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My husband and I have turned a 2/3 acre Illinois suburban home built on a corn field into a lush woodland garden. He plants the trees and bushes, I do the smaller plants. We have been learning a lot by trial and error, the local college horticulture sale, and a neighbor who is an incredible gardener.

But now we are moving to the mountains of North Carolina, Marshall County. The house is on 9 acres, 1 acre cleared. (After a dream that the new owners pulled out the Joe Pyeweed, I've brought many plants down to NC).

The biggest challenge is getting rid of poison ivy that has grown where the forest has been disturbed. I've dealt with 2 small breakouts and, thanks to your forums, now have the correct gloves and Round-up to really do this correctly.

We have large terraced and banked areas (now bad grass) which we want to plant with sustaining flowers, 8 fruit trees on grass that we want to make meadow or something other than grass, and an area with beautiful oak trees that we want to expand (plant more oaks).

We want to help large parts of the cleared yard return to woodland. So far we have transplanted about 22 wildflowers taking root from the path in the woods area to the yard area. My biggest dream is to recreate some areas we saw hiking Standing Indian Mountain in NC. A whole side of the mountain was Solomon's seal, another ferns, another Galax -- all for as far as we could see under the canopy of trees. So beautiful.

We have 3 grown up city dwelling kids -- in Detroit, Chicago, and NYC -- who are the love of our lives. We also have a wonderful pointer/mix dog and 3 indoor cats.

When I was 10, Daddy gave me a plum tree for my birthday. Best presents have always been rocks -- family members have brought them from all over as gifts for me :-) We moved them from Illinois to NC.

I find myself reading the discussions on gardenweb instead of doing my chores...