I'm hoping you're wrong about Honeycrisp. :-) I have a tree that I planted a couple years ago. I don't care if they're huge fruit as long as they produce. I have probably 12 to 15 different apple trees now. All planted in the last 5 years or so. None producing yet. Biggest trees so far are Gala and Fuji. Nice branching and height. I'm hoping this is the year I get at least one fruit. As for shipping costs, look at gas prices and compare what you'd spend riding around just looking for them. I figure that's just part of the cost of having fruit trees in your back yard. I ordered a bunch from Stark Brothers first. Those are the oldest trees. I lost the figs, a pawpaw, and a cherry tree so far. Most of the rest are looking good. And I have ordered from Willis Orchard Co. out of lower GA, and they had decent trees except the pomegranates. And I got some from One Green World in either Oregon or Washington. That's where I got the red meat apples. But the plants all looked good when they arrived. Stark Brothers have the best guarantee. Willis requires you send the dead trees back, and OGW doesn't have a guarantee. I think that's right. I had a couple of service trees that didn't survive and they wouldn't replace them. Live and learn. I'd still order from any of them again. Check on Craig's List if you really want local trees. Occasionally there's someone over in Piedmont or Pelzer that has fruit trees for sale. I don't remember if they have apple trees specifically, but they have a good selection once they start offering them.

What a lovely house!! It sounds like you have an image in your mind about how you want things but the landscaper has a different image of 'how it should be'. No matter how pleasing to the eye the final outcome may be, if it's nothing like what you see in your mind you won't be happy with it. If you look at the list and think ... "Well, it's nice, I suppose. It'll look pretty, I guess.", ditch it. You don't want to sit on your porch with a good cup of coffee and think "I wish...". You want to sit on the porch and think "My hummingbirds really love that little flower- so do I." To me, there's two types of landscaping. Get the job done and ooh-la-la. I have a steep slope where nothing wants to grow and I'm worried about erosion. It's totally a get-the-job-done type of project. Otherwise, I go for ooh-la-la. Specifically, MY ooh-la-la. It's MY yard and though I'm not above distant dreams of 'envy of the neighborhood', my goal is to please me. Your house is ooh-la-la. It deserves an ooh-la-la yard, lol. Were it me, and repeating some already given good advice, I would... -Wait. It's easier to plant what one wants then rip out what somone else wanted and replant. If everything is done when you move in, within a year you'll wish plant 'a' was a little more to the left, plant 'b' was in the back instead of the front, and that plant 'c' had never set root on your land, lol. Where you think you want an herb garden now may change after you've lived there a bit. -I love the idea of a curved walkway. Instead of having the landscaper work on the actual planting, have them work on the bones of the yard instead. Walkway, driveway, etc. As suggested by someone else, have them mulch the rest. -I also think you can find a lilac that will be happy in your yard. I've lived all over the east coast have seen lilacs everywhere. In fact, when I lived in Conway, SC we had the biggest lilac bush I've ever seen growing near the front porch. -Have the landscaper test the soil. I live on a lot that was once forest and I have fairly acidic soil. I try to work with that as much as possible. I don't have the inclination to go against nature and fight a never-ending pH battle with my yard. -Once you know what soil you're working with, look up local wildflowers. I live in NC and NC native plant society has a webpage that lists all the common plants of NC, whether or not they are native, where they commonly grow, and has a huge photo gallery. I really like that I can browse the photos since 'that little blue flower' may have several names. It also lists the invasives which is good to know. Even if you don't want to plant all wildflowers, it will give you a good idea of what species grows well in your area. -Work with a local nursery. The list you have looks like it came out of a "Landscaping with Lowe's" catalog. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of plants from Lowe's. However most of my ooh-la-la plants came from the local nursery.

Actually, I was researching a similar problem recently. I'm a bit farther North then you, but I think northern plants survive better in the south then vice versa. Very Salt Tolerant and Edible: Beach Plum (very salt tolerant and makes sporadic crops of plums) Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) (edible berries) Virginia Rose. (Very tough, and rose hips are edible) Beach Pea (some species, for some values of the word "edible") Somewhat Salt Tolerant and Edible Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)(weedy shrub with edible berries) red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) Large Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) Vaccinium angustifolium � common lowbush blueberry highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) Most of these are from my research. I do have experience that Rugosa Rose can thrive in areas that get salt spray, but that is invasive. While not edible (to humans) I hear Bayberry thrives on salt, and have seen it in spots I know get salt spray. I hear your local variety is Morella caroloniensis. This link has some ideas...but check to make sure these plants can survive that far south. http://www.mass.gov/czm/coastal_landscaping/plants.htm

Our plow guy came early this morning. Yeah! He plowed 4 inches of new snow out of the driveway. Another 3 inches fell. I just finished shoveling that. Ok, I've had my fill of snow. When does winter start?! Here's what we're in for tonight. I live in the southern part of Onondaga County. I think I'm too late to pick that kohlrabi in the garden! Issued by The National Weather Service Binghamton, NY 10:42 am EST, Sat., Nov. 22, 2008 ... LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST SUNDAY... A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST SUNDAY. BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT MUCH OF CAYUGA COUNTY... AND MAINLY THE SOUTHERN HALVES OF ONONDAGA AND MADISON COUNTIES THROUGH THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HOURS TODAY. ALTHOUGH SNOWFALL WILL NOT BE CONTINUOUS IN NATURE IN ANY ONE AREA... OCCASIONAL SQUALLS COULD PRODUCE SNOWFALL RATES OF AS MUCH AS AN INCH PER HOUR. IN GENERAL... ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 1 TO 3 INCHES THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING... WITH AS MUCH AS 5 OR 6 INCHES IN AREAS WHERE NARROW BANDS ARE MOST PERSISTENT. THIS WILL BRING WEEKEND STORM TOTALS TO OVER A FOOT IN SOME PLACES. LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY SUNDAY... LAKE EFFECT SNOWS ARE EXPECTED TO SHIFT NORTHWARD. AS A RESULT... MORE CONCENTRATED BANDS SHOULD BEGIN TO IMPACT THE THRUWAY CORRIDOR ONCE AGAIN... INCLUDING BALDWINSVILLE... THE SYRACUSE METRO AREA... CHITTENANGO... AND THE TOWN OF ONEIDA. SEVERAL INCHES OF ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL ARE ANTICIPATED IN THESE LOCALES... WITH AGAIN WEEKEND STORM TOTALS APPROACHING A FOOT LOCALLY. A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF LAKE- EFFECT SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE. LAKE-EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS TYPICALLY ALIGN THEMSELVES IN BANDS AND WILL LIKELY BE INTENSE ENOUGH TO DROP 1 TO SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW PER HOUR FOR SEVERAL HOURS. VISIBILITIES VARY GREATLY AND CAN DROP TO ZERO WITHIN MINUTES. TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. COMMERCE COULD BE SEVERELY IMPACTED. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT... FOOD... AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. More Information ... LAKE EFFECT SNOWS TO CONTINUE THIS WEEKEND... VERY COLD AIR CROSSING THE GREAT LAKES WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW INTO SUNDAY. THE HEAVIEST SNOWS ARE EXPECTED TO FALL FROM THE NORTHERN FINGER LAKES REGION... ACROSS ONONDAGA COUNTY... AND INTO MADISON COUNTY.