Congratulations on improving a patch of soil. It may be the most important work a human can do. It IS work and takes effort and patience. I started a veggie garden about 3 years ago in some of the sorriest thick heavy clay, but with vermicomposting and heavy mulching, it is coming right along and turning into fertile loam. Bought my worms (sold as red wigglers) from the local bait store and they have done a great job and thriving in this soil. Also have noticed big night crawler earthworms have moved into the garden. They burrow much deeper and aerate the soil even better. If you avoid chemicals, you will get beneficial insects to prey on the pests. Compost, Compost, Compost- if you can find a source (your local diner?) for coffee grounds and egg shells, get them to save that stuff for you. If you have the time and energy, pulverize the egg shells down to a fine powder, so the earthworms can digest that good stuff. Another good thing you can do for your soil is to grow nitrogen-fixing legumes- beans and peas. Get a few soybean seeds and grow your own edamame! Try clover or alfalfa as a cover crop in Winter- I've heard hairy vetch is good as well.

figster, I had to laugh when I saw your post. Turns out that I rode my bike past your house several days ago. It all started when my wife asked me if I saw the house on "Main St" that had what looked like "bags" placed over bushes or trees in their front yard and maybe I could get some of those for our figs. I said I'd check it out. So I ride over your way and sure enough, tyvek "bags" in the front and more in the back. When I saw the fruit trees along the driveway, I was sure there was tender fruit trees under that tyvek. If anyone had been out in the yard I would have stopped. I didn't want to invade your privacy and come up banging on the door, so I put your house on the sureillance list, you know places of interest. I have little to share at present, as I'm just getting back into cultivating figs but would be more than happy to trade in the future. You know there are several other fig people in the Detroit area and I wonder if we could have a fig swap in the spring. I'm pretty sure the tomato people have a swap in the spring at one of the Royal Oak city parks. You know, just crash their party and swap for whatever. Something to think about. I'll send you an email. Dan By the way, great pictures and a good wrap job. You do very neat work.

Kaylee: I will concur with the response so far and again emphasize that (1) it will be very helpful to note what zone you're gardening in; (2) I will second the suggestion to obtain and/or read the Michigan Gardener's Guide; (3) contact the folks at MSU or your local county extension service; and (4) visit some of the public gardens within the state, such as the Dow Gardens in Midland, the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids; and a few others. In addition to the books noted in one response, I would also highly recommend the reading and/or purchase of both "The Fragrant Year"by Helen van Pelt Wilson & Leonie Bell and "Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden" by Eleanor Perenyi. The former is a little dated, but still one of the best books on fragrant plants in the garden and it is the only book that I've found to date that sensibly discusses the making of both the dry and moist form of pot-pourri. The later book is a gardening treasure and should be in every gardener's library. The chapter on "Failure" in a real gem and is a must read. The former book, "The Fragrant Year" is, unfortunately, out of print, but copies in excellent condition can be found at either abe.com or alibris.com - both excellent sources for books; the later book, "Green Thoughts" is still available in paperback, but hardbound copies can be found at either or the bookseller sites previously noted. In addition to these sources, I would highly recommend that you make use of the "PlantFinder" section of one of the most beautiful gardens in the Midwest - the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, MO. The Meijer Garden pales in comparison! You can access their home web site at this address: http://www.mobot.org. and then search for their PlantFinder section. However, if you wish to have a direct link, I listed the PlantFinder link below. Once you arrive at this gem of a site, you can search by botanical names; by common names; you can search for plants in a particular zone and then for height, width, bloom time, foliage, suitable for butterflies, hummingbirds, etc. and so on and so forth. So that you and other reading this post will have an idea of what's there and what information can be obtain, I'll provide you with a few example below. One of the more interesting plants that I "discovered" while meandering through a rural, small, but exceptionally wonderful garden place north of Manistee was Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei' What caught my eye was the color of the fall foliage on this plant. During my late spring through mid summers to this unique garden center, my eye's didn't note much of anything - mostly because, I suspect that the flower wasn't in bloom during my visits and/or had been deadheaded to produce additional bloom. Since this Geranium is hardy throughout all of Michigan, I decided to add it to our garden. Of course, this prompted a search for other varieties that had interesting fall colors and I found another variety and also added it to our garden. So for you and others reading this post, here's the link to Max Frei http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=B466 And here is the link to the other Geranium that I found, which also had a nice fall color, but is only hard to zone 4. Geranium sanguineum 'Album' http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=C880 The unique features of the "PlantFinder" section of the Missouri Botanical Garden came to fore a few weekends ago when Sue and I stayed at one of the most wonderful B & B we've "discovered" not to far from our neck of the woods. It the "Hoods in the Woods" B & B in the general Gaylord, MI area. Here's the link for those so interested. http://www.hoodsinthewoods.com/ In our visit/stay with this most interesting couple, we found out that they were originally from the State of Ohio where they grew a variety of roses and have been rather disappointed in not being able to grow roses in their neck of the woods due to the fact that they are essentially in zone 3/4 - confirm by the "fact" that when we arrived they still have a nice pile of snow that was about 4/5 or more feet tall and the lake/large pond on which they reside was still largely frozen over with only the edges having open water. So I introduced Jan to the PlantFinder section at the Missouri Botanical Garden, bookmarked it for her and briefly showed her how to search for plants suitable for a zone 3 area. She was amazed at what was available. Well, I do hope that this small dissertation is most useful in your gardening endeavors. Best wishes! Bill & Sue Here is a link that might be useful: PlantFinder Search page at the MBO

