Wow, is this just cool and a half to have so many ideas being shared for cheap compost? My leaves have been raked, crushed and applied to the soil. I didn't get near as many this year because we had a few very windy days in Nov., my neighbors leaves and mine in the front yard blew away so I got just half as much. Normally I would use grass clippings but where I placed some, it turned into a weed patch. I didn't say it here but on another forum, a big problem that I have is that our home backs up to the Mojave Desert and also is right in the path of the winds that roar up the Cajon Pass. You can imagine with the loose soil in the desert and the numerous weeds, staying ahead of them takes plenty of effort. I'm not a big fan of chemicals either. We have a mulching mower so we leave the grass clippings and do weed prevention instead. I thought the wood shavings idea was great. You get a lot of coverage once one of those bundles is opened. Of course they would have to be balanced w/nitrogen. I did use the last of our wood pellets for the pellet stove we had and they will expand once water hits them, again nitrogen must be supplied. We don't see utility co's. out trimming around here. We are a new community that has been growning over 16 yrs, expecially the last 3. All of the utilities are underground so no issues with wires and trees. I need to search out some other source ideas, like the Starbucks half a mile away. I do have access to several feed stores as people do have a variety of animals in the surrounding communities. Thank you all for the ideas. I'm sure this will be a great source for many gardners stretching their pennies.

Goodness! Was so busy with the move, I missed part of the Pogrom! Anyhoo...we were in Mississippi for a board meeting, and got a look at our old garden, which is looking GREAT. Thought I'd do an update. As I'd stated, we were worried that we'd lose a ton, selling in this market, and with the ongoing noise problem just outside our neighborhood. But the garden gave the house immense 'curb appeal', our Decorator had the interiors whipped into a seductive frenzy, and our Mayor...well...has worked for two decades, to give the town enough cachet to keep property values high, even in this Depression. Too, Kismet smiled upon us, in the form of two young surgeons, who had lived in problem neighborhoods, before. Living in slums until they'd completed residency, they had been assaulted with noise from neighbors' sound systems, too. In order to get much-needed sleep, they had developed an acoustic isolation chamber disguised as a curtained bed. Amazingly similar to what our Decorator had done for our windows, but isolated on all sides, the structure sits on several inches of special foam. So there's no chance of infrasonic vibrations making their way up from the ground. GENIUS! Those whose accounting is more optimistic than mine would say we made a couple hundred grand. I'd say we just broke even, once the move was factored-in. Anyway, we got the (rather high) asking price. Our friends who had moved out here ahead of us found a distressed estate home for us, up the mountain from them. Too artsy-craftsy-early-nineties-lodge-look for me. But our decorator is bringing the house into the new Millennium with only a few tweaks, here and there. Anyway, we got a genuine estate, in one of the most desired neighborhoods in the Northwest, for only a bit more than we'd gotten for our spec-grade McMansion in Madison. Our friends out here also bought an "architecturally-important estate home" at a distressed price, and (once the decorator we share had worked his magic) have been getting offers that would advance their position by over a million. Hope that happens here. Nice as this is, I have my heart set on something smaller and more formal...French cut Limestone, with brick herringbone floors, to be specific. Back in Madison, the Clumping Bamboo we added is thriving, and the young surgeons have found an improved cultivar of variegated Arundo (Peppermint Stick) at Madison Lawn & Garden, to plug up the accoustic 'holes'. This is their first real home, and they are turning into gardening fiends! Wonderful! The CVS urns lynch-mob travesty got us thinking about giant urns for the ends of the pool. So our decorator had Hayles & Howe cast a couple of eight-footers from the parapet of a house in England. They arrived a month back, and we got to see them, newly-installed. Brought tears to my eyes....tears of joy, to see my garden looking so lovely. If the new owners allow the house to be photographed, maybe you'll see it in a magazine. I doubt it, though. Aside from the plantings and the decorating, it's still just a spec house. Based on what I planted that's looking great, here's a list of triumphs: Muskogee Crape Myrtle Peach Drift Rose (quite shade tolerant) Cherokee Rose Lady Banks Rose (all four forms...single white, double white, single yellow, double yellow...as well as the hybrid 'Fortunaiana') Dr. W. VanFleet Rose (the more vigorous parent of New Dawn) Southern Wood Fern Crocosmia Hymenocallis 'Sparkling Burgundy' Camellia Sasanqua Oops!...just opened the gates for my Trainer. Gotta go... Thanks, everybody, for those notes of encouragement!

That is a tough one. If it is for real daily use, I would rather have plastic. My DD has several great melamine sets that she has used since she was in a high-chair and even after dishwasher, they look like new. If it is to be a tea set or something that is for looks and for play when she's older, then I would be ok with porcelain, but you said she is pre-toddler, so that's a tough call. Try Lillian Vernon. From time to time she has good porcelain child's dishes. Here is a German tea set that is reasonably priced. Tea Set Another good company is Sensational Beginnings. This is melamine, but I think it is too cute! Madeline Set

If you try Nextag.com or epinions.com it will give you the cheapest on line stores for whatever you are looking for. I did the same search a week or so ago and I can't remember what site was cheapest....so try those websites.