There is some thought that it can take several years for your mini-ecosystem to balance out after you first go organic. Perhaps it takes some time for birds to find your gardens and the predator bugs to get established, and they both eat tons of insects. I've been planting lots of native flowers, grasses, and shrubs to attract birds and bugs, and the more the wildlife habitat develops in the yard, the more they show up. As for the mulch, all of my gardens have compost, leaves, straw, lasagne layers, and tons of organic matter all over. I leave most of the foliage standing over the winter too - not only is this better for certain perennials, but my thinking is that all of this provides habitat for the GOOD bugs as well as possibly for the bad. And the birds will continue to pick at seeds through the winter. This seems to work pretty well. This year there was some damage from oriental beetles (squish 'em) and the slugs were everywhere this summer, but that was because it was extremely wet here in New England.

I'm thinking it's Paradiso Bash, but I'll have her check herself. Thanks much for your input! Any recommendations on which sealant to use? She doesn't know which was the original one, or even the contractor used.

I would agree with Kompy, that it's about a 10 page agreement with HD. However, Home Depot also offers a customer satisfaction guarantee. I wasn't so sure about other fabricators having that. When we encountered the deal with the 2 different slabs, they (HD) were willing to replace/redo it. Whether they agreed with me or not, they did offer to do that. Not so sure that another fabricator would have offered that. HD was competitively priced with a couple of others we checked into at the time. The reason I ended up going with them was that we'd had them do most of the rest of our kitchen remodel and we were pretty happy. We had a very good working relationship with their KD, PM and contractor/cabinet installer. I was not as "savvy" at the time about granite - about insisting on being able to look at the templated granite before they cut it out. I have learned that is a BIG deal, so if I had to do it over again - I would not use HD for the simple fact that they don't allow customers to view the templated granite before it's cut. I didn't realize at the time what a BIG deal that really is. Oh well, live & learn I guess. We have a gorgeous new kitchen with equally gorgeous new granite. Nobody else probably notices the little thing with the granite, but me. If nothing else, I hope that my experience helps "gojenny" with a decision about her granite. ---Boxie

Hi. Me again, on my own thread, trying to reason out the best solution. The area where the drain board would be is a dedicated clean up zone, prep will be done on the island. My kitchen style is to clean as I go, so there is often something drying - usually things like large bowls or pots that don't go in the dw. During this long reno period, I have used one of the drying pads mentioned. Because of no dw, drying items often remain on the pad overnight. I have noticed, over time, that the counter underneath the pad has darkened (it is wood), so clearly some moisture gets through. My question is this: would it be better to have a slightly damp pad or towel sitting on the quartzite for hours or a drain board that would, in theory, drain away the water? Just wondering. Carol