Yesterday it rained all day, much of the time really pouring. I did not even go outside, it was so nasty. This morning when I went to visit the Stocktank I saw that all the Azolla I had was washed away. I had it in one of those floating rings. I few specks did survive here and there floating around the pond. I am thinking maybe the Azolla is for ponds with still water? My water is not still. My pump puts out a nice splash gush that reminds me of an underground spring bubbling up. The fish love to play around in there but none of the surface is still, it has quite a bit of up and down movement in it. Since its above ground and oval 4 feet by 7 feet the whole things reminds me of a boat. My mailman called it a bathtub :-(( I like the boat immage much better.

Sarah, Well up here in Tallahassee is not as lush as downstate! And right now our place is looking a little bare. We're close to finishing our new house and just a few weeks ago dug out and transplanted most of the landscape plants around the old house and spread them out around the new house. Some of the plants you list would become extremely invasive if we grew them here since they do not get killed back in the winter. But the advantage is unless we have a really unusually cold winter most would survive without having to bring them in - good thing cause I don't want to have to deal with that. Water hyacinth is a terrible plague in Florida waters - but in a contained place away from "wild" water, it should not be a problem. And as it gets too crowded, I can add the extras to my compost heap! The spot where I want to put the tank is a mild slope. If we dig out the uphill side enough to level it, it will be about a foot in the ground while the downhill side would be completely above ground - I think. I could simply plant around the sides, but I wouldn't care if it shows. Sounds like less work, which is a good thing. ;) We do have a large wildlife pond - about 1/4 to 1/3 acre - out in our woods. But it is not visible from the house and we've let it go totally wild - the gators love it. I want a smaller pond for the birds and smaller animals. The wild turkeys, various small birds, deer and fox already rely on our horse water troughs for water on the upland part of our farm. Just to explain - we have a 60 acre horse farm. The upper part is on a 200 foot hill, pretty good for Florida, and we have a 50 foot slope to the wetland woods at the back of the farm. The new house is close to the crest of the hill with a view across the wooded pastures. But the hill tends to be pretty dry, so just providing water attracts a lot of wildlife. Anne Here is a link that might be useful: Woodswell Farm

I miss Dan, too! I last exchanged emails with him about a year ago and he indicated he'd be back on GW soon. Well, he's not! His advice was particularly valuable to me since he lives (or lived) here and understands gardening at altitude with 13 inches of annual precip. in clay soil. Since we're up to a whopping 9 inches so far this year, I could have used his insights! He knows what he's talking about, helped me tremendously and kept me from making a few mistakes. But, yes, he was snippy sometimes! ilovemytrees, I planted a Carpinus betulus 'Fastiagata' 6 weeks ago, so I'm glad to hear you adore it. I love it's form and now that the leaves have dropped, it's just loaded with buds, so I have high hopes for it's survival. From what I've been able to gather it's ultimate size at maturity is 40' X 30', so not super skinny! Barb

How about a bamboo grove. There are many kinds of bamboo but the tropical type is a good choice because doesn't "run", it stays in a clump. Within the tropical bamboo family you can choose types that have leaves on their lower branches (sounds like what you want) other types have the leaves at the top only. In your zone you should have a lot of suitable tropical bamboo choices. The reason I have begun adding bamboo to my garden is to block the ugly side of the house next door and I don't have a lot of room to do so with trees which could be a problem in hurricanes. Good luck. P.S. It isn't cheap. If the price is low it probably is the running type because it grows really fast. The tropical kind grows slower and is more difficult to propagate so more expensive.