Most all your seeds - with the exception of alliums like onions - are good for many years if properly stored (cool and dry). Many gardeners are still planting seeds that are several years old. :) No need to order every year and no need to give them away. Check out the Saving Seeds forum here for FAQs on proper seed storage. Dave PS: don't know why you couldn't post on the Exchanges forum. Unless you live in Canada it isn't restricted in any way. PSS: your website address of www.joyfulfamilygarden.wordpress.com gives a 404 error - Site not found. That may be why you couldn't post if you included it in your post. It may be a blocked address for commercial reasons.

I hope I have gotten back to everyone above. If I didn't please email me. To those that asked for ox-eye daisy....just as I started harvesting what was going to be a large quanity,we had 2 days of heavy storms that knocked all the seeds off and I just barely managed to get a small lot of seeds that will be donated to garden club project. I'm still hoping some seeds hung on and the mulitude of plants around the yard but so far it's not looking good. P

For anyone that is curious how my experiment went, it started off well.. Everything sprouted except for the onions.. But then I think I fell prey to several newbie mistakes.. For instance, the corn, beans and peas started off well but then didn't get very big.. I believe I needed to fertilize them better.. I picked a couple of peas right off the vine and ate them right there.. Very very tasty.. Can't get any fresher than that.. The squash and zucchini started off like gangbusters but then got attacked by bugs and almost seemed to melt away.. The cherry and Rutgers tomatoes ended up doing well until an early frost hit and pretty much killed the plants.. I guess I planted them too late.. I actually got some cherry tomatoes though since they seemed to mature before the Rutgers did.. The Rutgers were almost ready to ripen when the frost hit.. So everything started off well, but didn't turn out well due to my inexperience.. But I will learn from my mistakes.. I probably won't be planting anything this year as we'll be moving this summer.. If I do plant anything it will be in containers so I can take it with me.. Will I try the cinder blocks again? I'm not sure yet.. The only problem (other than my mistakes) that I had with this setup was mowing around the blocks.. I have a riding mower with no bag on it so I had to be very careful not to push over the blocks and I got a lot more grass blown on my plants then I would have liked.. But again, something else to learn from..

ncgardengirl, oh boy, where to start. My best advice to you is go read everything on the site listed below. it is by far the best source of information I've found online. I don't know anything about onions, sorry. Your hard pan 1' down isn't a huge problem, till as deep as you can so you'll get the most room for the roots to grow. Please don't leave your garlic bulbs in the ground, dig them out now and cure them. if you allow the bulbs to remain in the soil they will grow again but in a big clump as each clove with make a new plant. The result would be pretty ugly next july. Travis Here is a link that might be useful: gourmet garlic gardens