My advice, and I've seeded a lot of KBG and other mixes, is this: don't put too much down. It's tough to tell when that is, but I'll try to give you a guideline or two: 1. Go get your toothbrush, and set it on the windowsill, with the bristles sticking upward. Imagine that that's your grass, three weeks after seeding. If your seed comes up that dense, every last grass plant will die, except for the ones on the outside edge, about fifty of them, that can actually get some sunlight. The rest will die. No sun. Too closely packed together. Too much seed got put down, too close together. You even got germination, eh? Too bad. They'll all die, except for the ones that are able to get some sun. So in this example, that's TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, or too much seed in one place. That's obviously one extreme. Let's go to the other extreme. If you plant just a handful of seed, to where the ground is barely speckled with some seed, but you can see all the dirt, with a few white flecks (the grass seed), it's too thin. Each plant will likely come up, and be healthy. But you'll have bare spots, even after the grass sprouts, and the fact that KBG spreads out (over a year) won't make up for the fact that you've got a thin lawn there, and could have done better. That's the other extreme. Here's how to find the middle, that successful middle ground. Keep in mind that this is an APPROACH, a way to get started. Bestlawn's advice, just above, is correct: if the seed maker wants 5lbs of seed to cover about 2000 sq feet, you should measure out 2000 sq ft, and decide that that package will be fully used, in that staked out area. But here's how to get started. You, or somebody in your family, enjoys fried eggs. More than that, you or they enjoy pepper on those eggs. Not scrambled, but fried, over easy. When you put pepper on those eggs, you don't DUMP the pepper, you sprinkle it, moving the pepper shaker, so that a nice, evenly distributed amount of pepper is all over the eggs. You look at it. If there isn't enough pepper, you sprinkle it again, very evenly, perhaps even more lightly, but you're adding more pepper, and when you're done (with that application), you'll look at it. Again. If you moved too fast, you'll even more lightly sprinkle the pepper, evenly, and then you'll look at those eggs, until the pepper is JUST RIGHT, as Goldilocks said. Here's the deal. Don't tell me you don't like pepper on eggs. Somebody does, in your family, or circle of friends. Fix the eggs. I want you to, with the pepper eater at your side, lightly, lightly, sprinkle the pepper on those eggs, evenly, to the VERY POINT, that the pepper eater says "NO. No. That's too much, and I'm not eating those eggs. I could have lived with it, last time, but this last bit you put on there, hey, it's just too much, and I wouldn't eat the eggs. I'm not going to do it. Gimme some new eggs, or take these away." That's it. Take a very good look at those eggs. With evenly distributed black spots, the pepper, and now imagine that that's your dirt, with a bunch of evenly distributed white spots (your KBG seed), at about the same density. Nicely, evenly spaced, but you're only going to apply it up to a certain point. That's it. YOu're there. You're done. Move along, and seed somewhere else.

I agree with both Jordi and MBT, but also try seedrack.com. Walmart has a mixed variety seed pack for .97 for about 12 seeds, while seedrack gives you about 200 'mixed' seeds for $3.96. However, you can get specific species of seeds from the Cactus and Succulent Society for $2.00 for 5 or 10 seeds or .50 a packet for members. You can find the Seed Depot and its listing on the CSSA website. Saguaros are very easy to grow. Sagebrush

I have about 200+ Passion flower plants. They are the Passioflora Incarnata. These are the blue/purple. I would be interested in some bulbs. jpotts461@gmail.com

