I, too, have used cake pans from thrift stores as concrete molds, and that was the first thing I thought of when I saw your post. They also frequently have cast iron pans with designs in them (teddy bears, sea shells, holiday shapes, etc.) that would be fun to try. I wonder how it would work to make a leaf mold. Pile the sand, lay the leaf on top and pour the metal over the top. Not sure how it'd work as I'm sure the molten metal is pretty runny and would likely run off if it weren't completely flat. BUT, if you could figure out how to do it, I think it would look great!

thank you, Kevin. We are not so dry here in PNW. I hope if i put two cans per tomato bush, it will let me to water plant by filling cans twice a week. I'll try to make several holes and see how long it will take to drain whole can.

I wouldn't use them. The metal in the cans will rust very quickly. Whether the rust will or will not create a problem with the soil or will affect seed germination, I don't know. What I do know though, is that hubby left an empty metal coffee can outside this past winter. He had been using it to hold some nails he was using outside in Nov. Anyways, but mid Dec. it had some snow in it and the top part of the can was all rusted and crumbling. By spring the metal in the can had started to crumble. I suggest you stick with the "tried and true" containers of recycled plastic containers, gallon jugs, etc. Fran Oh and welcome to the WS forum and don't mind all "us crazy people". We are addicted to WS but we love "newbies" and all the questions and helping out those that are new. We are the friendliest forum on GW. Fran

Honey what I did is use the pattern pieces I found and save them. I them opened them in a print program (I used MS Publisher) that has a ruler on the sides. I enlarged them 'till they were the inches mentioned in the pattern. Now that I look at my instructions, it looks as clear as mud. Sorry.