I'm sorry I forgot to say what's in the mixes. In the first picture for FALL: This mix is comprised of winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover and hairy vetch. Vigorous late summer growth provides winter erosion control. The peas, clover and ryegrass will winter kill to provide organic matter and soil cover. The hairy vetch and winter rye will regrow in the spring to provide nutrients for crops to utilize. For the Spring Mix , in the second picture: Use as a green manure to enrich the garden with both nitrogen and organic matter. The mix contains 60% field peas, 25% oats, and 15% hairy vetch. Designed for spring sowing, but it may be sown anytime early spring through late summer. Our backyard is part of the Rocky Mountain , literally! And so to tame patches of it, since it is not level, our son weed-whacked the rag weeds and other unwanted last fall, and since my Fall mix didn't arrive until too late(didn't want it all eaten by the wild pheasants and other wild residents-might have to pellet the seeds with fine clay powder because of that), I will sow the Spring mix very early on patches maybe 10x20's on the South facing incline for additonal gardening places and let the mix do the weeding out and the fertilizing and the softening of the dirt, and the composting, to get them ready for vegetables and flowers for the year after. I am planning to always have a patch of the mixes growing for seeds, and to rotate them from one patch to the other, and intersperse their plantings with my regulars when ever possible. Bon, bref, I've been long winded,as usual. Chris

That is a tough one. I am not sure what I would INTERPLANT with existing plants. I guess I would plant something that definitely dies and stays short. Peanuts? If you fail, then it all gets dug in anyway. Soybeans? Too tall? The great thing about beans is that they are cheap, a legume, and edible. Yum. Consider sweet potatoes. They crawl. Pumpkins are unruly, but they will not propagate and are easily killed. Each of these is mildly ornamental. Or just mulch it with something that will degrade slowly over the course of months or a year.

Alfalfa is tops. Rodale did tests years ago and alfalfa was 3 to 4 time the natural nitrogen producer of any other plant tested. Other legumes that did well were white and red clover and vetch. There are a few others. I find it's hard to find alfalfa seed from normal retail sources, so I get mine from a local farmer who is glad to give me all the little bit of seed I need in exchange for some nice tangerines and some dates we grow. There are a lot of deferent varieties of alfalfa. Be sure to get one that does well in your area and takes lots of cutting. The local ag. agent can help you with selecting a variety. But even if you can't get the perfect variety, most any variety that grows in your are will do fine. Be sure not to cut alfalfa to short. It's not like grass. A mature stand needs a fairly good stalk above ground to sprout back from when cut. I live in a very different climate. I grow mine from fall to spring. I mix alfalfa and winter rye seed about 1 part alfalfa to 3 parts rye by weight. that is about equal parts by seed count. I scratch these in about double thick because I have a HUGE number of quail and dove come in and feast on my seed, and then the fresh tender greens. I have seen as many as 8 covey of quail, each 10 to 15 in number and 300 dove on our tiny little 1 acre date garden. Well, its small when you put 400 birds on it at once. but the quail also scratch for bugs so they are doing their part to help clean up and keep bug out. A little trick to keep them from eating too much from the field so that they don't make bald spots. I put some cracked corn or chicken scratch at the ends of the field so they eat that and leave my planted seed alone. As summer stats warming up I let it go to seed then cut it all to the ground and rake it into windrows as part of the mulch beds. this is what my roes look like. you can do adjust it on a small scale. mmTmmCCCCCmmTmmCCCCCmmTmm Were T is a tree or a date palm, m is mulch beds, and C is orchard crop. In most cases the orchard crop is rye and alfalfa mix, although I do use selected native weeds too. Notice I said selected! local weeds. Lambs quarter, goat nut, are good greens for salad, and a couple of local flowering or fragrant beauties, dye weed (perennial legume), verbena, and desert primrose. Yes we have a native primrose out here in the crazzy hot desert! It doesn't grow every year, only grows when the rain is just right. But I digress. Some folks like to keep a more perennial crop like alfalfa alone of vetch so they don't need to reseed each year. With alfalfa, if you want it to carry over and grow the next year, you need to leave some leaf and green as winter starts, and not cut it all off. Note too, that after 3 years of heavy mulching (say one foot thick or more) you will be able to reduce the amount to half as much, as your soil will have matured and developed a very healthy profile.

Thought I'd be fair to them and post. A good responce, but unfortunately too late - I'm still a ticked-off customer. Good morning Chris; I wished to personally contact you regarding your recent customer service experience with McKenzie Seeds. First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to email and call with your question on the shallots you purchased. We rely on our customers' questions, concerns and feedback to continually improve where we can. Regretfully, I learned that the answer you received from our Customer Service department was less than satisfactory or helpful to you. At McKenzie Seeds, we expect a high standard of service given to each and every customer. I have addressed the matter appropriately with the representative you dealt with and on behalf of the company, I extend our apologies to you. Although you may no longer seek an answer to your original question, allow me to elaborate on our Gourmet Shallots: Gourmet Shallots can be grown for either their green onions (early season) or for bulbs (end of season). More commonly, Gourmet Shallots are grown to harvest the bulbs and stored for later use in cooking dishes/pickling etc.. If the gardener wishes, they also have the option of eating the greens, which can be pulled up from the bulb earlier in the season for a wonderful green onion/scallion to eat in the summer. I regret that I was not able to supply you this response immediately when you first contacted our company, however I do hope it is still of some use! If you have any other questions or concerns about our product, do not hesitate to contact me directly. Best Regards, Sandra Lefebvre Customer Service Manager McKenzie Seeds, a Division of Jiffy