Timber, you did a great job....great root system. It will be full soon. Marie

Spunky, I think that is a really good question and topic. What ARE the alternatives for people who have budget restraints, but still need help getting their landscape in good order. There are ways, actually. Most homeowners can do simple installations if their beds are prepared well. My daughter is working with such a client now. She presently has tight little beds directly against her foundation and several bargain shrubs from a box store in unsuitable locations. With the budget she has, the emphasis shall be on expanding and preparing her existing beds for a more natural look and the "backbones" installed. IOW, several suitable key shrubs upon which she can elaborate and a tree. It is explained to clients like that a landscape should look presentable from day one, but can evolve over time into its potential. A good design is included for them to keep, so that they may purchase material on the bargain when those sales do occur they may install themselves, or hire to be done. The thing is, like stated, it's the plan and design end and the hardscaping so necessary to build on which the money should be spent for. The rest can be installed by anyone (including skillful amateurs) after the fact. It isn't instant gratification, but can be an alternative to those who need one. If a property has a sophomoric plan to build on, sooner or later, somebody has to address the poor planning. That being said, a job like that often finds itself on the lower rung of the ladder for busy and successful landscapers, but can be done quickly and between larger jobs.

gibby3000: "I sound like an "old" person talking about how we walked five miles to school in a blizzard...." - and uphill both ways, as my dad used to say. It might have something to do with the way our parents were raised, at least mine. My parents were born in 1929, the beginning of the depression and then were 16 when WW II ended. Times were tough and so many kids had to work to help support the family. They probably expected their own children (us) to do the same. They expected their own children to get out and make their own way. There is an adage (how true it is I don;t know) that one parents differently than they were parented. My parents gave me 6 months from university grad to get out of the house and basically to never bother them again. When grandkids started to come along they moved out of the city so they couldn't be babysitters. As an adult I do not have a close relationship with my parents. As an aside - Schooling is more expensive, at least here it is. Tuition and books have gone up by more than 10X since I was in university but minimum wages have definitely not gone up to keep pace and have only gone up 5X as much, grants are not as readily available for financial assistance. I just can't treat my kids the way I was treated. For me, it isn't a matter of spoiling them or not letting them grow up, it's more a matter of showing them that families are a life long family unit and commitment. It's showing them that our lives are forever intertwined, not in a stifling overbearing way, but in a supportive way. I was not raised this way. That is to say that the way I was raised wasn't wrong but it isn't the way that I will raise my children. Slightly OT - I've already told my 2 sons that when their dad and I die that they are, along with future wives and kids (if that happens) each others families. When I mentioned that to them, it was at a time when they weren't getting along very well, they looked at each other quite surprised. Since then, I have seen a change in them in that they accept each others differences but at the same time have each others back and have begun to like each other.

I grew up in a very, very small coal mining town. There was absolutely nothing for teenagers to do. We just kinda hung out on the main street, nowhere for shelter or even to sit. A lovely, kind lady from town that had 2 pre teens of her own, rented a small room in an abandoned theatre and opened it as an after school hangout for us. There was ice cream and soda, chips for us teens to buy, very cheaply of course. There was a jukebox, 3 smalI tables and about 12 chairs plus 6 bar stools at the counter. I was hired (a junior in high school ) to open the shop on my way home from school. I was the only one there to sell what was available and supervise my schoolmates. Weekdays from 3: 30 to 5:00 this was my job. Friday and Saturday evenings from 6 to 9 the lady and I ran the shop together. God bless this woman for what she did for us kids.