In your area St Aug would be my first thought. It can take over in my opinion. All you have to do is put down one piece (about a dollar). If you can get Floratam use that but I think all you can find is Palmetto in your area. Put it down onto bare soil and walk on it to get good contact with the underlying soil. Keep it moist for the first 2 weeks until it knits to the underlying soil. Moist means moisten (not drench) it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Once it is established keep it just a little bit moister than the surrounding Marathon II. Marathon II is a dwarf type grass. Palmetto likes to be mowed at the highest setting. If you mow your lawn at the highest setting and restrict water to once per week (that is after you are sure your piece of St Aug is knitted down), the St Aug will send out runners in all directions about 5 feet in length once during the warm up in the spring and once again during the cool down in the fall. So you'll get a pretty good coverage. When you fertilize, fertilize only the St Augustine. Drop some alfalfa pellets on the main piece and follow the runners out with more alfalfa pellets. You can do that every week if you like. That will keep the St Aug in the peak of health while allowing the Marathon II to decline. If you have patches of burr clover now, that is right where I would start with the St Augustine pieces. The more pieces of St Aug you start with, the faster this project will be complete. In the really hot and dry summer heat, meaning over 100 every day and humidity below 20%, you should water the St Aug every 5 days. Just to keep the Marathon sort of green, that should probably be watered, too. As the temps cool down, you can favor the St Augustine more and try to get more runners out of it. If you buy one piece of St Aug for a dollar, you can chop it up into smaller pieces with a machete or shovel. I would not cut it into more than four pieces, though. You have to have something to work with. But that would help you get it going farther faster. Generally St Augustine will dominate all other grasses with few exceptions. Some bunch grasses like dallisgrass can get a foothold and move in. Burr clover can be a weed in St Aug. Once you get St Aug, you can no longer use Weed-B-Gone Clover, Chickweed, and Oxalis against broad leafe weeds. WBG will kill the St Aug. You have to use a product with atrazine. You can only use that stuff once per year, so be judicious when/where you use it. Atrazine is a nasty product and repeated use doesn't seem to work as well as the first use anyway. When you spray, walk backwards so you don't have to walk through it. That stuff will flat knock down everything but the St Aug, though. It can take a few weeks, and you'll never really see the weeds withering away until SUDDENLY (!) they are no longer there. I would wait until April when the grass and all the weeds are growing well. Don't spray it now or you might lose your entire lawn. This paragraph is more for next year and the years after once you have the St Aug established. If you are watering and mowing right, you should never see another weed.

Hi all, I am assigning houseplant buddies today. There were two I still have not received the necessary info from. At this time to get this swap started I am dropping their names from the swap. I do not mean to offend anyone by doing this, I have sent 3 emails for the info with no response. I hope all is well and they are not ill. I will offer a personal trade with me when and if I hear back from them. Please be understanding as my intentions are not to hurt, offend or exclude anyone. Once I have assigned buddies I will post an update - houseplant swap II post for the remaining post to be sent to until all pkgs are received. please let me know if you have any questions. I will do my best to match you up with some plants that are on your wants list. Also please note that you may or may not send and receive from the same person. Thanks again for joining my swap. Hope all enjoys.

Well seen...I dug up a sedum from the wild part of the yard 2 yrs ago and just love it...It seems to end up falling apart n the middle so I'm going to try cutting it back after it gets about 12 inches...I've heard that when you do that to (anything they tend to bush more and not flop open)Don't know for sure..but since I know it'll come back it'll be worht a try!...Oh, I nearly forgot-Nice pics! juanita

I'll try to get a photo of the whole thing but usually the tree grows among other trees making it difficult for a solo photo, but I'll keep looking. As far as I know, they are native to this area, but I haven't seen them in bloom except on rare occasions, and even then I never really looked close enough at them to study these tiny flowers. Eric, I will wait and see if some seeds develop if you like some, although it may be easier to start with a larger tree. Thanks all. Kt