One would want to find out which way the floor/ceiling joists under the floor ran and made sure the wood beams Spanned some of the joists to either side of the container to insure the weight would be distributed to other weight bearing structures.I do not think that the added weight of the wood would be much and the added benefit of the weight spread would be good. I would consult an engineer and find out the weight in these containers. I don't know what your floor plan of the the area usage is and if this would work in your situation. I also do not know how much money is available for your project. I would think an engineering STUDENT could answer these questions and would love a little cash to be pressed in their hands. I got an architect to help with my house by a note on a bulletin board at the university. If one did not like the look of the Void underneath the raised containers, An artisan could grind /cut slots that the beams could slice into keeping the heiht the same as placed on the floor. This would have to be done by a GOOD metal worker with proper tools or one would have a mess of raw jagged ill fitting metal. Then one could use the top of the beams to place the rubber fountain /swimming pool structure. OR, One could add and rivet on a metal fill pieces on the bottom edge to carry the metal cylinder to the floor but this would make the metal cylinders look taller and increase their appearance of vertical mass. Anyway you do this, I would have it drawn out so you know what one is getting into. God, I need to shut my designer mind off.It has a tendency to raise away. I will probably talk you out of it by discussing difficulties and possibilities. It could be a very fun project but it could also be a hair puller if approached wrong. Styrofoam will not break down but some very knowledgeable professionals on another site said that Styrofoam does leach chemicals that plants don't find beneficial. I forget what chemicals they said or the effects on plants. I am just repeating a remembered conversation.If they are placed on the bottom and one has provided a fast draining soil, that leaching should be going out the container and not ip wards. Roots do find their way into every corner though.

Daisy, First, so happy to hear from you and your experiences! So your small m comment got me looking and it seems like American editors and rulebooks differ on the usage of small m from one to another. Some say it applies to every mediterranean climate outside the Mediterranean Sea area, and some say it refers to anything landlocked with that climate. Still others disagree and say if your climate is based on that sea then you can use the capital whereas everyone else must use a lowercase m. Just an interesting aside I had never considered before. Thank you! Thank you for the suggestions! I have not seen that book before and I am going to have to check it out. There is another book I want to interlibrary loan to see if it is worth purchasing called "Gardening in the Middle East." I fear it may have more to do with the desert, so I want to look at it first. Oh, the hail. Yes, that happens in NW Jordan as well. This information has given me some great direction. I will be taking a look! Julianna

some great ideas! it's good to others realizing xeriscaping doesn't mean catcus and gravel - only. i had rotten luck when i first moved to az, even following what you were "supposed to plant" rules. too much water and then not enough water, all the stuff - it wasn't that at all. my yard is humid due to a tree canopy and living w/i a mile of a river + monsoons (then). i switched to heatloving plants that tolerated humidity and did fine, immediatley. i didn't even have to add water. bananas and cannas do better for me than cactus. i got the idea from an old 1950's s.w. garden club book. a mile away in any direction and i wouldn't be able to grow the same things. there is a lot of variation within any area. don't assume too quick what the problem is. i dig a hole apx 6" deep, fill it and wait for it to drain to help me deciede how long i need to water. if your soil is fast draining, it should show up doing that. you try using some shade cover to reduce evaporation rates, larger leaf plants that use moisture through leaves (and trap it with shade canopy). i've also heard of layering plastic under the roots to help retain water (never tried it). the additives that retain water work very well - esp the kind that look like they turn to a jelly when wet - but it sounds like you've tried those. that's what makes me suspicious that something else might be going on if you've seen no results using things like that. if previous owners used some of the "kill everything" weed killers, it can take awhile before that's worked out of the soil (if it ever is).

