Taken for this website; How to Start a Wild Iris From Seeds By Meg Butler Wild iris grown from seed must grow for at least two years before it will flower. Starting wild iris from seed is a simple task, but it requires patience. Wild iris seed is sown in September and must spend the winter underground before it germinates in spring. Once wild iris germinates, it must grow for two to four seasons before the plant is mature enough to flower. When the wild iris does flower, however, it will produce three to four flowers per stalk for most of the month of June. Read more: How to Start a Wild Iris From Seeds : eHow http://www.ehow.com/how_7339031_start-wild-iris-seeds.html#ixzz2TYgip6GF Water your iris seeds and surrounding soil frequently enough to keep the seeds and soil constantly moist, but not soaking wet, from the time of planting through sprouting in the spring. Local rainfall and weather, planting location and soil texture will impact how frequently you need to water. Warmer climates with little rainfall and fast-draining soil will require more frequent, even daily watering. Cooler, rainy or humid climates with humus-rich or clay soils will require less frequent watering. Moisten the seeds and soil slowly with a very gentle mist so as not to displace the seeds or disturb nascent roots. A hose attachment set on a mist or light rain setting will help to keep the seeds and soil in place. Set automatic commercial mist irrigation systems to provide your iris seeds with a regimen of 10 seconds of active misting during each 15 minutes of sunlight or artificial daylight hours.

We are still young. :) But my husband did say he hopes this is our "forever" home since he doesn't know how much longer he can do this (fixer uppers). LOL. Thanks for the advice, lots of good stuff here. I remember hearing that well water wreaks havoc on your hair, and your laundry...??? It's about 2.22 acres...and it is grass, and a lot of it, definitely not a push mower thing. If we don't mow, neighbors would be pretty upset. Pretty much everyone has mowed acres with mature trees, with tree lined unmowed areas along the lot lines for privacy. I was thinking of keeping the planting beds closest to the house, and adding ornamental trees further from the home. There are definitely a lot of trees that need attention as far as trimming, and some removal. I was told the soil is not clay, and the surrounding areas have a lot of rocks, so good drainage, but I'm assuming this also means not much moisture retention. They said the grass is usually brown, but this year there has been an unusual amount of rain, so grass is greener than most years. So much for hand weeding. I'm guessing I should give up on my "Ligularia, The Rocket" which does fine in my clay soil, but I'm sure it will suffer there with not enough moisture. Even here, I water, water, water to keep it happy. I don't usually plant edibles, mostly just perennials, but I'll have to look into perennials that wildlife favor. I'm guessing edibles would either be a huge undertaking in competing with wildlife, or just too much maintenance in general. I'm assuming plants will be happier with well water as opposed to city water, right? I was also told that with a John Deere mower, I can plan on maybe 45 minutes per acre? There are plenty of mature trees - conifers, and deciduous, and others I haven't identified in my limited tree vocabulary. I was going to start with installing a short picket fence for my dogs in the rear yard, and then go from there as far as planting beds closest to the house. I'm looking forward to adding red japanese maples, dogwoods, magnolias...so many possibilities. Going from 1/8 acre to this is going to be heaven. "They'll eat saplings and some evergreens, garden perennials. Rabbits, voles, mice, chipmunks abound also. Plant berry bushes and you might get a bear or two." --- I had no idea deer like evergreens, ugh. Thanks for the info.

I just looked at the width of my butt, and I really think that you can get that plant into the back seat of your car. As Beth says, wrap it so the leaves don't break off. I'd use bubble wrap wound tightly around it and then secured with duct tape. If you do a good job of wrapping, you can even lay the potted plant on its side in the trunk while traveling; just don't let it roll back and forth or it might upchuck some soil. Pineapples are temperature-sensitive, so keep it warm while travelling. The plant might survive severely trimmed leaves but it will likely pout for a year or two, if not actually going into a terminal decline.

In my opinion best advice is to seek treatment for phobia. I had a severe phobia of dogs that I had to get treated and it is very worth it and I think a lot of people that have more "socially acceptable phobias" (e.g. spiders or snakes rather than beloved dogs, people thought I was evil for being scared of dogs! even though I have been up to cottonmouths before and been fine, didn't bother me,... but as a kid I got CHASED DOWN by dogs and attacked so...). We share this world with a lot of creatures, it's something to get used to. Desensitization&exposure therapy is best to build yourself up first before you ever see one. That being said, eliminating brush piles in areas you frequent/maintain a lot, keeping it open will keep snakes out of those areas and make them favor more wild spots. Keeping things open tends to be best for the more cultivated areas of the garden anyway, to maintain airflow. ALSO snakes are often not very active in the day except after rains. They don't like being out in the open especially in the day because one of their main predators, hawks, can see them. I rarely see snakes around my house and I have a bunch of brush lol I've only seen them out at night (there's the cutest baby kingsnake but i digress). avoid times when snakes are most active and you'll be a lot less likely to see them. anyway best of luck treating your phobia, it's a hard road but very worth it to be free of it