guess what I found it. Under Garden notes! Gee I am more organized that I thot. Just I had forgotten I even had a folder garden notes. lol so here is the list I compiled last year of recommended by WS'ers: Bakers - Crossmans - Everwilde- Praire Moon - JL Hudson, Summer Hill, Fragrant Path, and Diane's - Heirloom Acres Seeds Cheapseeds Cooks SSE Johnny's in Maine Nichols Sample Seeds Stokes Seeds T & M The only one of these I have direct knowledge of is Crossman's - their seeds and shipping is very inexpensive, and I had good germination. Their seed count was very good. [Unlike Parks which said 100 and gave 25. When they sent a replacement that was short too!] My only caution w/Crossman is that the Zinnias which I got from them - a couple of different ones - did not do well once in the garden. Now that could be a lot of things- could be the weather, could be where I planted them.. I recall that many people liked this company so I'm not saying my experience is typical, but I do want to try another company. ellen

Summer savory, I make my own poultry seasoning now instead of the pre-mixed. I season to taste, know I use that and sage (quite a lot of that), can't remember what else, parsley, a little thyme, a little majoram if I have it, onion, celery (including leaves), bread cubes, chicken broth w/melted real butter, water to get it the right dampness, salt, pepper, no rosemary, no garlic, sometimes a little Lawry's seasoned salt. I don't use recipes for a lot of things any more, just dump. Here are lots of ideas for it, hope the link works. If it doesn't go to groups.google.com, click on advanced search, put rec.food.recipes in the "group at this location" put summer savory in the exact phrase box, hit the google search button. The regular google search engine might come up with some more if you put "summer savory" in quotes and search (or just savory). Here is a link that might be useful: recipes using summer savory

Pinetree is a good one with mostly edibles, lots of selection with good prices. If you don't have very specific seeds in mind one of the cheapest ways to get lots of variety is Bakemom's newbie project on this forum. There are also sometimes newbie offers on the round robin and regular seed exchange forums requiring just the cost of postage. Some have people look at your want list to gift you specific seed, while others it is just a random selection sent. Another good option for more common varieties of both edibles and flowers are the super cheap seeds many stores start offering in late winter. The names change but I have seen them from "Valley Greene" or "American Seed". They are usually at Walmart, Walgreens, Dollar Stores, Menards, etc. Usually $1 for 10-20 packets, and the packets contain more than enough seed. Menards last year had the cheapest ones here at 20/$1 which let me stock up on things like radishes, lettuce, and zinnias. They are mostly the more common heirloom veggies and flowers, but you can't beat the price. I know you asked for seed company recommendations, but I thought I would just throw that out there for anyone interested. My first year wintersowing I carefully picked out and bought some seeds online and THEN did the newbie project. I actually got many of the same seeds I had purchased. The ones from the fellow gardeners not only had more seed in the packet, but better germination rates as well. So now I start the season with doing a couple of group swaps and then see if there are any special seeds I still want to buy.

Hi sanda- I am the person who originally posted this. I put the compost down on top of my regular mulch around the end of July. It's about 4 - 6 inches thick. When I water, the water runs right through the compost layer to the soil below and the compost is acting like a mulch to keep the topsoil moist. It does work as a mulch, but due to the fine texture of the compost, it is gradually sifting past the old mulch down into the soil. So, I would not say it replaces mulch, which sits on top of the soil, but it is acting like mulch for now. But, again, due to the compost's fine texture, you may want to mulch on top of the compost with something bulkier & heavier, especially if it is very windy in your area. Hope that helps! S-mom