I just read this morning in a little booklet called "No Toil Power Soil" that you can turn your large containers into a lasagna type garden. "Start by covering the drainage holes with several thin layers of wet newspaper. In very large pots, you can fill the bottom with empty cans turned UPSIDE DOWN...next add a 2-inch layer of compost, then a layer of potting soil, then more compost, then more potting soil yada, yada, yada. Pull back the layers and pop in your plants. After planting, cover the soil with a mulch to preserve moisture. Later in the season you can fertilize with compost tea or liquid fertilizer of some sort. I have yet to try that in particular, but it sounds like a very good idea. In my big containers, I use large chunks of landscaping mulch in the bottom third of the pot. It has always worked for me. The roots go down into that mulch and seem to like it. Hope this works for you.

They grow like weeds around here. They fall easily when the hurricanes hit. One almost fell on the play yard. They grow sooooooo tall and I'm not sure how much oxygen they actually produce with pine needles atm just the tops of their trunk. They're fine in a forest setting but totally a waste in the backyard. There are some old neighborhoods(probably from the 70's) around here that removed just enough to build the house so the whole neighborhood is nestled inside a forest. It's a very cozy bird haven BUT dark and not much grows in their yards, definitely not enough light for roses. Their yards are usually covered with pine needles. We use them for mulch on the beds but I wouldn't want them all over the lawn. I'm sure it feels like a dungeon inside those houses. I need sunlight to get up in the morning. I think it's o.k. clear the lot before you build your house and then selectively plant oxygen producing trees which won't fall on the house.

georgia_on_my_mind and Karyn, try finding 'Zanzibarensis Ricinus' Castor Bean seeds, they are a mammoth variety ..... then plant them near a Brug or feed them like a Brug. I had one here a few years ago that I would swear was the 'bean plant' in the Jack in the Bean stalk nursery rhyme and even in my zone it grew to the height of the small bathroom window on the second story on my house. ( likely about 15' tall). This is where I got mine from: Ricinus Castor Bean Zanzibariensis and yes, we needed a saw or an axe to chop down the plant at the end of the season.

Oh Jean, you're right, I didn't say about the Asiatics, did I? :) I didn't get any. Didn't like any they had and just as Rita said, they were too expensive. Thought I could do better online. I really would have thought this place would have their dls WAY overpriced (like everything else there), but most of the stuff I got was $7!!! The most I paid was $15 (for Ed Brown and Big Smile). That's why I went a little beserk, I guess. :) Rita, yes, my plans just did expand a little. LOL These will all be together in a new area that wasn't going to be dls, but hey, I'm flexible. :D