I use several filters together. Just one seems to dissolve too fast.

If you're really cheap like me, you'll use the filters after they've been used to make coffee! Just shake and rinse the grounds off before putting it in there. Recycle, re-use! yada yada

You can fold them down to give several layers over the pot's holes, too. I've also used paper towel pieces when coffee filters have run out. They're longer lasting.

Oh, is using coffee filters after they have been used, cheap?? I had been using them too, but didn't like it when they decomposed and the soil start coming out. I then switched to some light weight black fabric I had here (taken out of someone's dumpster). It could be landscape fabric, don't know, but it seems to be working.

I put dryer lint at the bottom of containers.

Dryer lint, what an idea! I sure do have a lot of that.

I've also used folded up paper towels when I run out of coffee filters.

What I've used for 35 years is a piece of panty hose. I don't wear hose anymore and have a lot left. I just cut out a square to cover the hole or holes. Never wears out, still there when I empty the dirt.

You don't have to use new coffee filters either, shake out most of the grounds, and you can use the filter after it's made a pot of coffee for you, too. If you use the cone-style filters instead of the fluted ones like Lin's, just tear them down one side to spread them out.

I made prom dresses for my neighbor's daughter, two years in a row, and had some tulle (bridal veil netting) scraps left over. That stuff is also great for filtering at the bottom of a pot. I tried it to protect my figs on the tree, too, but the squirrels just tore right through it.

Awww- sorry about your figs!

Great idea about the tulle!!