GeeDavey~ yes, the fines seem to decay a bit quicker than regular hardwood mulch, and that's ok by me. The only drawback is that I have to apply more bags of the fines to get the same coverage that I did with heavier hardwood mulch - you'd need, at the very least, 3 inches of fines or it'll wash away in the first heavy rain you have. One bag of fines doesn't give you much coverage when you're piling it on to a depth of 3 inches. However, the fines cost me nearly 2 dollars less per bag than the heavier mulch. So it kinda evens out. The product I buy is sold at a local nursery and is simply called 'soil conditioner', with the main ingredient listed as composted pine bark fines. Besides its use as a mulch or top dressing, you can mix it into the soil when you're digging new planting holes, which is something that isn't possible with traditional hardwood mulch. Another bonus is its natural dark color, which blends in nicely, and it smells really good, too. So far I'm happy with it.

I've used a seed mix called "Fleur de Lawn". It's a mix of lawn daisies, and dwarf grasses. In the summer it needs to be mowed maybe once a month. I've let it go all year in some places, without creating a wilderness. If you visit the link I included, click on the "ecology mixes" in the menu on the left, and then "fleur de lawn".

In my yard, they like the different aloes that I have growing, and these bloom mostly around winter, from November through January or February. They love the neighbor's bottle brush tree across the street, which attracts swarms of hummers. They also like my bromeliads and tillandsia, but the tillandsia flowers do not last very long. I have one bromeliad (which has multiplied) that will tolerate full sun, and they especially like that one - photo below. Lars

Pinkcat, I grow & dry the peppers myself but for the garlic powder, I use the biggest, cheapest jar I can get from the Dollar Store. They have cayenne powder, too. (If you have a wholesale food store like Gordon Food Service or maybe Costco or Sam's Club in your area, perhaps they carry large, economy sizes. I have not checked there.) Anyway, I simply sprinkle either/both onto the plants I hope to repel the wee beasties from. They do not like the smell of garlic, which is why Liquid Fence is pretty effective--except I do not want THAT along with its rotten egg smell on my edible greens either! But the powdered herbs/spices rinse off OK. And the cayenne--well, once they get a snootful of THAT I do not expect they care to come back for more! If you ever have rubbed your nose or eyes after handling hot peppers, you get the drift. Although personally I rather like the thought of rabbit stew... You also could try planting garlic this fall in a circle or square around the patch in which you plan to plant salad crops or whatever seems most to entice your rabbits. I think they would not cross through the row of garlic in search of other things, but I don't know for sure. Probably a barrier of lavender would work, too, but that takes up rather a lot of space and of course is perennial. P.S. When pposting, it is helpful if you include in your profile the zone & general geographic area in which you live. (As I have put Central OH5 in my heading) Not relevant this time, but often location has a bearing on a problem you may have, and we can be of more assistance to you more quickly. I promise we are not serial killers who will hunt you down. ;-) CK