The big advantage of buying at a local nursery is that you get to pick out just that plant that appeals to your aesthetics as opposed to the one sitting next to it. But I pretty much agree with Ken: buy locally what's available from local nurseries, mail order what you can't find. I do think mail order plants tend to be smaller but after a season or two they catch up. Then again, most of my mail ordering is done in the spring and a lot of it comes dormant. And you need to figure in the shipping costs when you price things out. The last couple of years, shipping has really gotten out of hand at some mail order places. Great local nurseries often offer easier to use guarantees and speaking with their full time staff offers a wealth of information about how that plant does in the local area. And nothing beats seeing a plant in person for deciding if you like the color, leaves, etc. The Washington DC-Baltimore region is blessed with a number of great nurseries of the "marvelous" kind. And if you are willing to make a day trip of it, there are even more within reach. And from early March to June, there are a huge number of local plant sales ranging from garden club�s to the rarified ones like at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington DC and Paca House in Annapolis. Over on the Mid Atlantic Gardening Forum, you can find several long-time threads on local nurseries like the one on the link here. And that thread doesn't mention about half of the nurseries worth visiting. There are even more if you search by local nursery and a particular type of plant--evergreens, azaleas, etc. Almost all of the nurseries will have "going into winter" sales with great bargains. You have to go with an open mind because you don�t know what will be left. But last fall I got six perennials at the Beltsville, MD, Behnke�s clearance sale (not far from you in Annapolis) for $4 each, the cheapest of which was regularly $15. One caution on mail ordering: If you aren't "recently" familiar with a mail order company, always check it out on Garden Watchdog (just do a Google search on the name and the website will come up; Gardenweb won't allow links to anything on D*vesgarden). The website will give you a good idea of the quality of mail order company's plants and customer service. For example, a couple of years ago I ordered some hard to find stuff from what had been a great mail order nursery�Wayside Gardens. Turned out terribly. When I posted a review on Watchdog, turned out I wasn�t alone in finding that they were no longer a great plant place. Wish I checked before I ordered. Of course, my favorite way of acquiring plants is swapping, either locally or by mail. That has the lowest costs (which fits my budget really well) and you would be amazed what people will offer. Check out the Plant Exchange Forum on Garden Web and the exchange pages on specialty forums. Wow, I can�t believe I wrote all of this. Back to my day job. Here is a link that might be useful: Just one of many threads oon great local nurseries

From a business standpoint, there is no such thing as better or best. Just as all businesses, nurseries and garden centers fall into three categories, as far as their focus goes. There is the "best value" nursery -- where good buys are the norm but don't expect anything special in the way of service or innovative plants/products. The "big box" stores fall into this. There is the "customer intimate" nursery, where highly trained salespeople help you select plants, solve garden problems and sometimes draw a little garden plan for you. You can expect to pay higher here. Then there is the "innovative" nursery where intense plantspeople take your hand through a stuffed maze of exotic, new and otherwise different plants. You can expect to pay higher here. And you don't necessarily expect total service here. The successful nurseries emphasize one focus. When they try to do more than one, they lose money (you business people know why). Sure, there's a little crossover but it's rare. If you want to save money, go to a "best value" kind of nursery. Be prepared -- know what you're going to buy beforehand, know when the nursery gets delivery of the type of plant you want and know quality. Big box stores don't always buy from the better wholesalers. If it's price you're after, that makes these nurseries "better". If you need technical or design advice, go to the "customer intimate" kind of nursery. Some independents know their stuff (some don't!) and the better garden center chains (e.g., Armstrong) know their stuff. Few are perfect, though. Nurseries are notoriously poor employers when it comes to paychecks. The problem is, they keep trying to offer the low prices found at the "best value" places. If you want some hot new plants, find the innovators. And pay "what the market will bear" for the stuff that you absolutely won't find anywhere else. I'm a champion of "mom and pop" businesses -- but in our area, the "mom and pop" nursery owners actually live 25-50 miles from their stores and local market. And the plants found at these nurseries come from even farther away. It's rare nopwadays that nurseries (which was the name for those who actually were "nurseries" -- places that grew plants) have their own stock. The industry is specialized and there are retailers and wholesale growers and be growers who retail are mostly gone. I've found that it's also rare that independent retailers sell only "what will grow in your area". Almost all have succumbed to selling what the customers want (albeit wrong so many times). Which is not to say that there aren't any. One of the best nurseries here on the Central Coast is a part of a "Farm Supply" store. I rarely recommend the independents around here. And I would like to!!!!!! Bottom line, it goes back to what you want: best value, customer service or innovation. Joe

