Good question Madisons.
"pond basket" = app. 5" plastic "meshed" drainage basket to stick pond plants in. A lot of gardening stuff can be simplified and improvised on your own, for example, just use a cottage cheese or some such sturdy container with holes poked in for drainage.
From an easier ("greener"?) link to self-contained gardening
http://www.josho.com/gardening.htmMany folks have trouble finding "pond baskets." (BTW, the 5" refers to their HEIGHT, not their diameter, but the height is not at all crucial...it will just dictate how tall your insert is.) They're also sometimes called "water baskets." I find mine in the "water feature" area of my local gardening center or Home Depot/Lowe's-type store -- the area where they have fountains, pumps, and hoses. In the event that you can't find a suitable pond basket -- and they CAN be square, circular, tall, short, etc, -- you can improvise this a couple of ways and even perhaps save some more money. You can use a large coffee can, removing the top and bottom and punching lots of holes in the sides. (Just substitute the can for the pond basket in all the steps above...marking the height of the can in Step One, etc.) Or you can use a bunch of smaller cans, as long as they're all the same height, and spacing them out so that they help support the platform -- cutting the platform to the height of the cans in Step One, and cutting smaller holes, properly spaced, in Step Three instead of the one large hole.
Marigoldhead is definitely needed in this section!