1) Something you may feel is important for a newbie to know: Sow heavier than any commercial seed packet ever indicates. 2) Something you learned your first year: I use a modified milk jug flap - I turn the U upside-down like a doorway arch, so it opens like a drawbridge. The flap bends down to open. This allows the same improved access (instead of cutting the whole jug in half), but increases access by allowing me to see what I'm doing in there! No ducking low to see under the flap. 3) Something you would not do again: I will never use salad containers again, not enough soil and they dry out too easy. Had much better germination rates in the milikjugs. 4) Something you have always done since you started WS because it worked out so well -- Am changing this to "this year's hopeful improvement" since it's only my second year: I like sowing more than one thing per container, and often have lots of things that I only have a small amount of seeds for -- so am using bottomless dixie cups as dividers inside the milk jugs. this way I can sow several columbines in the same container, and then they should all be ready to plant out at the same time. Last year I put several things in the same jug, but had to keep them of different types (can't put rudbeckia 1 in with rudbeckia 2 or they're gonna get blurred together with watering sliding seeds around) so knew what was what if they got blurred together. This made for needing to remove 1/4 of the container for planting out and the rest of the container not being ready; and having much more complicated records for the jugs. Now I have Columbine jugs, Astible jugs, etc. Nice. From last year-- Plant tag goes in with the seeds! Still listing container code numbers onto paper with a diagram of what seeds are where in each one...just in case of a container tumble later. Paint markers are great for labels. Make friends with someone who has 6 kids. They'll produce 5+ milk jugs per week for ya'. 5) Something you have learned over the years to be effective: Organize the process for speed. Don't even try to hit the "normal germination" instructions for each seed type. Just plant half as deep as the widest part of the seed, don't bother nicking/soaking anything; make the seed lists straight from my seed box and leave it alphabetized; only separate the list by "these are definately being sown" and "these might if I have time", perennials and annuals, just basic prioritization; chunk the Priority Perennials list into 1st third = do in December, 2nd third = do in Jan, 3rd third = do in Feb; Priority Annuals into 1st half = do in March, 2nd half = do in April. Get to the extras when they fit in. Gottta love the assembly line approach. I'll follow Stage-Rat's example -- that weed seed pot is a "to die for" idea!

Naomi, not sure what kind of pictures you want but I trust this may answer some questions you may have and if not, just ask some more questions. This is Echeveria imbricata, one of a couple I have that is in desperate need of a whack job! It should have been pruned last fall but.... well, no need to go there! The several arms and head are becoming etiolated from insufficient sun and short days of winter here in Michigan. There are the usual accumulation of dead brown leaves which need to be removed. Whether you have a single stem or multiple stems as in this case, the procedure is simple and the same. Use a pruning shear or some cutting device with substance so you make a clean cut without crushing the stem. Leave yourself enough stem on the cutting to plant after you have allowed it to callous in a shaded area. Remove any dead leaves and any that might be yellowing because they don't offer anything to the plant and will have to be removed anyway. I will allow the larger cutting to the right to callous for at least a week while the smaller ones possibly less time; for the most part whether it is 4 days or 8 days, it isn't life threatening! When you are ready to plant, select a mix that works for you in your area and growing conditions. DO NOT place it in sun afer planting; light shade or filtered light works until new growth begins. DO NOT SOAK the mix after planting. A bit of moisture is OK but most people wait until there is new growth. Echeveria can wimp out, if kept too dry. As I said, these are general thoughts and should work for most, not all, succulents. Another example is this Euphorbia decaryii v decaryii that I cut yesterday. I will allow it to callous for a week to 10 days before planting and I will have 3 new plants that should send out new rhizomes later this summer.

Carolyn, "Have you used it yourself on a variety of seeds and found it works well?" No. I haven't used gibberellic acid in years, and never deliberately to enhance germination. I used to use quite a lot of it on zinnias, mainly to get bigger blooms. As you mentioned, if you spray it on the whole plant it gets very leggy. But I found that by spraying just the flower buds, mostly just the petals would be elongated, thus making the flowers somewhat larger. I didn't know about the germination effect back then, but in retrospect, I should have guessed something like that was going on, because my more mature zinnia heads were actually sprouting seed in the heads. I was doing amateur zinnia breeding back then and I didn't mind that effect because I was getting two generations a year in Oklahoma and three generations a year in Texas. Most of my seed were hand hybridized, so I just planted the green seed, many of which had emerging roots, and I would have seedlings up the next day. But that was a problem for the fall generation, because if there was a rainy spell I would lose many seed to pre-germination in the seed head. This year I planted some fat green seed from some Peter Pan zinnias, fully expecting seedlings up in a day or two. It's much cooler here in Maine and I wasn't using gibberellic acid, so the seedlings took two or three weeks to emerge, and with a rather low germination percentage at that. Three generations a year is a luxury I won't have here in Maine. "Over the years I've found that the best waker upper for old seeds is an overnight soak in water alone. Next I'd add 0.2 % potassium nitrate by itself for an o/n soak..." Thanks for that information. I use warm water, or sometimes just sow the seeds in moist medium with bottom heat. Bottom heat seems to be an effective germination enhancer. I haven't tried potassium nitrate by itself but I usually water my seed flat with quarter-strength soluble fertilizer, so some potassium and some nitrate ions would be present. I have a bunch of old hybrid zinnia seed from decades past that I plan to try to germinate this spring. I tried a few this year with zero germination. Too bad, because I had quite a zinnia gene pool going. MM

As others have said the garage is nice and big which is fine but does overshadow the rest of the house somewhat. If it can be sideloaded it might help. The windows appear to be casement ..which is fine but you have somewhat narrow windows. I would suggest considering double hung windows. You can usually get them a bit wider and also operable but they are usually cheaper than casements. Im just not a fan of too many narrow windows that you see more frames/sash than you do glass and view. The wrapping porch is almsot worthless. I would consider just taking the house straight across and changing shape and orientation of the closet. The stairs does apprear to be very tight and may not work well. Im not sure of ceiling heights. They should be 42" wide MINIMUM in a scissors stair configuration and the landing should be that deep as well. You have to consider getting furniture up and down. Then you have to consider when its on an outside wall the foundation sticks at least 4 inches further into the landing and if you want to furr it out and finish it you lose another 4 inches. So possibly you may want to add a bit of space there as well. The family room is a bit narrow/shallow at 13'-6" or so. lay out some furniture and you will find it fairly tight Im guessing. The other area that is tight is the laundry. You will be walking through it quite often and clothes and shoes laying around will make it quite tough to keep organized. Its always tough to judge because we arent aware of your restrictions and budget but if possible consider making a seperate laundry room. Good luck