Jill, Do you remember how flowers are pollinated in general? They are pollinated when the pollen moves from the male flower (or male portion of a perfect blossom) to the female flower (or female portion of a perfect blossom). With tomato blossoms, you have perfect blossoms, meaning that each individual blossom has both the male portion of the blossom, which is the anther cone, and the female portion of the blossom, which is the pistil, the stigma, the style and the ovule/ovary. So, first the tomato blossoms self-pollinate when the pollen moves from the anther cone to the stigma, and then they self-fertilize when the pollen moves from the stigma, down the style to the ovules. When the pollen "unites" with the ovules in the ovary, fertilization has occurred and a fruit will form. Normally this pollination and fertilization occurs on its own. The conditions under which tomato blossom pollen will shed from the anther and go to the stigma are very specific. You need nighttime temperatures above 55 degrees and less than 75 degrees. You also need daytime temperatures of 92 degrees or less. You also need mild humidity. If humidity OR heat are high, the pollen can be sticky and can clump and stick to the anther cone, thereby failing to travel to the stigma. That is why pollination and fertilization pretty much halt (on large-fruited tomatoes only) in hot weather. So, each tomato blossom fertilizes itself with pollen from itself and produces a true-to-type fruit. Cross-pollination can occur when pollen moves from the anther cone of one variety to the stigma of another. Bees and other small pollinating insects, though not needed, can visit various flowers and cause cross-pollination to occur. Thus, in order to be sure you get exactly the tomato seeds you want, and not a cross of unknown types, you have to prevent pollen from one variety from making it to another variety. This is where bagging the blossoms comes in. When you want to save seed of a particular variety, place the organza bag over the flower as soon as it appears. This will prevent bees from bringing in pollen from a different plant. Once the flower opens, the stigmas are "open" to receiving pollen, a condition that lasts a day or two. However, the anther takes 24 hours to shed the pollen and, therefore, during that 24-hour period while the stigma is open and waiting, "outside" pollen can sneak in. Bags prevent this. So, your stigma becomes receptive and has to wait a minimum of 24 hours. Then the anther "sheds" pollen, some of which will land on that stigma (the anther surrounds the stigma). Once it lands, the pollen travels from the stigma down the style to the ovule whereupon the chromosomal material from the pollen enters the ovules and fertilization has successfully occurred. This takes roughly 24 hours. Once fertilization has occurred, a tomato begins to form. You can remove the bag at this point so the fruit can develop normally. When you remove the bag, tie a piece of yard or ribbon to the stem of the plant (NOT TOO TIGHTLY cause the stem will need to grow) near that tomato to mark it as the one from which you want to save seed. It sounds more complicated than it is. Remember that the tomato is doing most of the work and all you have to do is put the bag on, take the bag off, and mark the stem of the tomato for later seed harvest. Now, can problems occur? Yes. Remember that I mentioned high heat can impede pollination and fertilization by making pollen sticky. Sticky pollen clumps and can fail to shed (fall) from the anther cone to the pistil. However, you can intervene. Simply use your finger to thump each blossom a couple of times to shake loose that sticky pollen, OR, shake the plant gently. If the plant is caged, just take hold of the cage and gently shake for a few seconds. Texas gardening experts have long advised home gardeners to walk down a row of tomato cages and give each one a couple of whacks with a tennis racket to "shake up" the plants and help ensure pollination. On the other hand, if you WANT to creat a deliberate cross of two varieties, you can do that by manually transferring pollen from one plant to another. The easiest way to do this is to find a blossom that has just opened, remove its style with very small scissors, and gently rub the anther cone against the stigma of the blossom you want to pollinate. You can do this with your fingertip too. Just rub a fingertip over the anther cone and pick up some pollen on that fingertip. Then gently touch your finger to the stigma of the flower you want to pollinate. Growers who want to save a large quantity of open-pollinated seed (the Seed Savers Exchange Heritage Farm is an example of this) do not bag every individual blossom. Instead they either use a larger barrier, like a wood-framed screened cage, to cover each plant, or they isolate via distance--at least 1/4 mile between varieties--OR they put a plant barrier between different varieties. Often the barrier is several thickly-planted rows of sunflowers which will block accidental cross-pollination. And, fertilization is not often as easy as it should be. Since heat and humidity can keep the anther cones from shedding pollen, you sometimes have to help them out, as mentioned above, via shaking or thumping. The larger the fruit produced by a plant, the more likely heat or humidity will impede pollination. This is why really large-fruited plants, like Brandywine or Big Zac or Big Rainbow (or many others) don't produce many fruit per plant in our climate. Smaller tomatoes, like cherry, grape and paste tomatoes are not inhibited by the heat and humidity so they produce all summer long. So, that's it. How tomatoes reproduce. How to prevent cross-pollination. How to bag blossoms. Got it? And, yes, some gardeners grow their tomatoes close together, don't bag and do save seed. And, in a certain percentage of those cases, cross-pollination will occur. I think the percentage is roughly in the 3% to 7% range. One reason I prefer to purchase commercial seed is that it is highly unliked to be accidentally cross-pollinated. Saving seed is easy and fun and I'd do more of it if I had a smaller garden to maintain and more time available to bag blossoms. Dawn