gardenluv, I've sown pretty many perennials already and just sent away for some seeds from J.L. Hudson and Prairie Moon Nursery. So I should have more to sow in a few weeks. :) Yeah, just what I need, more plants! LOL My neighbors will soon think I've lost it. Ha. I'm so glad to hear that you had success wintersowing snapdragons. I will ws the seeds that I collected from my plants a couple months ago. I think I'll sow them in about a month. If you're in zone 5 and sowed them in January, I'm confident that mine will be alright too. I would assume that they don't mind being snowed on then after the plants are growing. pitimpinai, Thanks for the welcome and for those links! :) I will be sure to check them out. I don't know why but I didn't think to look for a FAQ page. Duh! Ha, well, it's good that you could point me in the right direction. I hope I'll have time to do my wintersowing after I am done with my homework of doing all that readying. ;-) I will absolutely start right away...I love to read about plants and look through seed/nursery catalogs and have ordered some seeds. I look forward so much to planting that I called our local Walmart and asked when they would get their seeds in. :-D (Btw, I was told probably in another week or two). ghoghunter, I guess you and I are in the same zone, except I'm not sure if I'm in 6a or 6b. The map I found online didn't have a's and b's, just the numbers. Since I now know that it's okay to ws annuals, I'm going to do like you and sow all of my perennials and then ws my annuals. I have more perennials to sow than annuals and already sowed probably 3/4 of my perennials (none of my annuals, of course) and will be sowing some more perennials in another few weeks after I receive them in the mail. I still want to buy some red zinnias at Walmart or Lowe's when they get their seeds. I don't live too much on the wild side, so I think I'll wait another month to sow my annuals. :-D I just wonder why they saw on the packets to wait until danger of frost has passed to sow the annuals outside? Maybe the seed companies should read this forum. :) My list of perennials is fairly long and I don't want to bore anyone, but my annuals list only consists of zinnias, blue vervain, tropical milkweed, and hmmm...I know I have others but can't think of them right now. Thanks to all of you for your great help!

Hey neighbor! I'm just south of you in NC near Elizabeth City. Anyway, last year was my first year winter sowing. I didn't do many herbs other than basil (I waited on basil like I did the tomatoes and peppers). Oh, I did winter sow chamomile, corriander and I think borage in December with great results. I would think things like chives would be great for wsing. As for the tomatoes and peppers, I waited until mid to late February for those. Our weather here is so odd. One day you are in the 70's and the next night we are down in the high 20's. Because of this fact I waited for the peppers and tomatoes. Also, after peppers and tomatoes germinated, I did bring those jugs in on nights with freezing temps but the jugs went back out the next day. Others with more experience say they ws their tomatoes and peppers in the bitter cold. I just can't bring myself to do that. But hey, I grew ALL my own tomato plants last year even gave some away to friends and neighbors and sold some at our neighborhood yard sale. I had tomatoes out the whazoo all summer. My only "oh no's" last year was alyssum. Had some great plants going but they froze solid and died in that freeze we had mid February '07. Michelle

I have five kids (eldest is almost 12, youngest is almost 2) -- they are fantastic, incredible, wonderful creatures :-) We have four sons and a daughter, and our home is filled with the sounds of giggling and arguing and jumping and running and chitter-chatter. My husband and I go to bed every night thanking one another for the family we have. The first two boys (26 months apart) each arrived 11 weeks preterm (29 weeks' gestation) and required months of hospitalization in the NICU, including multiple surgeries, ambulance rides and long nights of wondering if they'd survive until morning. They finally became healthy little toddlers and I had my tubes tied, thinking there was no way I could bear to bring another baby into a terrifying scenario like that again. Time passed, and the yearning got only stronger for more children...I discovered the source of my obstetric problems (a congential gynecological defect) and underwent a grueling seven-hour surgery to repair my tubes and correct my dysfunctional anatomy. Went on to have three more scrumptious kids and now I have five healthy, gorgeous children. It's exhausting, yes. It sometimes causes a bit of financial juggling (I'm a SAHM). The volume in my house is often very high with clamors for my attention or frustrations among the siblings, but it's nothing compared to the joy of hearing them laugh uncontrollably during an afternoon of goofing off as a family. I don't worry about the teenage years -- we've done our best to lay the groundwork to raise our kids with enormous self-respect and self-esteem. They'll make mistakes, I'm sure of it, but hopefully they'll return to their core values and continue to grow into fine adults. Until then, we have years of baking cookies, chasing the dog around the backyard, monitoring homework and tidying up mountains of Hot Wheels and multi-colored wooden blocks with these sweet, funny little kids we're so lucky to call our own. It's all good. Create the family you want, and then pour your heart and soul into enjoying your blessings. If you already feel sad about *no more babies, ever* and the vasectomy hasn't even happened yet, you're clearly not ready to move on -- you'll know in your heart which path is right for you and your family. Warm regards.

I think it's probably more of a 'no-no' to prep over a dw if the dw is the only one in the kitchen and there is easily a different and better spot for it. The other argument I have heard is that your stomach might stick into the handle (??!) but I've never understood that one myself. Maybe possibly for morbidly obese people who'd have difficultly stirring a pot on a rangetop as well, but in real life as I'm sure you know it's totally fine. :) And no I don't think back to back dws would be terrible. Wouldn't be my preference because I spend a lot more time putting drippy stuff into a dishwasher than I spend getting a prep utensil from behind me on the range wall. But with a family of 5 and two dws running a lot of the time, there might be an advantage to having both dws outside of your prep zone and both the the cleanup side of the sink. I guess that's a long winded way of saying I don't think there's a best way to do it. Like you say, you just need to really think through how you and your family will use the kitchen space and design what works best for you. Good luck with your new kitchen, I'm sure it will turn out great however you decide.