Your Lucky your all in the states. I live in Windsor, across the river from Michigan and we also, can ONLY grow the Chinese Windmill Palm / Trachycarpus fortunei. (That I know of for certain - there are others being tried) Unfortunately, being tropical, the plant has to be brought in from BC where the climate there is more like California except BC does get hit with some severe winter weather. This is how we know it will survive (after a few years of winter protection) here in our climate. The plants I can order are small (1gallon-$18cad)and they take a long time to grow, I heard 2-4 palm leaves a year. And you can't mail order bigger than a 1 gallon plant from them and they have a smaller one, probably the 2 1/2 inches. They also want 30% of the total order for shipping or $32 whichever is greater. Ouch... Tropic.ca But places that carry these plants have other hardy tropicals such as 2 hardy BANANA TREES (1 definately for our area with winter protection Musa Basjoo (Japenese Fiber Banana)& Musa Sikkimensis (it's a beauty to and said to be as hardy as the Musa Basjoo once established (2-4 years) You have to cut down banana's in our area down to 2-3 feet and insulate. And the Canna's...outstanding(need to lift root to over winter inside.) They have bamboo and hardy paw paw fruit trees and figs, makes a tropics fanatic yearnful. Mind you, you'll find great prices for some of these at one store and better prices or availability and sizes at another. Best info I found for Tropical Hardiness for our area is at www.Bambooworld.com For you people over the border (US)who want to find a closer place to order from search the words 'Trachycarpus fortunei' (Chinese Windmill Palm) and those Latin words should bring you up mostly stores selling them and any tropicals you can think of. If your not after the Chinese Windmill Palm particulary, but a tropical on-line store that may not even sell the Chinese Windmill Palm, use 'Musa Basjoo' (Japenese Fiber Banana). Happy hunting! Yardman, you must be right over the river in the Michigan area to have that Zone. Though I've never seen that area classified as a 7, I know it has been classified a Zone 6 as is our area, though I still tend to stick with the better known Zone 5. Just don't have the money to be risky, some Zone 6 plants would survive here while others won't, so I just wait till someone incites my curiousity over a rare plant in our area and check it out. And if I want it bad enough... ;) Anyway, Yardman and anyone else growing tropicals in the Detroit Area/Lower Michigan, which tropicals such as bamboo, yucca's and figs do you have growing anyway? At least those plants you've had overwintered for winter or two. - Sandy