I would invest in some ledge rock and hardwood mulch: Al

Thanks for all the words of encouragement! Debbie, I planted a William Baffin climbing rose on one side of the arbor, and hope to get a coordinating clematis in this year. (Suggestions, anyone?) The rose was a bare root and VERY slow to get started, but at the end of summer was beginning to show some vigor. I'm hoping this summer it will make some vertical progress! Unexpectedly (tho predictably) we had a lot of scattered-bird-seed-volunteer sunflowers on the one side, so I didn't have the space to put anything else. They were really pretty, but I might have to pull the seedlings this year so that something more permanent can get established. Overall, I think the perennials will be much fuller this year. There are hollyhocks, 2 varieties of garden phlox, coreopsis, sidalcea, and daisies that should perk up once all this snow melts!

Well, for the last three years, I've done about nothing but plant trees, shrubs, flowers, and edibles, but this is basically what I have, although not all are ready to eat yet: 2 hamlin orange trees, 1 unknown sweet orange, 1 trifoliate orange (good for marmalades, james, and in teas), 1 meiwa kumquat, 1 ponderosa lemon, 1 variegated pink eureka lemon, 3 meyers lemons, 2 sambo lemons, 1 duncan grapefruit, 1 ruby red grapefruit, 1 persian lime, 2 honeybell tangerines, 2 'wonderful' pomegranates, 1 jujube, 1 golden dorsett apple, 1 anna apple, 1 ein shemer apple, 1 unknown apple, 2 jelly palms, several fig trees, 2 dunstan chestnuts, three pecans (unknown variety), 1 pineapple guava, 3 pawpaws, 1 mayhaw, 2 white mulberries, 2 himalayan mulberries, 2 sweet olive tea trees (used for fragrancing teas - so i guess you could technically call it edible - i love the apricot fragrance they put out), surinam cherry, several bananas, dewberries, tart blackberries, muscadine grapevines, purple passionfruit, micharo, loquat, japanese raisen tree, 2 blueberry bushes, 1 floridahome peach, 1 nectarine, 1 pineapple pear, 1 baldwin pear, Giant fuyu persimmon, wild persimmons, tanenashi persimmon (we've been making persimmon breads and such with these)... Other things I'm experimenting with are mangos, papayas, and carambolas. We had tons of papayas in bloom earlier this year, but a big storm came and wiped them all out, unfortunately. So, don't plant papayas in low areas :/ As far as future plantings, I'm probably only going to try a handful of other citrus trees, like pomellos, marsh white grapefruit, ugli tangelos, honeybell tangelos (not to be mistaken for honeybell tangerines), and orlando tangelo. I'd also like to get some more of the Israeli apple trees and maybe the UF tropic sweet variety. I may also need pollinators for my pineapple guava and jujube. Also, we planted some quince seeds this year and hope to at least get an ornamental quince going. I'd also like to get a few more pomegranate varieties. If you're in to gardening like I am, there's never an end :/

I have envelopes packed and will be mailing seeds to the following individuals tomorrow morning: * dirtdaddy * phpete * roadkill * roper2008 * sambo725 * sproutshonor That's it for envelopes to be mailed back. Thanks everyone for your participation and for sending in such a great variety of seeds. Have a Merry Christmas everybody! ....Heather