I keep going back & forth on using either mini blind tags or the clear plastic forks. (which I bought a bunch of already & I do have a mini blind to cut up too) The problem with the forks is the writing area is so small, yet I think it will look better to have them "fade" into the garden cause they are clear. It will be hard for me to write the full name of the flower-like Columbine, Mckanas Giants. I am new to plants & would like the FULL name on my tag. The mini blinds give me lots more room to write but will be way more visible! Won't be a problem when plants are in full growth summer/fall but then when they die back & before they get buried under snow they will be Very visible! Again in the spring when snow melts.... decisions, decisions.......... I haven't written any out yet. My plan is as I see sprouts than I'll write out the tag for it & just keep them alphabetical so come planting time I can be more efficient. What do you all think?

A number of things: 1) No need to remove sod, so that will save a ton of work. The newspaper, mulch etc will kill the grass and the dead grass adds humus to the soil. 2) If planning to plant, do not use landscape fabric. Fabric is designed to be used under decks, patio stones and walkways where it will not be cut into for planting. Here's how to do it. Use a garden hose to outline the bed. A curvy line looks best, likely a lazy L or C shaped bed will look good. A square bed or rectangular bed with straight sides does not look as nice. Move the hose around and rearrange until you get the shape you like. Now spray paint along the hose and remove it. Use an edger to cut the grass along the paint line, wiggle back and forth to create a v-shaped line. Cut the grass inside the future bed very short. Save your newspapers for a month or get old ones from the corner stone (they cut off the date to return to supplier and throw out the rest). Arrange to have a truck load of composted manure and another load of wood chips delivered. On bed creating day, get a few friends, some beer and munchies then proceed: One or two people place four to five sheets of newspaper over an area of future bed, folding paper to match the curve of the edge. Another person follows with the hose and wets the newspaper. The rest shovel manure and then woodchips over the newspaper, wood chips should be about 2" deep. After all is done, drink beer, eat munchies. If you don't object to chemicals, a faster way is to spray the grass inside the spray paint line with Round up, wait two weeks, respray any grass that is still green, wait another week. Then, one day have the truck load of manure dumped on the bed, rake to shape. Next day, have the truck load of wood chips dumped on the bed, rake to shape. If any weeds pop up over the summer, pull them out when small. You can plant into the mix after about six weeks or wait until next year. While waiting, draw a plan of the bed on graph paper and plan what to plant where. If full sun with sandy, dry soil rethink using iris, they need moisture. Adding organic matter is good, but you cannot change the fundamental nature of your soil. So unless you want to spenda lot of time watering, research plants that like sunny, dry conditions and use them. Depending on the size of the bed, you could consider some small shrubs like Potentilia (under 3ft with yellow flowers all summer).

Two stories... My grandfather died many years ago. We made no provisions to dig up or take any of his many beautiful plants. We sold the house. Within a year we drove by, only to find every single plant had been pulled and the entire yard grassed over. My husband's cousin is disabled, in a wheelchair, and unable to garden. She bought a small single-story house two years ago, with massive perennial beds in the backyard. The property backs up to a right-of-way that is a field. Needless to say, by the end of last summer there were weeds everywhere in the flower beds. Sight unseen and without knowing how much work was involved, I agreed to weed the beds in the backyard, on hearing her brother and sister-in-law had done the front and surrendered. On seeing what was there, and after several weekends of backbreaking work, we decided to pare down her beds. I took plants from around the yard with different bloom times and clustered them into a 15' bed by the patio. My husband and I then began the great dig-out, where I salvaged as many plants remaining as I could from the one side of the yard. Took many home. Gave many away. Never had time to finish the other side, should head over there in a few more weeks to finish. Moved all the tulip and daff bulbs we kept finding to the front of her house and replanted them in the front beds. Moved some miniature roses we kept finding under the weeds to the front walkway. Planted a lilac last fall and have a couple roses on order. Plan to grass the rest. I'm sure the woman who lived there would cry if she saw the backyard now compared to how it looked when she moved, but she'd have cried in July, too, with six-foot tall weeds taking over the beds. At least its current occupant can enjoy a reduced-scale bed from her back patio (which she can access), and see spring color in her front yard. If you want plants, make sure it's known what's not staying and take it. Don't feel guilt about it, the new people may not want it or may not be able to care for it.

Try LETCO. They have everything including dirt, mulch, stones, you name it. Although they have azaleas specialty soil, I wouldn't recommend it because they are pure organic material meaning they will disappear within few years back to ground level. I'd go with a mixture of pine bark fines and sandy loam soil (inorganic) which is usually slightly acidic, 50/50. At worst, they will sink halfway there after a few years and stay there. It should be no problem as long as you do not use chemicals of any kind that would destroy benefical soil microbes esp fungi which is responsible for keeping pH down. Azaleas and acidic loving plants thrives in type of soil that is very high population count of fungi. That's why I recommending mulching every year to provide optimal environment for beneficial fungi to thrive. You can use alfalfa pellets or soybean meal to feed azaleas. That's what I do. More plants to check out is abelia. They bloom quite a bit through the summer into fall. I don't care much for regular type which looks a bit messy and wild but I think the dwarf type is pretty nice. They are evergreen in houston and can handle partial shade. Nandina isn;t bad either. You could grow tall azaleas in the back and low growing azaleas in the front. The low mounding type like Embers do not show their "legs". I think there are like 23 varieties that differ in growth habit. I have KO roses and they seem to vary in size depending on which one. Double KO grows fast to 6 feet in 2 years. You can buy the smallest one in bunches to save money. Chamblee nursery online comes to mind because they have best price. Rainbow KO seems to stay more compact less than 3 feet but too early to know as I only had them for a year. I would kill for pure white KO. Supposedly they are coming out in 2-3 years after trials. KO roses are perfect for an area that gets a lot of sun and blooms pretty much round year in Houston. Very easy to grow. Basically plant and forget with mulches around them. You also can look into japanese maples. They can be grown in Houston under partial shade. www.metromaples.com to look at the choices since it's in ft worth and you know how hot it can get and sometimes no rain. one good thing about Houston, it never seems to go into bad drought like up here. At the worst in 2005, Houston managed to get 35 inches of rain which is like normal for us up here! Here is a link that might be useful: LETCO