Hi Chrissy, You will probably get some bloom this year from your Oaks plants and for sure with your local acquisitions. Once they recover from the transplanting, they really take off. How long have they been in the ground? The foliage will turn yellow when first planted but will be quickly replaced with new foliage. I usually see new growth on newly planted fans in as little as a week. Good luck with your first dl's. Jan

Depending on what you are using to kill the grass it could be a long time. The information on the package should tell you everything you need to know about wait times and how it affects other plant material. A couple years ago I had a very weedy area and hired a guy to clean it out for me so I could plant bluegrass there. He killed everything with Roundup and said I only had to wait two weeks. So I waited three weeks, planted the grass and it did fine. He said that the roundup breaks down in the soil in about 14 days. Having said that, I'm sure there are alot of people who would disagree and say that it can last much longer. I've also had some experiences with weed and grass killers that seem to last for about a year or two. So you need to be very cautious with poisons. Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent that will prevent weed seeds from germinating in the soil for about a year. It won't prevent the grasses that spread by rhyzomes though so you would want to just use it to prevent weeds popping up from seeds that are spread by birds or the wind. Corn gluten is available at feed stores and at some garden stores. One thing about your heavy clay, it is normally very high in nutirents and although it's hard to garden in, it is good for the plants. Besides adding the compost, try also adding zeolite. It's a natural, organic material that will enrich the soils and make it less hospitable to weeds. Weeds seem to prefer to grow in areas where nothing else can. They prefer poor soil. So by enriching your beds weeds are less likely to take hold. When you do get some nice new things planted be sure to mulch well. This will deter weeds, but it also makes any weeds that do manage to pop up much easier to pull. Compost loosens the soil, mulch helps keep it moist. One other thing I would suggest is to introduce earthworms into that bed. Earthworms have their own kind of magic they do on your soil, by tilling it with their burrows and fertilizing with their castings. They will also eat dead plant material and dry leaves that fall into the bed. Composted cow manure is a good amendment to add when you have earthworms too. Cow is good because the rumination process kills most weed seeds. Domesticated rabbit manure is good because they only eat processed rabbit feed and it has no seeds. I use a 4" cedar mulch in my rose garden and the weeds and grass actually grow between the soil and the mulch layer. Their roots are in the mulch so when I pull them out they come right up. I can shake off the mulch and toss the weed. I know you're frustrated with your azalea bed, but you have such an opportunity right in front of your nose. You don't have to throw out those azaleas you know. If you pot them up, soak them for a few days in water with fish emulsion and hang onto them until you are ready to replant you could certainly put them back into the amended bed where I'm sure they would flourish. Keep in mind that most the other things you're talking about putting in there won't look like much in the winter. The good thing about the azaleas is that they fill out and stay green year round. Cheryl

You don't have to wait. Drying seeds is only needed if you are going to store them. Any good seed starting medium is good but you also have coir, oasis cubes, sponges, peat pellets and a bunch of other options. There is also a method to sprout seeds in a coffee filter in a baggie. It's called "the baggie method" and it's in the FAQ. I think it's in the Growing from Seed forum. I little hint if you're new...if you use a peat based medium (most are peat), hydrate with warm/hot water. Cold water takes a long time to soak into peat.

Best to wait many may hours before plugging in fridge and freezer, to let coolant refrigerant settle down after being shaken in transport. Otherwise they won't work. AFAIK. Later, you can slide them gently across a level floor without uch risk. AFAIK. -david