Tex - thank you for the website. The selection of natives looks great. I'll have to find other people to go in with me. Buying in lots of 25 is a little bit high for our acre. I can see DH's face if I tell him we have 75 new shrubs to plant. BTW I went on a garden tour in Corrales a month ago. It's about 15 miles from us, but a completely different landscape. No chamisa, cholla or yucca constricta. But sand sage is everywhere! I thought of you as I looked at whole hillsides of it. Shooting the rats isn't an option. I'm sure we'd be arrested if anyone thought we were firing off guns. I have terrible eyesight so I'm not touching a gun any time. Sandyslopes - I would not put out poison. There is too much wildlife here and we depend on ground water for survival. I'm not going to trap the rats and move them to some other unfortunate person's land. But honestly I can't think of a single good reason to keep the rats alive. They're very destructive. DH's car repair ran to almost $3000. They harbor all kind of other pests like fleas and ticks. They're probably food for predators but there are lots of other prey, like the hundreds of rabbits on our property. I'm considering putting out water, if only to keep my plants alive. We already keep water out for the birds in the walled garden. The deer have completely wiped out our apricots, cherries and grapes. They check on the apples regularly. We see whole families grazing on our land. I doubt this is just for water. This is a harsh climate and I don't blame them for taking what is available. But eating six wine cups, three agastaches and several poppies and coneflowers we had planted in painstakingly amended caliche is more than I can tolerate. Cheryl

Fantastic list of seeds! I think it is just great that you have focused your life on nature at such a young age. I too would love to have 10 (maybe 5) acres someday to plant a wonderland of natives plants, and am already doing that on 1.25 acres. Difference is, my interest didn't come into sharp focus until age 45. :) There are quite a few seeds on this list I am interested in, and I checked your want list and I have a few on that list. Maybe we can do a trade this fall? Just a note - on your want list is Cynanchum louiseae - this is an extremely invasive non-native vine that is becoming a serious problem in the Northeast US. And it has the additional problem that Monarch butterflies will "sense" it is in the Milkweed family, lay eggs on it, and then it will kill the caterpillars because it is toxic to Monarch larvae.

Hi again, If you are interested in some of my seeds, please give me your trade list and your email address so that I can contact you. I am not interested in SASE. I donate most of my extra seeds to my "Seeds for Classrooms" program that I arranged with the local school board and schools (6,000 pkg a couple months ago). Other extra "useful" vegetable and herb seeds get donated to disaster relief organizations. Hope to hear from you about your seeds for zone 3 hardy and interesting perennials and shrubs. Happy Gardening

Yes...a Nebraska native too :) You may enjoy this site... Vera Here is a link that might be useful: Nebraska Flora Search