As with most things in life, it's not so much about what's "BETTER", but rather about the choices afforded us. We each have to weigh our options based on information or emotions and figure out what's "better". I've worked in three health food stores and managed one of them, and was a consultant in the start-up of another, as a point of reference only. Having done so, however, does NOT make me an "expert" at anything.... My experience comes from self-study and a decade of use of agave nectar that goes beyond a Google search. I've tried and tested a large number of sweeteners over the years, not just sold them. I did a serious 5-year study and test on a wide range of sweeteners. When I come across something new, I'll test it as well, and study as much information as I can find on it. I'm the only person I've known to work with dairy sweet whey as a sweetener, as an example. I've used Trutina Dulcem, a kiwi fruit glycoside, which had a bitter aftertaste similar to chemical sweeteners, and leaves baked goods dry and unappealing. As my husband and I work to prevent diabetes (which runs in his family), we have based our diet on foods on the lower half of the Glycemic Index of Foods, as well as whole foods, for many years now. Agave Nectar fits in this plan nicely because it is one of the lowest foods on the index (11) compared to white sugar (100) and it's a natural sweetener which works like sugar in cooking and baking - unlike stevia and chemical non-calorie sweeteners. The big test for most sweeteners are in baking. As an additional plus, none of my husband's diabetic family members have any blood sugar problems eating foods I make with agave nectar. Even when it's cake and ice cream! Because it tastes much sweeter, much less is needed to equal the same sweeteness of sugar. I normally use only half as much agave nectar as sugar called for in a recipe, that means for every teaspoon of sugar (16 calories) I use 1/2 a teaspoon of agave nectar (10 calories). As an example - I make a loaf of banana bread using 1/4 c. of agave nectar - less if the bananas are really ripe and sweet. Baked in a Danish Loaf Pan (which is long and narrow), I get 24 slices from one loaf, so that's not many calories per loaf from agave nectar.... Agave nectar is made from the carbohydrates present in the Agave plant through a totally natural thermic (heat) process with no chemicals used to make it. Virtually all varieties of agave nectar are organically grown, should that be of interest to anyone. The darker, unfiltered varieties contain more minerals - I've only had the thick, unfiltered, molasses-like, type once - a gallon from a brewery company - it's hard to find but is a good substitute for molasses. I do keep the filtered darker versions on hand, they add a little more flavor while the light varieties are nearly flavorless. Unlike honey, agave nectar is safe to use with young children and babies. I choose to avoid chemical sweeteners for a number of reasons, including my own negative experiences. I've known too many people who have had adverse reactions from consuming them. I try to avoid "chemcial concoctions" in our foods as much as possible. That's another choice I make. For all of you who enjoy and use chemical sweeteners, that's your choice. When used in yeast breads, agave nectar contributes to fermentation and helps keep breads moist due to it's high monosacchride content. Agave nectar has a high osmotic pressure and this characteristic helps to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Agave nectar also has a high hygroscopicity - which increases the water retention properties of a food. This is helpful in breads and other baked goods. "...in bread making and baked goods helping these products to maintain their freshness and texture." As a secondary result of the hygroscopicity of agave nectar, I can often significantly reduce the fat in baked goods and still get great results. Agave nectar doesn't crystalize like honey, and has a long shelf-life. These are the kinds of things I've gathered from an assortment of reference materials to learn more about agave nectar, as well as years of use. To my knowledge, Stevia has never been approved as a sweetener, but as an herbal supplement. Many people have successfully used it and love it - it never passed the taste test at our home even through I did lots of testing using a variety of types. I would, however, heartly recommend the cookbook, "Stevia" (naturally sweet recipes for desserts, drinks and more!) by Rita DePuydt for anyone who is interested in using stevia. It gives information about the many forms of stevia and leans a little towards healthier ingredients and uses whole wheat flour in most of the recipes. I'm not sure if stevia plants are organically grown? I also know they add other ingredients to many of the stevia types/brands and it's a highly processed food that is far removed from the plant and the green herbal sweetener that you can make at home if you grow stevia. Some people are also combining stevia or Splenda WITH agave nectar to reduce the bitter aftertaste of the stevia and Splenda; and to get better baking results - such as browning you can't get with chemical sweeteners and stevia, and moisture in the crumb of baked goods (especially noticable the day after the foods are baked). Once again, it's about choices. As far as Sucanat is concerned, it's one of the sweeteners I keep on hand and use - especially when a liquid sweetener isn't the best choice, or it throws the baking science off too much. The "nutritional" aspect of Sucanat is mostly hype - it's still a high-glycemic sweetener and I use it very sparingly. I doubt that most people choose their sweetener for it's nutritional value, it's just a nice little plus you get with Sucanat. When it comes to candy making, I have a few original recipes that use agave nectar, but good old white sugar is the sweetener of choice when it comes to a batch of Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge at Christmas. -Grainlady