I'll second the advice for basil - I use the purple Thai basil because it flowers very freely, and attracts large numbers of bees. Many of the other herbs listed above are good also... but since I power-till each Spring, I can't use perennials in my predominantly annual vegetable garden. The best flowers for attracting bees in the vegetable garden are long-flowering annuals... and if they volunteer each year, so much the better. For me these include cosmos, bachelor buttons, cleome, and dwarf sunflowers. I love the zinnias also, I just wish they would volunteer as well as those above. A flowering mallow (Malva sylvestris, which is described in the link below) has proven to be especially effective. It flowers abundantly & attracts many species of bees... more than I have been able to identify. It can also become a weed, if the stalks are not removed at the end of the season, since it self-sows aggressively... but to me it has become a "welcome weed", if that makes any sense. It is not perennial in my Wisconsin climate. Many vegetables can also be used to attract pollinators. Squashes, okra, limas, and scarlet runner beans are all highly effective. If you like hummingbirds, grow the scarlet runners on a tall trellis... you might have some close encounters. There is an unusual relative of the tomato (Solanum sisymbriifolium) that bears trusses of 2" white flowers continuously, followed by sweet edible 1" fruit. It is an interesting bee plant, and a real eye-catcher... but it has wicked thorns. It has also proven to be an effective trap crop for some pests. I will offer seed for SASE... contact me through my member page if interested. Although I plant marigolds around my garden (as do many gardeners), I feel their beneficial aspects are exaggerated, and I don't see a lot of pollinators working the flowers. Some of the older, single-flowered cultivars might be more effective than the modern double varieties. Why use flowers in the vegetable garden? To add a little beauty, for one thing. If you spend as much time in the garden as I do, you need a little color to break up the monotony. ;-) Certainly to attract pollinators & beneficial insects, which increases the yield of most vegetables. But for saving seed, I use flowers as "barrier crops" to _control_ pollinators. When planted between two varieties of the same species, flowers provide places for bees to "wipe their feet" as they cross the rows. This reduces the chances of unwanted cross-pollination, and allows closer spacing than would otherwise be required to save pure seed. Here is a link that might be useful: Malva sylvestris

1. I find it difficult to 'find' the person I want to rate and review. I have to scroll through or hope a search works. I can't really compare GW to Ebay, but rating on Ebay is so easy and it's very effective. Could the names be alphabetized instead of listed by date so I can find the person easier? 2. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I always go to the bottom of the page and click Exchanges & Trading or Member Pages. Can you put those at the top of the page? 3. More photos of flowers/plants in your layout that add visual appeal and change/slide show/etc. Maybe even photo credit-Daylily 'Happy Days' by daylilytrdr in Peoria, IL. 4. I agree with the above-stated. People are still commenting on posts/trades from over a year ago. Maybe the newest posts could be at the top instead of the bottom, like the idea of time limit. Now let me tell you the things you're doing RIGHT. 1. Easiest website I've seen to list seeds/plants available and wanted for trade. A+. Don't take that lightly. Your set up is head and shoulders above the competition. 2. Your website is almost never 'down' or not working. 3. Like the 'community feel' of the website-the interaction and connectivity of the members. 4. Thank you for not charging membership or monthly fees. I know you have to work hard to get advertising. You do a very nice job. 5. I never thought I'd visit a website EVERY DAY, but I visit this one and I love it. We're enthusiasts (okay, we're addicts), but as addictions go, it's a good addiction. Your site helps people connect, laugh, share stories and LEARN. Thank you. 6. Not sure where other people stand, but your website doesn't get too heavy into slang and shortcuts (ISO, LMK, DPYN). I have teens in the texting life and it drove me crazy so I made up my own-DPYN-don't pick your nose. When they start talking text language around me I pull this one out and they say, "Mom!" Then we go back to regular English. It's also a friendly place where I can ask, "What does that mean?" if I don't know and people don't treat me like I'm in first grade. Thank you for all you do. Heidi

Cjohansen, Don't buy your Perlite from the big box stores, or if you do, don't get the Miracle Gro stuff.. it is waaaaaaay overpriced. Im not sure where you are located, but if you are on the east coast (US) Agway has it at really good prices, around 20 bucks for 3 cubic foot bags. I think you can order 6 cubic foot bags online too for really good prices. Mom and Pop type nurseries are always good to check too, but some of them are more overpriced than the big box stores, while others have great deals... it's just hit or miss. Look in your yellow pages for agricultural supply stores and farm and feed type businesses. It's always good to start familiarizing yourself with local sources for supplies. I'm not sure what ratio of Perlite you should add to the compost, but probably a pretty large percentage, possibly upwards of 40%.

Part of the problem that I see is that you are not using thumbnails for the clickable images -- you're just making the images display in a smaller space so that the full images are loading when the page loads. Create small thumbnail images of the flowers that you click on to get a bigger image -- that will substantially reduce the size of your overall page. Consider optimizing your images as well -- you can substantially reduce the size of them by using a program like Macromedia Fireworks, or if that's not available, then you can do it for a small fee through this site: http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html Recognize that you trade quality for lower file size, so what's best is that you find a happy medium in which quality is only minimally affected, but for the largest gain in lower file size. I agree with the earlier poster -- you've got way too much on a single page. You're inundating the user with so much info that it's overwhelming. Find a way to better organize the data so it's not all on one page. Also, no offense -- but it's obvious that whoever is doing your graphics needs some help. The text graphics have very jagged and unclean edges, and some of the pictures of the people in the board of directors are very poor quality or weirdly stretched. If having a clean, well-designed appearance is important to you, then you may want to consider hiring a professional web-designer. Your site contains a lot of info, but it's currently very amateurish looking.