Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is mostly sterile! Most GW traders would probably be just fine with chaff (at least for certain species) if you disclosed its presence in your description prior to trade. I've seen this listed on multiple people's trade lists. I do try to remove most of the chaff from my seed, but that's probably just an indication that I have a tiny bit of OCD just waiting to show up.

Lawns are a lot easier than you are being told. There are two extremely popular grasses in the south. One is bermuda and the other is St Augustine. Bermuda is a fine bladed grass which requires extra care every week while St Augustine grass is a coarse bladed grass. There are two kinds of bermuda: one is a hybrid which only slightly resembles the "wild" varieties, and the other is common bermuda which is started from seed. This bermuda seed is the only grass seed that makes sense in the south. If you mix the two kinds of bermuda, it will always and forever look weedy. The two different kinds of grass just look different. The hybrid looks really nice most of the time. The common looks so-so most of the time unless you really spend a lot of time and money on it. Really both require a lot of care when compared with St Augustine. Bermuda is a FULL SUN type of grass. If it is in the shade of a building, fence, or shrubbery/trees, it will thin out and look poor. Bermuda can go dormant in the winter and when it does not get regular water. St Augustine comes in many varieties. The common variety is rarely seen anymore. The others are all hybrids with different degrees of tolerance for shade, disease, and drought. St Augustine is the only grass in the south that can tolerate much shade, and it can tolerate a lot. In full sun it becomes very dense and very resistant to weeds. The Floratam variety works best in bright sun but will be a little thin in deep shade. When selecting St Augustine what matters most is what's available in your neighborhood. If you find some of a certain variety, please write back and we can explain the pros and cons for the ones you can get. One interesting thing about St Augustine is that you can care for it such that it will wipe out other grasses. All it takes is proper water, mowing, and fertilizer. The difference between proper care for bermuda and St Augustine is slight but important if you want one or the other. If you start with just a few pieces of St Augustine, with proper care it can cover a yard in 2 years. If you want instant lawn, this won't work, but if you are patient, it will work. In fact I just bought a new home with no grass and will be doing the same thing. Sorry I'm being called to dinner. There's more to say, but you might have some more questions.

since i've gotten into garden web, i've wondered that to. we've been out collecting seeds, well in our case, the kids and i don't know what they are, so we collect the whole head. and when i send them i send the whole head. but that is because i don't want anyone to lose out on what i don't know about. i do know its not posionous. LOL but out in the open they do really well, and when we try to "propagate" them we fail sometimes, so it just made me wonder. i believe i read somewhere about needing a carrying thing on some seeds why not another property on others? just me overthinking things LOL ~Medo

Dale, I'm so sorry I didn't see your post until now. Yikes! Time flies. Okay, here's the scoop. "Squash" and "pumpkin" are nebulous terms, often referring to the same thing. So, when you read the terms remember that they can be synonymous. There are four main species of squash. Apart from very special circumstances these four do not cross, even if they are planted together. These families are: C. Pepo which includes most summer squash, yellow flowering ornamental gourds, Jack O'Lantern type pumpkins, acorn squash, delicata and sweet dumpling squash. This species is generally known for fast production and the ability to rebound after drought. They are, however, usually susceptable to squash vine borers. This species has very prickly stems and leaves. C. Maxima includes the really LARGE pumpkins, such as Big Max and Dill's Atlantic Giant. Also under c. maxima, one finds banana squash, Turk's Turban, buttercup, Hubbard and many many others. C. Maxima is probably the most susceptible of the species, when it comes to borers and pests. I just can't grow them here. They look like they'll produce and then BANG! They die without producing anything. But in the western part of the country, where borers are not a problem, they are wonderful. C. Maximas are known, generally, to have some of the drier, most fine grained flesh of all. C. Mixta is a species from which most people only ever see cushaws. C. Mixta is generally very resistant to pests, requiring a bit more time to mature fruit than c. pepo or c. maxima. Vines of this species are often HUGE. C. Moschata - My favorite of the species. Generally takes a bit longer to mature fruit than either c. pepo or c. maxima. Both c. moschata & c. mixta appear to require a bit more heat than the other two species. C. moschata includes the ubiquitous butternut, Tahitian Melon squash and the old time cheese pumpkins. Most of the time, when one sees a buff/tan colored squash it's a c. moschata. Both c. mixta and c. moschata are resistant, though usually not impervious, to squash vine borers. I have heard of c. mixta/c. moschata crosses, though they are very rare. I've also heard of an occasional c. maxima crossing with a c. pepo (I think). But those crosses are so rare, that for practical purposes, one should be able to grow one variety of each family and not worry about crossing. I would recommend at least 1/2 mile isolation between varieties of the same species, or else hand pollinate. If one hand pollinates it is important to be meticulous, never assuming that everything's alright, if for instance, one didn't properly close a flower. None of these four species will cross with the white flowered gourds (Lagenaria siceraria). Some seed companies list their cucurbits by species. I believe Baker Creek Heirlooms does this. Otherwise I'd recommend you do a little research on the Internet, if in doubt. I'd be happy to help too : ) Hope this helps! George Tahlequah, OK Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollination of Squash