Minnamouse - I posted this at the end of a different thread you posted but perhaps you didn't see it. Here's a cut & paste section, followed by a few new thoughts: "Minnamouse, if you had all that trouble with damping off you might really want to consider a good commercial blend. The reason I say that is because they are mixed to provide an appropriate level of moisture retention and trying to get that with your own mix could be a real challenge. I like Promix and Sunshine mix best and personally dislike Miracle Gro. Part of that is probably due to regional growing condition bias. Miracle Gro dries out way too fast for me here while the other two stay at just the most perfect moisture level for much longer times. I do think that Miracle Gro may have an advantage for people growing in wetter conditions. The same features that hurt germination rates for me and made planting out challenging would probably have been advantages in growing regions that got a lot of rain this year. If you are still working at getting good results with WSing, I'd make ProMix a first choice in areas where you usually don't have muddy gardens and Miracle Gro potting mix a first choice in areas where mud in the garden is common. (Sunshine mix is less readily available and more pricey.) I'd hold off on using home mixed mixes for anything but seeds you have in huge abundance where won't be upset if they don't grow. That's actually what we do - I use our home grown container mix for things like zinnias where I have many giant bags of seed available. When you have a load of surplus seed you can live with a potting mix that wicks water in a less than perfect way or that might crumble or break apart when you try to transplant hunks of seedlings." To specifically address your question today, in my opinion the biggest deal about using a purchased mix is that the moisture wicking and retention balance is better than anything you can put together on your own - and that can be VERY important in seed starting. My family likes to be very cost conscious. We grow most of our own food. We have to container grow our veg in five gallon buckets here because the local soil is pretty much just rocks, coal and a bit of clay. (Nice if you want to run a quarry, lousy for gardening!) Our growing & food producing containers are all filled with a home blend of compost with a little perlite. That's great for mature plants and not having picture perfect wetting and moisture retention is not a problem at that stage. Good enough is perfectly fine. But for seed starting and seedlings we only use Sunshine mix or Promix. Yes, it's more costly - especially when I WSed over 3600 containers of flowers and hubby indoor sowed over 200 tomatoes plants and about 50 each of peppers, eggplants, gourds, melons, beans and the rest of the stuff. Maybe I should also mention that hubby Pat's family has been commercial growers in England for at least 6 generations. They made all of their container mix (like you describe above) but bought in their seed sowing mix by the pallet load. In his professional growing experience, and our personal home growing experience it is worth the cost to buy a good seed starting mix - and save home mixes for once the plants are past the seedling stage. That's how we do it because we consider the cost of seed and we want strong seedlings and high germination rates. That's also why I won't use miracle gro here - although if I was in waterlogged Pennsylvania this year I'd probably appreciate it's moisture wicking profile better. I hope this helps. I don't know if you've seen any of my other posts but if you have you probably know that I've got very similar views to you about getting really good value for your money when you are gardening. To me there is such incredible value in planting a seed and getting a healthy strong seedling - ready to grow big and strong, provide flower or food, and then provide seed for future years. I just can't afford the cost of seed, time lost, and food lost by seed starting in a homemade mix - and that's even with having my own English gardener (with decades of growing experience) right here and his elderly mother(with even more experience) just a phone call away. I hope I don't sound like I'm just a member of some kind of Pro Mix fan club. I'm not. I like anything that gets me top notch results. That just happens to be that pricey Pro Mix and Sunshine mix. Lynda Here is a link that might be useful: This is why I seed start in Promix or Sunshine mix

Dear nsf798, You don't know me, soforgive me for putting in my two cents. I don't have the problem you are having, I've got two girls who are 9 and 7 and they are very good friends and though they have their struggles they play together very well. I will say that they have very different personalities and that though the elder gets/deserves many perks for her maturity the younger one is more forward and agressive and often gets what she wants by being so pushy. I really agreed with paigct's comment that enlisting your son to help your younger daughter is one way to handle this, but I also kind of agree with whoever posted that what appears to be a problem from your point of view might not be from the little sisters point of view. That being said, I want to recommend two fantastic books by Nancy Samalin (don't know her and am not connected to her). At least I think they are both by her but on reflection I think one isn't. The first one is How to talk so children will listen and how to listen so children will talk. I found taht really invalable (more so as my children got older) in helping me think through the dynamics of an interaction before I got started, and also in helping me think about modeling solutions rather than talking about problems. Another great book, and I'm sure this is by samalin, is "loving each one best" a book about siblings. And the last great book is called "raising the optimistic child" or "raising an optimistic child." This is a great book for working with children on problem solving rather than blaming. It makes a good read along with "how to talk..." I guess what I'm trying to say is that 1) your son sounds like he is having a burgeoning problem with kids his age; 2) he may or may not have a problem with his little sister but you certainly have one with the way he is treating her; 3) some of these problems could be addressed by working with him on common courtesy. I have had the intersting experience of driving someone else's kids to summer camp for a week. What amazed me is that things that seemed to come naturally to my daughters simply had never even occured to the two little girls I'm now driving. Sharing a snack? forget it. Both of them stuffed their mouths for the entire drive without ever offering my girls a taste--even as my daughters instantly and courteously offered their snacks for sharing. Saying hello and goodbye to us in the morning and afternoon? forget it, it simply never occured to them. Thanking me for driving? apparently that was also inconceivable. The difference in age between me and these girls is considerable (some 40 years) but I'm as courteous to them as I would be to another adult. Which is by way of saying that I think the excuse that your son is 4 years older than his sister so he naturally gets to boss her around is, well, not right. You want him to have good manners whatever the age or station of the person he's with. Perhaps helping him see that close relations (whether family or friend) don't excuse bad behavior is the way to go. just my two cents abfab

Wow!!!!!!!!! This bunch is sure a different type than they have had on before for sure. Wonder how their employers are gonna feel too when they see what all they have been up to, I know i couldnt face my family, if i behaved like this bunch has. Ive not enjoyed this Big Brother like I have in the past, I don't like that they have coupled them up this year. Course it doesnt keep me from watchin it though, hehehe. I do wished I had live feed though.

FYI, from someone who RIDES the NYC subway daily: MOST of the subway passages I go through are lined in 4x4 square. I almost never see the oblong ones. Maybe a very few really old ones.... And, I don't want my home to look like a subway passage! The white tile, no matter what its shape or size, has never said "luxury" to me; it has always said "institutional." Even those 1920s tiles were chosen because they looked sterile and easy to clean. So I don't quite get it when people combine Carrera marble (which to me is the epitome of luxury) w/ subway tiles (which to me is as "high school bathroom/subway tunnel" as you can get) I'd put white subway tiles in my bathroom in a flash, because of the steriity aura. But I wouldn't pair them w/ big, splashy Carrera marble.