Well, I finally did it...overseeded the 10-month-old TTPR/KBG lawn with TTTF and KBG...and it worked! So it can be done...but read on to find out how I did it...I was quite careful due to what people on here had told me about the PR messing with the germination of other seed due to allelopathy. I did this a little over a month ago now. I actually prefer the lawn consisting of a mixture of these three species, guess I'm odd since no one else here seems to like that three-way mix). We're at ~4.5 weeks now. The existing PR thankfully did not prevent or delay germination of the new seed. The TTTF started to come up within 6 days, and was fully up in about 3 weeks time. The KBG just started coming up last week. Perhaps it wored so well because the PR was only 10 months old. Or b/c it got heat stressed. Or b/c I mowed it to ~1.8 inches before hand on the last mowing before starting the project. I also thinned the lawn fairly drastically prior to over seeding, by utilizing heavy core aeration (three passes) and also verticutting (two passes). I brought up a lot of dead and living grass in the process. I'm currently touching up the few spots that need it with a little extra seed. Here are some photos of the project (same area plus or minus a foot or two) at the various stages for reference (I do consider it a successful outcome even if it was my first time doing it and I learned a lot!): The top photo is the before photo, taken on 8/17/12. The middle photo is about ten days after overseeding, on 8/29/12. You can see the existing PR and KBG, and the TTTF was in the midst of germination, but is hard to see in the pic. And the bottom photo is from 9/21/12, taken right after the first mowing and application of starter fertilizer (I decided to hold off on the fertilizer until after germination so as to slow the growth of the existing grass to prevent it from overtaking the new grass. I'm glad I did this). Here is what I used for overseeding: -TTTF (approx 75% Firecracker LS and 25% Bullseye) -KBG (approx 33% each of America, Bewitched, and Rugby II) -A low amount of the existing TTPR seed blend (see below) was mixed with the fescue and KBG seed; I only used this in those areas that were really bare after the verticutting/raking. In this way, I created a uniform lawn in the bare spots that blended with the old grass. (The existing lawn prior to overseeding was a blend of KBG and three cultivars of TTPR sourced from from Allied Seed: ASP6005, ASP6002, and ASP 6001.)

countrygirl and judy - could i have a little gus b too?? I hope you find something that you do not have to take from me. i can probably take a few smaller pots off your hands. tamelask I have some bamboo(not sure what kind yet) and/or I can bring you some red dianthus slips for the alstromeria Laura I have the tall white phlox pulled for you. thank you for the wood spurge. Ratgirl I looked and I have a several hostas. what do you already have? see you all tomorrow.

Hi Signet, I've potted up an alcea rugosa (?) butter yellow hollyhock with fig leaves for you. My downy wood mint seems to have disappeared too. I'm half way through potting things up :-p I've been potting up other stuff for my plant sale the following week. Thank goodness for my new potting bench that Matt finished on Saturday!! Now I can do 30 pots in the time it used to take to do 10 _and_ still be able to stand up straight! Thankfully the next half of the potting up is the easy stuff. The 17 small plants from cuttings which won't take long once I get my kitchen back. Looks like it won't be so crazy hot tomorrow, and even a bit cloudy, so I can send the houseplants outside for their summer vacations! Because of the fear of lily beetles, I'll just bag the lilies the day before the swap with no dirt attached. I had hoped to get the cannas and dahlias planted this weekend, but it was too hot, and the weeds in that section of the front yard have gone nuts. WMC1 & NavyGirl01 - is their anything on my list that you would trade for a green or a non pink echinacea? I just found a Stokes blue aster as I was weeding & digging up the Yellow toadflax for Lilac.

I'll start by qualifying my response that I can't recommend columnar trees specifically since I don't grow any, but will add what I notice about color. Here oak autumn foliage color seems to vary year to year more than most trees, even with named varieties, though this fall they were almost as bright as some of the maples. To my mind, they do have the advantage of being one of the later turning trees and so extend the color season by a couple of weeks. Other later-turning trees with more consistent color include American beech (which turn from the outside of the tree inward, a lovely effect that often gives it chestnut, gold, and chartreuse simultaneously), birches, and aspen, both of which turn gold. I particularly like yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) and river birch (Betula nigra) both of which have lovely form, interesting bark, and seem much loved by the smaller birds. Red maples and their crosses (the crosses such as A. freemanii turn later than straight red maples IME) and sugar maples turn bright colors consistently, but there is a fair variety to the actual color based on the tree's genetics and its location in sun vs. shade. More red to orange occurs in more sun IME. I also find that the red maple crosses and the sugar maples tend to hold their leaves longer than the straight red maples here. I like pagoda dogwoods (Cornus alternifolia) a lot - they grow wild here in everything from full sun to full shade, and turn nice, though not stunning, colors regardless. They are the only tree dogwood that will be consistently hardy for you, though the tree's provenance may be important to how well it does. I have three Golden Shadows, the trade name for 'W. Stackman', that are about 5 years old, and they haven't grown much, so I am not sure if they are perhaps a bit less cold tolerant than the species or if the half shade that they are in has too little light for their liking this far north. I find the straight species to be a rapid grower, over my head in 4 years from seed. The have a short season of lacy spring flowers, followed by berries that slowly turn from green to pinkish to more purple to end a purple-black with bright red stems. The birds keep the tree hopping with activity when the berries are ripe, and then after the fall color, the winter branch structure is graceful layers. If you end up needing to replace the junipers, there are some varieties of blue spruce shorter than full tree height that may do well for you there if you want that bluish color. Even though western, blue spruce seem to do better with our humidity than J. scopulorum. Or put it a row of Fothergilla which has great spring flowers, stunning fall color, and is dense enough May-October to make an excellent screen if you use one of the taller ones such as F. major. Its slight suckering tendencies and dense branching will even help with winter screening. To save yourself having to add your location to posts or us having to ask and then hunt for the info, you might want to put your location and zone in your profile so that it shows up next to your name whenever you post. Here's how: Go to Your Houzz in upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone. If you add info on your state or the nearest large city you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures. Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.