lets think outside your box for a moment ... have you considered.. simply letting it be.. and watching mother nature renew the area.. subject to learning about the carp trees.. and simply discouraging weed plants ... [it doesnt sound like this is a sight block area] you have offered nothing more.. in regard to facts.. other than there is a hole.. and i must fill it ... i encourage you to enjoy this major change to your landscape.. and not hurry to 'fix' it ... tree planting time is either fall or spring ... not july/august.. so dont run out there now to plant trees ... your county extension office.. probably has a handy pamphlet about such .. ken ps: what would i discourage.. seedling tulip poplars.. lol ... cottonwood.. buckthorn ... etc ... and the list could go on for miles ... any chance at a picture??? sounds pretty cool.. just the way it is ...

We went ahead and bought 25 red twig dogwood and 25 aronia (red chokecherry). They are small, but they wlll grow. We had spicebush from elsewhere already planted so couldn't deal with a lot more. Chris, if you want red chokecherry, I'd be happy to give you five or ten of those. They will be arriving on the 18th April. Lisa

I am here to tell 'ya, that Round-Up is not going to kill all the poison ivy. It's amazing stuff. Lasagna gardening only forces the roots to seek light by going around the edges of the bed. Do start with Round-up. Kill what you can see. After it's dead, garb yourself in a space suit. Bread bags up your arms and over your gloves and hip waders are also a good idea. Latex gloves are not because they breathe. Gently pull the ivy up, being careful to let the vines underground come up and out of the soil. Don't break them if you don't have to, because they make more. Like tentacles. If you're pulling them down make certain it and parts of the ivy don't fall on you. The hair-like roots will get into your clothes and hair and be devestating. Note that I get poison ivy from the dirt the roots have been in, so if you get showered with the dirt, use liquid dish washing soap that has a degreaser in it (Dawn works well) or Lava soap all over your entire body as soon as possible. Remember that the dirt can get down your collar, into the perspiration on your torso, which spreads this evil oil. Repeat this procedure in 2 weeks, where you'll be shocked to find even more ivy. Repeate for at least 2 years. Oh - before you wash with degreasing soap, don't forget to burn your clothes, or at least washing them immediately with degreasing laundry soap. Don't forget your shoes!!! Anything you touch, eye glasses, sun glasses, yard tools, etc., can get the oil on it. A thimbleful will "infect" the entire United States. It was a component in mustard gas during WWI, if that tells you how nasty it is. Just my take on poison ivy, with which I'm an extreme vetern. Christine

It sounded like a good idea, Greg, but when I went into it I found it had been hijacked by American sites - ebay, michigan bulbs, sites which promised local delivery if only I could provide them with my zip code, and sites which promised to tell me everything I needed to know about travel to Australia. Not an Australian site to be found! A search found that ASGAP has a list, but it contains only two nurseries  Koala, and Ozgap  their addresses only available by going into their sites, but Koala has an 02 phone number. SGAP Qld has a very good list. www.sgapqld.org.au/growers.html I suggest the following for Toowoomba and Darling Downs growers. They would also interest visitors from the east, especially those looking for frost resistant varieties of plants. Brisbane supplies often come from parents in frost-free areas, and local variants of the same species can be better in this respect. These nurseries are not always open for customers, as their managers have other jobs as well, so you need to telephone to make sure someone will be there when you go. However they both have a big range of local natives. Future Forests, Phone: 07 4634 5033, 488 Greenwattle Street, Toowoomba, (Off Tayler Street, close to the airport), contact: Brett Dreier Crows Nest Community Nursery, Tel: 07 4698 1155 Crows Nest Council, or 041 719 3665, Stephen Plant, Depot Road, Crows Nest Industrial Estate., Crows Nest. (Depot Road is south of Crows Nest, off the eastern side of the New England Highway) Greening Australia has a very frustrating website. The "brief" which appears on the Google page tells us they have 15 nurseries, and a network of 32 seedbanks. Another site tells us that they have a list of 300 Victorian native nurseries. I was unable to find any reference to them, let alone a list, by entering the site. All the Google links I tried led to similar dead ends. For example the Greening Australia site has a link which claims to be to the "Florabank Directory", with a list of seed suppliers, but following it led only to a page allowing us to add our names to the list!!!!! There are other sites with nursery lists for other states which can be found by a search,though I noticed them for the Big 3 Eastern States only, in the time I had. Tere donÂt appear to be any easily accessible or fairly complete lists of nurseries for all states and territories anywhere. IÂve just had a very frustrating time looking! Has anyone else any better suggestions for contacts? Trish