Val, what kind of mulch do you mean? Many things can be used as mulch, some would not be desirable for the medium one plants everything into, for instance hunks of pine bark. Shredded leaves are a mulch I use, but I don't imagine one can buy that. As for putting a layer of peat ON TOP of your beds, I would tell Lilacs and everyone else reading this to not do that under any circumstance! I don't know how it is pre-moistened when you buy it, but I have heard from gardening friends and read numerous times on gardenweb how peat dries out and forms a layer through which water does not penetrate. That is the last thing you would want on top of your garden bed. Peat, if used at all, must be mixed in with other material. After another growing season, hopefully we have told Lilacs enough times that she will be adding to the raised bed after her harvest with leaves, coffee grounds, grass clippings, manure, whatever. By the way, I got two bales of straw free during my late fall gathering of other people's leaves venture. People buy them for decoration and then throw them away after Halloween and Thanksgiving. I live in the country, but I scrounge in a nearby subdivision in a neighboring city. Marcia

I just bought "9 miscellaneous succulents" and "9 miscellaneous cacti" on amazon. Both are really inexpensive, it looks like he raised the price of the plants & lowered shipping costs http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/B005WCKBQO/ref=olp_tab_all here's a link. When mine came in the mail I was so happy they're really cool & diverse & they were all healthy so I'd definitely buy from them again. The only down side is that they don't identify any of the plants for you. I've also purchased a lot of succulents from Home Depot but beware I bought a couple of plants that were infested with spider mites that spread to one of my herb plants. Also I'm not sure if it's my lack of experience or what but my Home Depot succulents don't survive.

Bensdad Of course you can call me Dawn...it's my name so you might as well use it. All of Barbara Pleasant's books are excellent and she's written many magazine articles too. She is one of my favorite garden writers. I've read many of the other authors you mentioned, and Louise Riotte was a particular favorite of mine. She lived and gardened in Carter County, one county north of me. I think I've read ever book she ever wrote. Of course we all have space issues, and it doesn't help if you move to a larger space because you'll just plant more and more and more. In late winter and early spring, my flats of plants take over the guest room, the screened-in back porch, the patio, the potting shed and the garage. My husband, who is not a gardener, is a saint to put up with it all. Have you been to the Half-Price Books store in OKC? When I lived in Fort Worth, I went to all the HPB stores in the D-FW metro area on a regular basis and bought tons of books there over the years. Gardening with children is so much fun. Our son enjoyed it until he got a driver's license at 16 and suddenly had much more important things to do, and now I'm getting to enjoy it with his two-year-old daughter when she comes to our house. She loves it more at this age than he did. Suzie, The book was out-of-print, I believe, for a while, and Dr. Cotner himself once remarked that he didn't think it ever would be reissued or reprinted because the size (over 400 pages) and the many photos were too costly to print 'nowadays'. While it was out-of-print or hard to find, Amazon booksellers began asking and receiving incredible prices for the book. So, here's the secret... The book is directly available from TG Press, its original publisher. I've linked it below. It is a wonderful book. If I could have only one book, it would be this one. I'm on my second copy. I flat wore-out the first one, which was a softcover, and then I bought this one, a hardcover, from an online seller at Amazon, and I think I paid $24.95 for it about 3 or 4 years ago, but I watched Amazon for a year waiting for a used one to pop up at a good price. I would have bought it from TG Press and not wasted a year looking for one if I'd known TG Press was selling it at the time. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Vegetable Book at TG Press

No, the small trays they had are still larger than the ones in your link. They looked more like 2x2 per cell but definitely not the typical 6 cell. I use those in your link for starting mine but then transplant to 4" pots. Yes, they had lots of hot peppers out! Mostly hot peppers actually. I don't grow hot peppers so can't help you with types they had (other than habanero haha!) but probably 5 or 6 varieties from memory. All the vendors had hot peppers, most had other varieties too. The California Wonder I only saw from the one vendor. If you are familiar with the layout, the seedling vendors all seem to be on the northern leg of the "L" shape market layout- along 17th street. This particular vendor was on the furthest east stand (nearest Park ave) on the side furthest from 17th street. Hope that makes sense. Shouldn't be a problem in any event, lots of them selling today and I imagine more on Friday.