bumping old post down

Do u know there is a link to the R&R on the main Exchange page? All you have to do is scroll down and there it is. The R&R is set-up for both seed and plant trades, it would make it confusing to have one on each thread. AGAIN just my OPINION! :) Fran

Hi, I'm Beth. We moved to Forney about a year ago to be closer to our daughters and families. I am retired but DH is still working and travels so I have a lot of time on my hands. We bought a house with a flat acre of nothing but black clay and weeds. Last year I mainly assessed what was in the ground which as it turns out wasn't much. There were knock out roses in beds that only got three hours of sun a day and a variety of shrubs out of shape and just hanging on from lack of water. The beds and yard are in terrible shape and need a lot of amendments so this year will be spent getting the ground in shape to plant so this year will be one of container gardening. I've never worked with such terrible conditions so it is a little overwhelming. The front of the house is mainly shade facing NNE. Shade is new for me. The back will be where I will have to plant all my roses. So I'm thinking hostas and some annuals in the front for now. We have a pretty strict HOA so I am limited on what I can do in the front. I keep telling myself all in good time. Since I am starting from scratch I'd love to know more about how the swaps work and wonder if I can swap non-plant things. I have some baby roses rooting but they won't be ready for a new home for a few months yet.

Coping, thanks. It must be fun to live in the more tropical part of Texas and be able to grow exotic fruit, but I see all kinds of fruit are discussed on the Yahoo group. BTW, there's a couple of posts on 'Conversations' that haven't had a reply. One of them is mine about the most beautiful little unconventional cottage that is in danger of being torn down.