Yes, Ken. I didn't used to clean much of anything until spring when I was in OH. There's not really a time when there's nothing going on here, and totally agree, the lack of snow makes visibly ugly spots much more, well, ugly. Rhizo, don't you compost your annuals anyway? Do you have a reliably hot pile? If not, I wouldn't think it would make much difference where they rot, in regard to killing bugs/pathogens, especially if none were in evidence on the plants when frost took them. Is there something else I should know? Rosie, I don't know if diluting is as much of an issue as getting a quantity of responses to such a "buried" question. Nothing wrong with a new discussion! Most of the leaves in this yard are some kind of oak and when mixed with grass in the mower bag, they are well decomposed in a few months. The first year I "leafed" the beds, the leaves did take longer to decompose, but the past couple years have been remarkably different, as if whatever chemical reaction or microscopic critters that decompose oak leaves are now in those areas in much higher numbers or concentrations. The increase in organic matter in the soil in general seems to help keep everything more moist, or more accurately, to take longer to dry out. I also filled a washtub with nothing but leaves/grass from the mower last fall and it's my best one this year (there are 3, all with a mix of Coleus, Persian shield, Perilla.)

>>are there problems with mixing too many different seed types in a lawn? If you match color and growth rates, not really. Yes, they'll compete. That's actually a good thing--the one that does best in a given area will dominate. If the colors are the same, and they grow at the same rate, you'll notice--but you won't care. :) My initial lawn, from the builder, was a tri-mix of KBG, fescue (several kinds) and rye. Over time, the KBG dominated due to my care regimen and the fact that the lawn is pretty much full sun all the time. It was never obvious that there was competition going on, and never a problem. >>Are there any organic fertilizers you would recommend for helping to change soil structure compacted soils? Like Yardtractor said, ALL organics will help change the soil structure over time. Without exception. However, some are better than others because you can drop more of them without experiencing problems like the reek of decay. Soybean meal is a great feeding for the lawn, requiring about 15 pounds per thousand square feet four times per year to give a perfect feeding. However, dropping sixty pounds per year isn't going to change the soil at any fantastic rate. The equivalent feeding using cracked corn or corn meal (I prefer cracked corn as it flows through my broadcast spreader more easily) is 60 pounds per thousand square feet. At 240 pounds per thousand per year, it'll change the soil profile much faster. Corn is one of those things you can also pour on, unlike most other organics. One huge source of (frequently ignored) organic material is mulch-mowing all fall leaves. I don't get so many, so I import them from known-good lawns without problems to the tune of 100 pounds per thousand square feet per year. You have leaves in plenty right there. My top flight year (year 2 of organics, after the soil had built up bacteria and fungi to support rapid decay) was over 1,300 pounds per thousand square feet, for a grand total of 37 pounds of nitrogen equivalent per thousand that year. Do that with synthetics and you just sterilized the soil--probably for at least a year. Organically? The lawn flourished, as did the gardens, everything was deep green and grew like mad. Doing that took me from an organically tapped soil in 2005 to a soil with 14% organic matter this year--and most years featured nowhere near the application that one year did!

You are all quite welcome, and thank you for coming to the swap. It was quite a large crowd, larger than the past 4 years, but the more the merrier. The swap keeps growing in size every year and that is so much fun. More people, new people, new garden friends to meet and always new and more variety of plants, seedlings, divisions to share. Blake, my hubby said the same thing, gardeners are always smiling, especially at a swap. So here are some questions for all of us. Why all the smiles yesterday? 1. Because all the plants, seedlings, divisions where finding new homes because we had no place for them in our gardens? 2. Because of all the new plants and seedlings we where bringing home to replace the ones we where giving away? 3. Because we where all with a group of people just like ourselves, crazy, plant loving, gardeners and no one at the swap thought we where crazy, but rather, we where al the sane ones? 4. Because we where with a group of people with common interests and could just let ourselves be ourselves and not think twice about it? 5. Because it is all of the above? Now I'll answer first, it's because of all of the above. Can't get any better than a bunch of like minded gardeners, all together in one location with tons and tons of plants and seedlings being offered for free and adding to the garden beds, talking with people about our love of gardening and having good food and drinks and perfect weather to boot. So I'll see all of you again, around the same time of year next year. And again for what will be the 5th year in a row, I'll be praying that I will have no more back problems and not facing another spine surgery after the swap. Thank you all for coming, glad everyone had such a good time, brought home "new babies" for the beds and as always, everyone is welcome to come, with or without plants, seedlings, divisions. Just come and take home our extras and give them good homes. NOW, all that wonderful home made food; I posted a thread to collect all those recipes. Everyone was saying things like I've got to get that recipe, so folks start posting the recipes for them. Michael, wintersowing is the best. Go onto the Winter sowing forum and read the FAQ's to start with. Have a question post on the forum. We are the friendliest and most welcoming forum on GW. No question is ignored, and we will welcome you with open arms and get you addicted real quick. And you can always e-mail me any time with questions. Kathy, they will grow up perfectly in their new home, on the other end of town. I will have to come and see them. It's not like we are that far away from each other. OK, time for me to start killing my back and get my beds planted. Count down time for me, before I'm not able to garden again till the fall. You all saw what is in my fenced in yard to get in the ground. POST THOSE RECIPES FOR ALL OF US. AGNES THOSE STUFFED PHYLLO...

Your compliments have been passed along to the chef, she is beaming. She has already made a new bin like this one on the far side of the garden. The old one (funny you should ask Colleen) is dead and grey, so she topped it up with a ring of fresh spruce boughs, just for the looks. I'll see about getting a photo of both. I forgot to mention - because I plain forgot; winter tends to wipe the memory banks - that a bunch of shellfish plant waste also went into the pile, and that I purposely diverted shovelsfull of manure that had red wrigglers in it to this pile, so a worm village should not have been entirely unexpected. The problem of separating castings comes partly from the fact that these fine castings are mixed with stalks and clumps of roots. So I think I'll keep adding to the pile this year, give it more time. The perspective in the picture is odd - makes it look like the pallet bins are far from the bird's nest, which looks huge. The wall of it is about 2 1/2' high - a little higher than the dog on the right if that helps. :) How about somebody try this bin using other stuff - sunflower and/or other stalks - and tell us how it goes?