Here is my comforter bag. I have a lasagna pan inside, with holes on the top and holes on the bottom like you mentioned.

The pan was leftover from thanksgiving, my sister almost tossed this pan!!!

{{gwi:215656}}

I did 48 styrofoam cups in comforter bags this weekend...3rd year using the bag...worked like a charm for me. On year 2 with the styrofoam cups.

I'm using a comforter bag filled with plastic cups for tomatoes and peppers, duct-taped together as 6-cell "packs" to keep them steady. I love rigging up found stuff for gardening. :)

My experience last year with styrofoam coffee cups and cold drink cups was that they dried out, even thought they were inside a Sterlite clear container with plenty of drainage and air cirulation holes. While there were under 55 inches of snow, all was fine but 4 weeks later when the snow had finally melted, it made the back yard so muddy and I was unable to get to them to check them. Once they dry up, there's not bring them back. How are your seeds going to get air circulation inside the comforter bag? Do you have holes in the top of the comforter bag and drainage holes in bottom?
Just a thought. Maybe others will think my concern is not valid.

For those of you who use the comforter bags or large plastic bags over your cups or pans, how do you elevate the top of the bag so it doesn't lay on top of your containers or soil? My first year I tried making a frame type of thing by bending coat hangers and it failed miserably. HELP!

ej

Hmm. I have a wide flat bag (with ventilation slits and the zipper open a little) and it stays up by itself, but I was thinking ahead if a support is necessary... so a wire frame doesn't work, thanks... Maybe you can set something taller and heavier in the corners. I would try small coffee cans with sand/gravel in if necessary, as the height is about right for mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bag of tomatoes

Silver - I'm in snow country, zone 4, and would need a pretty sturdy system, particularly in the middle, to hold up under a foot or more of snow. In your area a wire frame or your coffee can idea would work if your rains aren't too heavy. Maybe I should try to find a large wire basket and use it upside down inside the bag, but I'm not willing to spend too much. Thanks for your help!

ej

Well I only got a little bit of snow and my bag managed so stay up by itself. A cat did jump on it and I found me a nice foot print in the middle of my bag other than that I have had no problem keeping my bag up.

Just a thought here, but you could maybe get a little bench or make a homemade bench and set the bag with its contents underneath. So that the bench will protect and maybe make an igloo effect around the bag and maybe to protect the snow from crushing the bag. Just a thought, I do not know how feasible it is.

Someone else was saying something about a stick in the middle to elevate it, well I screwed myself up there cause I cut a huge vent hole in the middle. Plus I seriously doubt a stick will hold up any significant snow.

My mind goes back to the igloo effect!!

If you have old bamboo stakes or something similar, you could make a frame out of that..I would think so, anyway. Dowel rods or something, would be more rigid than wire, but light too. To cut, score with a saw and then snap. You could probably cut them a little larger than needed, then wedge them in. At least 6, one in each corner and one on either side in the middle. Then I'm thinking, for a sturdy structure...You're going to want the rods to sit in something. Maybe you could, I dunno, freeze them into cups of water? Put them in sand?