% (4.4 cu ft, 1 bag) coarse perlite (plus 1 gallon of dolomite lime (1 cup/cu ft) for ph balance and 2 gallons (2 cups/cu ft) of espoma garden-tone fertilizer). THIS RECIPE HAS ISSUES. BEWARE: after making the mix, wetting it down, filling the containers, sowing my seeds, and observing for a week, it seems the proportion of perlite is much too high. the mix is supremely light and virtually impossible to compact (i tried, it just stays super loose), and there is plenty of oxygen-containing airspace. i realize that these all sound like good things. HOWEVER, the soil is so fluffy from being full of perlite that it's not wicking water up all that well. the base of the containers are soupy bogs, while the top inch is bone dry. this has made starting seeds difficult because the seedlings are too tiny to reach the vast water reserves (this would not be a problem with larger transplants). in the meantime, i am top-watering the seedlings until they are large enough to reach the moister mix a couple of inches down. next season, i will cut the mix with additional peat and bark to reduce the proportion of perlite. i have much more bulk ingredients and more containers to fill this season, and so i am revising the above recipe by using only half of the 4.4 cu ft bag of perlite per batch, which puts me at 42% bark 42% peat 16% perlite if the little veggie babies survive, i will report back with pictures of the setup. happy gardening!

@club53 Hi there, thanks for the compliment :-) After I made the face mold from a plastic mask, I adhered it to the planter using mortar mix (with the pot laying on its side). Once it was dry, I began dipping the strips of torn canvas and twisting them into "curls." I just laid the curls around the face and right onto the pot. I built up several layers to give it dimension. The mortar mix held everything together pretty well. Just to make sure, I patted another layer of mortar on top of the curls. I hope this explanation helps. QLT

Those are really nice! One day I may try and get that creative. Try some tiny creeping elfin thyme. It is very low and hussock forming. I think it would be perfect. This one is only about 1 inch high, and remains tight and matted in the fun. And flowers too!

Scratch that...Ijust found Lorsban for the meager price of $202.00 for 6.65 lbs. Imidan is available on ebay for $85.00 for 5 lbs. Which is better (pros/cons)? I'd like to hear as much feedback as possible. Obviously Lorsban must be better to be able to command such a monumentally higher price than Imidan unless of course the mix rate is lower. I'll check that.