Thank you for all the replies! I currently do make compost tea, and the rabbit hutch is inside the garden. I have moved its location a few times where I wanted to improve my soil. The manure is fantastic for improving the soil. I now feel that I am putting more back into my soil than I take away. My goal is to have fertile soil. Healthy soil makes healthy plants. That is why I was asking the seed viability question. I assume there is a publication or reference out there about seed viability in rabbit manure. I couldn't turn up much on a recent web search so, I thought I would post the question here. I dislike weeding but, I do it often and diligently. I love putting a bunch of edible weeds in the rabbit hutches and watching them get devoured. Once the weeds start to set seed I have to re-direct the weeds elsewhere (usually the compost tea). Thank you all again, -Munalos

digdirt - dig a little further - re rabbits, your link leads to: "....O157:H7 was not detected in any of the samples" " ....Neither Salmonella nor E. coli O157:H7 was detected" one study found that rabbits could be infected with a different strain of E.coli than the one that's caused problems recently Escherichia coli is the normal gut bacteria of ALL mammals, including humans, and is largely harmless - enterohemorrhagic E. coli serotype O157:H7 is a particularly troublesome strain that has been the cause of all the food-borne illness problems in recent years, particularly with undercooked meat, because it [O157:H7] is found almost exclusively in the systems of intensively grain fed cattle .... the very first known occurance of this strain was found to have come from contaminated ground beef - meat can become contaminated during slaughter, and organisms can be thoroughly mixed into beef when it is ground - bacteria present on the cow's udders or on equipment may get into raw milk - water and soil contaminated with bovine fecal material can transfer the bacteria to field crops that are eaten raw it's believed possible that pigs and wild ruminants [deer, etc] may harbor O157:H7 if they've picked it up grazing contaminated ground, but COWS are the problem, so make sure you cook all meat [especially ground] to 160°F minimum, and make sure you don't contaminate other foods, kitchen surfaces or utensils with uncooked meat so NO Gary, your rabbits don't normally have problematic organisms in their Bunny Poo, and you should have no qualms about using it in your garden or compost, but hand washing is always a good thing Bill Here is a link that might be useful: new vacine against O157:H7 in cattle

I am very lucky to live close to Austin and its very active native gardening scene. LBJ wildflower center and the Natural gardener caries the different types at varying times if I keep my eyes open. I also have an anual winecup AKA callirhoe leiocarpa. I have seen an occasional Callirhoe pedata (palm leaf winecup)growing in the woods but they do not seem to proliferate. My favorite is the Callirhoe involcrata var linearloba. There is variation in this species. Sometimes it is mostly white , and sometimes it is heavily striped. Native american seed company has seed for some of them. Their Liniarloba looks all white. They also have the anual wine cup (leiocarpa) I buy a plant and collect the seeds. Here is a link that might be useful: Callirhoe involcrata var linearloba

Carol, I order most of my books used from Amazon.com. I just look at the listed price for the used books and the condition of the book, add the shipping cost to it, and compute if I'd save by ordering a used book online. The answer is almost always "yes". Even when I've ordered a book whose condition is rated only as "good", they are always in great shape and often look brand new. Of course, some of the older ones have some wear and tear, but the book reads the same as a brand-new one in perfect condition. I have found some great "old" gardening books on Amazon.com for as little as one cent, so even with shipping added in, they're only costing me about $4.00. Some of the books aren't even that old, but rather just were incredibly popular and now there's a plethora of them on the used book market. I go on a "book binge" 3 or 4 times a year and order maybe six or eight books at once from Amazon. With the used book prices, it isn't a huge expense and I often get 6 or 8 or more books for what I'd spend for 2 or 3 purchased new. Recently, Half Price Books announced they'd finally entered into a partnership to sell used books online, using a system someone else developed. I visited the website they mentioned but became frustrated with it because it is much harder to navigate than Amazon.com and much slower. Someday when I have time to kill and patience in ample supply, I'll probably go back and try the HPB online option again. Chandra, With all those books arriving in the mail, it must feel like Christmas. Dawn