I think scotch thistle was brought over here by the ornamental trade. I spend several days a year grubbing it out of the front 5 acres. I spent a lot of money getting rid of Quinoa akbea that was strangling a bunch of trees in some land that I shared with my sisters in Pennsylvania and we all lived far away. It was way into the canopies of trees and had a 3 acre spread and branches were breaking, trees dying. One thing to think about in comparing Europe to the US is the amount of wild land that isn't gardened and this land can be invaded. I live close to a 3000 acre park, and a couple 8000 acre ranches. No one is out their weeding. Invasives are a problem. They blow in from the suburbs. They get brought in in hay bales. That is how I got Johnson grass. Birds bring vine berries.Yellow star malta thistle has taken over 15 million acres in California and it causes horses to get a neurological condition that keeps them from swallowing so they chew and chew and die of starvation. IyT is in the cattle guard and on my list to poison. One can drive through States and states of Kudzo and then one enters the Mile a minute hanging forests of west virginia,virginia and Kentucky and then the Appalachians full of multiflora rose and Jappanese knotweed. It is sad to see the landscape in distress. I have an fragrant mimosa in my yard. It is a native and it Makes A LOT of seed but there's a bug that lives and bores into almost every seed and lays an egg or something in each one. I would not advise taking it to England without a good population of that bug. It is hard to pull out with a wicked deep root and spreads by its root too. It is in balance here, and I love its fragrance, but I can see that if that bug wasn't here, it would be a bugger. The thing about invasive lists is they are the plants that are already out of the gate. The ones that are just gathering steam have not been addressed. It gets so confusing because a plant van be a real problem in one place and not be a problem 20 miles away.Globalization with its ease of shipping plant material and the stepped up pace of plant introduction of these last decades is going to bite us in the @ss.

It's pretty much all shrubs and perennials - no veggies or annuals! But lots of workhorses for your yard. Come and see us anyway!

Wow, thank you, everyone, for your kind and encouraging words. Having spent countless hours, taking notes from this site (even when I knew some things were impossible to achieve in this kitchen) and quietly admiring all of your beautiful kitchens, from the big, jaw-dropping ones to the smaller, but oh so lovingly personalized ones, it means a lot to me and my SO that so many of you like what we've done so far. As newbies to all of this, we questioned every single small decision we made, and then questioned it some more, never quite sure if we made the right choice--especially going with practically the same color floor and cabinets--so it's great to get some positive feedback. Except the soffit. We never questioned that decision. We knew those had to vamoose! You should see the ones we took out of the bathrooms! EEEeeeeek! Anyways, thank you so much!

I'll try to stop this from becoming a soapbox about the status of education requirements, education in general, and the overall job market in the U.S. You have the four year degree. It's one box checked, and in the world we live in, It's a big check. If you want the hort minor, get it now. It only gets harder to go back to school the longer you're out. You'll want to learn Spanish. You'll want a good course in plant pathology. You'll want to learn Spanish. You'll want a good course in entomology. You'll want to learn Spanish. Got that? Good. Because knowing Spanish is the most important thing you can do to further your career in horticulture in America. You'll want a good basic course in botany. You'll want a good course in soils.* In order to understand the course materials, You'll want one if not two courses in chemistry. Intro to organic chem is where you want to get, maybe one course beyond that...often two prerequisite courses to get to the organic chem intro. *Once you do this a little, You'll learn no one knows jack about soils. Lots claim to, even more give lip service to the importance, but actually know soils? I've met two such people in my life. I've met more who won the lottery. So, get the background, then Never. Stop. Learning. Never succomb to the idea that knowing something means more than just that...something. Have I mentioned Spanish yet? Pant ID courses. If you're doing interior scape, You'll have at least three. Woody plants (trees and shrubs) and herbaceous plants (annuals and perennials). I'd be surprised if they let you get the degree without at least one design concept course. Plant propagation. If there's an intro to horticulture 101, this is part two. Greenhouse/nursery/landscape management. A course in turf management is worth considering. If I had it all to do over again, I'd skip horticulture. No job I have ever had did I get because of my degree in horticulture. Not that I'm demeaning the value of the education...but unless you want to work for an educational concern, or manage a public garden, the education is a side note. What's your experience? Maximize your experience and augment your education. I'd get as much experience as you can in the fields of small engine repair, welding and fabrication, become adept with general hand tools and construction equipment. Have I mentioned Spanish before?