We do all kinds of kebabs, using whatever meats and veggies we have on hand. I also do whole chickens, turkeys and roasts, Potatoes in foil: diced potatoes, butter, herbs, sometimes some cheese, garlic and onion, too. Salmon is one of my favorites, usually just grilled with a little lemon pepper. This is an oven recipe but I make it on the grill, too. Salmon Baked in Foil 1 (6-8lb.) salmon, cleaned 1c sliced carrots 1c sliced onion 1c sliced celery 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves salt to taste 1/8tsp coarse ground black pepper 1 clove garlic, minced 1 bay leaf 2c dry white wine Preheat oven to 400 degreesF. Place large piece of heavy duty foil (enough to wrap entire fish) on jelly roll pan. Place salmon on foil and add remaining ingredients. Wrap and seal foil tightly around salmon. Bake 50-60 minutes or until fish is opaque and fin can be easily removed. Remove from oven and col. Skin and bone fish and serve with Hollandaise or sauce of your choice. Serves 8-10 Linda

First, there is no St Augustine seed, so you can't do that. Second, once the sprinkler system goes, you have to buy a hose or two and a sprinkler. I recommend the turbo style oscillator sprinklers because they apply the most even pattern and coverage along with a very slow application so the water can sink in. I have a house now where I turned off the automatic system and use only oscillator hoses. They cover the area much better than the center-throw pop-up heads. St Augustine is pretty easy to grow once you figure out how to water it. Like every other grass out there, it needs to be watered deeply and infrequently. Deeply means 1 full inch every time you water. If it rains 1/2 inch, then you need to add another 1/2 inch. Infrequently means no more than once per week in the hottest heat of summer and less often when the weather is cooler. With temps in the 80s, you should go up to 2 weeks between deep watering. Most people in Florida seem to want to water a few minutes every day. That process develops grass with very short roots. Short roots are intolerant of drought, so if you miss a couple days of watering, or if one of your sprinklers clogs or breaks and you don't notice it, you could lose a lot of your lawn. But if you are deep watering on an infrequent basis, the roots will develop deeper down into the soil/sand and be much more tolerant of head and drought. Also weed seeds practically rely on daily watering to germinate. When you deny the water from the weed seeds, they will not germinate and develop into plants. So you can almost eliminate new weeds without any preemergent or other herbicides simply by controlling your watering. Mowing Always mow St Augustine at your mower's highest setting. There is never any reason to lower the deck. Tall St Aug provides shade to other plants, grasses, and weeds that might be trying to grow. Dense St Augustine will be the dominant plant in your yard. Fertilizing With your sand I strongly urge you to use nothing but organic fertilizers on the lawn. These will build the organic matter in your soil rather than deplete it like chemical fertilizers. Organic fertilizers feed real food to the microbes living in the ground. Those are the organic matter that matter. My preference for organic fertilizer is either alfalfa pellets (Rabbit Chow) or ground corn meal. Corn is very inexpensive this year...at least in my neighborhood. Corn is also relatively low in protein, so I tend to use it fairly heavy at 20 to 25 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Alfalfa pellets can be used at 20 pounds per 1,000. Call your local feed store to get prices for a 50-pound bag. Be sure they understand you want alfalfa pellets and not bales of alfalfa hay. And be sure they know you want corn meal and not corn GLUTEN meal and not deer corn. I start fertilizing with organics about now then repeat on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you do those three things, and note that you were going to mow and water anyway, the only cost is for the fertilizer. You should have minimal weeds. Now...how do you get St Augustine reestablished in the yard. Since you don't have money then you must have patience. If you can afford to buy a few pieces of sod, you can reestablish the lawn in a couple of seasons. Most recently I've used Floratam, but you have to use what you can get locally. I like Floratam because it seems to grow faster than disease spreads. It is a dense turf that loves full sun. Prepare the ground by clearing out anything that's growing and place the sod down. Start watering it lightly at breakfast, lunch, and dinner time every day for 2-3 weeks until the roots have grown down into the soil underneath. Once that happens you can start to water longer and less often. You're trying to develop those deeper roots. You don't have to water the weeds at all, so a hose and hand sprayer is fine for now. When the temps are between 65 and 85, St Augustine spreads and spreads. In my neighborhood that happens in the spring and again in the fall. I get about 5 feet of runners each time for a total of 10 feet of spreading per season. Your mileage will vary. Back on the topic of mowing, I have a house where I mow it with a string trimmer down to 12 inches high. When it gets up to 16 inches or so I cut it back down. If I had a push or riding mower that would mow that high I would keep it at 12 inches. That's not great for playing in but it looks perfectly manicured, uses almost no water, and seems to need much less fertilizer to stay dark green. Also, since it's so tall and never gets anything but rainwater, there are no weeds or disease. I'm not necessarily suggesting that for you, but I am suggesting that if you were going to neglect something, neglect mowing and let the grass get much taller.