Thanks everyone for the replies. Sorry I haven't replied for so long. Here is what I have done so far: I sprayed the entire front yard with Roundup twice over a period of 2 weeks. Last Friday I rented a sod cutter and removed all the dead sod from the front. I know several here recommended that I don't do that, but I don't ever remember hearing why. Anyway, I removed the sod, then brought in 7 yards of soil and sand. Actually it was 3 1/2 yards of topsoil and 3 1/2 yards of sand and then I mixed it with a shovel. This was the hardest part of the entire process. I lightly tilled the yard just before I spread the soil and rolled it with a landscape roller so it was nice and level. That was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This past Wednesday, my Midnight KBG arrived in the mail. I was going to rent a slit seeder to put the seed down but I was worried that the weight would totally destroy the soil. So I used a tined rake and dragged it across the soil and then used a broadcast spreader to spread the seed. Once I got the seed down, I set the irrigation system to water twice a day, once at 9:00 AM and again at 2:30 PM for about 25 minutes. Last night we got some heavy rain for the first time in weeks. I had nightmares of waking up and finding all the soil in the neighbors yard and running down the street but I got lucky and only a little seed washed away. I have extra so I will put some down tomorrow. I also want to put down some additional topsoil on top of the seed and then put straw on top of that. Hopefully in two weeks from Wednesday I will have grass starting to grow. I will post some more pictures in a few weeks. Thanks again to all for your advice!!! Here are some pictures: After second application of Roundup Cutting and removing the sod Most of the Sod up but no soil yet Soil is down and waiting for seed. Still have some work to do between the curb and sidewalk. Picture makes the yard look more rounded than it really is. I also smoothed out the foot prints.

I am having good luck with Owari Satsuma. I have two of these mandarins planted in my front yard here in the Georgia mountains. I do protect them in the winter with a wood/plastic sheet structure, but I think I may be overdoing it as there has never been a single leaf damaged by frost or freezes in the last three years that I have had these. The last few years the outside temps got down to 11F at the lowest. The Owari Satsuma fruit has got to be one of the best citrus I have ever eaten. Period. I also have a Thomasville Citrangequat I planted last year and so far it is doing great with very little protection. I've read quite a bit about these and they sound like one of the best cold hardy types. I am experimenting with other things: I have some mandarins that I grew from seeds from grocery store fruit planted in the yard- they're only about a year old but seem to be doing ok (considering all the leaves have frozen off) I am also growing kumquats from seed and will plant these out in the next year or so. If they die or do badly, no big deal, they cost me practically nothing. I have about 7 trifoliate orange trees scattered around my property, but these are mostly for fun, I've tasted a fruit from one of these growing in town and it was as horrible as everyone says it is.

I like the blueberries. I think I'll put them on the other property line. Doesn't entirely solve my current issue, but it still helps. They're typically 3-4 feet, and tolerate a higher Ph than other blueberries. I would still like to do a raised bed for them. I could have 4-6 feet with a raised bed. I rarely drink tea, to be honest. I think you may be correct about the Viburnums. Some seem like they are tasty, but from my little bit of digging, most of those don't appear to be evergreen, however, they do work in my zone. There is V. Pragense, but I am unable to find a definitive answer if they are human edible. Some said it was, most said it was not. And even the ones that said it was edible said it was not...that tasty. Some people claimed that not even birds or deer would eat some of the Viburnum berries. It seems the further away you get from "normal" plants, the harder it is to find solid answers. I like Unedo. I think I will make a place somewhere, probably near the hedge, but not a row of them, if that makes sense. I have looked at Elaeagnus Ebbingei quite a bit. It has it's own set of issues, though. It's invasive in some states. Although, I did not see it as being invasive in mine. Additionally, it doesn't appear to fruit reliably. There is also a fairly large seed inside of it. Fortunately, it's supposed to edible as well, from my understanding. I wonder if I could plant something like Ebbingei since it will still fruit and is evergreen, and then maybe plant something like huckleberry (vaccinium ovatum, similar to a blueberry?) supposed to evergreen, but quite small, or maybe sea buckthorn (not evergreen) in front of it. Sea and Huckle are supposed to be smaller than Ebbingei, so it would not shade, and both could get sun. I'm not sure if that would work or not.

They are supposed to be open tomorrow at their old retail location, but if you plan to go, call first because of the low temperatures (919) 854-9892. On Wednesday they begin the final move of their retail operation 1/2 mile down Campbell Rd to the current wholesale location. There are many, many flats of older pansies and violas left for free.