Just sitting here nodding in agreement with a lot of posts. I think the most important thing at this point is to look at your property and decide the functions you will use it for down the road so you don't ruin the space when you get around to addressing it. Yes, leave access for getting trucks and machinery to various parts of the property, even on three acres. Especially on three acres you plan to fill generously with trees. Yes on considering some groves and avoiding onesie-twosies and when the tree bug bites you, and it will, it's very enticing to want 'one of everything' and three of nothing and the visuals on that can be busy and disjointed. You have a big house, and need to consider proportions so that the trees planted near it don't come off looking dwarfed and the house monstrous. We have an epidemic here of mini-mansions festooned with dwarf weeping cherry trees, the branches pruned abruptly like a bowl haircut. We also found it more logical to start close and move out with our plantings. Although we are not close to any other dwellings, I use plantings as visual blockades to scenes I don't care to see and for privacy, so do look out your windows in the general direction of any tree you consider planting to make sure it DOESN'T block what you want to see, and does what you don't want to see. Yes I do plant trees to block sun for the shading effect. If they are deciduous, blocking sunlight isn't an issue in winter and it has a tremendous impact in summer to keep our stucco over brick house cool. It sort of amazed me to see someone mention leasing solar panels. You lease from them for your power, or they lease from you for the exposure and buy the power you generate? In our neck of the woods, it would be a company wanting to sink an oil well, instead. LOL. I have a perfect south facing roof area, but any solar panels ever getting there would be self-financed and simply supplemental in their efficiency. I don't have central air, and having a boiler heat am not interested in retrofitting ducts to accomodate it. Trees size so much more quickly than you think. I have some aerial shots of our property taken fifteen years apart and it's astounding at the amount of canopy we have now, compared to then. Our annual rainfall is adequate for most of our plantings and we have installed some freeze proof spigots away from the house, but I got a chuckle over the remark of 100 gallon tanks for watering. Tried that one year and .........well....despite how large a tractor you have, you'd better have more than a trailer behind it to pull your water tank. The center of gravity shifts in liquid loads. It ain't purty. Yes on buying small for most trees. They establish more readily and catch up with the bigger, more expensive ones quite quickly. I've had just as good success with B and B, but really the only reason I got the ones I did was I couldn't find them container. This is going to take years and it never really gets done. That's as it should be and part of the adventure. I can honestly say I've never had to rip a tree out because of poor placement. Nobody shares the exact gardening philosophy and what's right for me might not be right for you as far as pleasing to the senses. Over the years I have found I've been much more pleased with a tree whose needs have been met than one unsuitable for the growing conditions. A healthy and robust, easy care tree is often more beautiful than one which you much struggle to keep happy. Remember it's a lot easier to attend to correcting things like improper branch angles than addressing the problems they cause down the road. Have fun with it and enjoy the journey, too.

I've been doing a lot of general cleanup and getting ready some new areas for next year. We finally got a fence across the front with some gates so now we can keep the dogs in the yard during the day while we're at work. And of course a fence is an opportunity to plant, right? This one is red brick(matches the house) along the bottom 20" and 4' of wrought iron on the top with brick pillars 18' apart. I hung out some Christmas decorations yesterday before I went to work, and today I have a sore throat and earache. So my boss is letting me take Saturday off, isn't he sweet? We had a large old native pecan tree struck by lightning about a month ago and not sure if it will live or die. It's so hard to tell if it's dead or just dormant, but it's smack in the middle of the front yard only about 50' from the house. But it's inside the fence so will be a part of the new area I will plant next Spring. I want to put lavender along the driveway. I have four large lavender plants out there already and they've done so well I thought I should just continue with that. I'll be shovel pruning about 8 roses this year out of the rose garden. Some have just not performed well, others I find I'm just not crazy about because of their lack of scent. Anyway, I thought I might wait till the Spring Plant Swap here in Fort Worth to take them out and pot them up, because rather than just waste them, I'm sure someone would love to take them home. They're all good, healthy plants, just not quite what I want out there. The back acre is really our problem child. I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds out there and I have my fingers crossed they'll come up. The instructions from Wildseed Farms recommended killing off all existing plants, raking the area free of all plant material and broadcasting the seed on the bare earth. Then water three times a day till seedlings emerge. Huh! Who has time to water three times a day? I just broadcase the seeds on the raked area that still had native plants growing in it. I just couldn't bear to kill off all the native flora. I guess I'll see if I wasted my seeds come Spring. The girls are all coming home for Christmas this year, so I'm gonna do some decking out in the yard next week. After they leave DH and I are going to Hawaii for a week vacation. THEN, it'll be time for some serious Spring planning. I'm just kind of milling about smartly in the yard for now waiting, waiting, waiting for the warm weather to come back. Everyone in the family is coming to my house for Christmas dinner this year so I'm thinking I should probably plan to prepare mass quantities of consumables for them all. I hope it's a warm Christmas day so I can take my mom out for a "yard tour" again. It's been a long time since she has been able to come out here, she's 81 and can't drive this far anymore. Well, I should probably write some of these things in my garden log instead of blabbing all day on the internet. But hey, you asked! Cheryl

Correction, HAVE a FREE Sm/Mdm Crepe Myrtle Tree to ready to be picked up in Nashville, TN and transplanted. Sorry for any confusion!

Darlene, I'd love elephant ear if you still have some (or one). Here's my list that I hope is correct; if not, please let me know. for cheryl 5 roses & an apple mint from cheryl pots & maybe a hydrangea or cutting for brenda cashmere bouquet & chocolate mint for armbarangel I found a hot pink salvia greggi. from armbarangel century plants for darlene, cashmere bouquet & mints from darlene st john's wort & elephant ear if you have enough for ruth salvia black & blue from ruth cannas for running gardener 4 o'clocks & pigeonberry from running gardener bay tree & boneset for mike pigeonberry from mike daffs & iris for dorothy ornamental grass from dorothy red yucca for sigrid? from sigrid brownies & lavender iris for butterflyfan 4 o'clocks, apple mint, turk's cap, salvia B&B from butterflyfan frogfruit, fennel, passionflower, rue I hit the jackpot on ornamental grasses & will bring some of those as well as the phlox, Indian Chief irises, lemon mint, peppermint, apple mint, & miscellaneous stuff. will bring a "prize", hope we have enough participation! (but if we don't, I got stuff I like!) Get your plants watered & sorted & go to bed early tonight so you'll be bright-eyed tomorrow, & remember your Sharpies, notepads, & your little red wagon if you have one!