easy as pie! If you didn't do a thing, it would get there all by itself: Everything that lives dies. Everything that dies rots. It all leads back to compost. -------------Professor Dirt but to speed the process, which is all we're doing when we say we're "composting": chop everything up as small as is comfortable for you. pile it all together. mix in some carbon such as dry autumn leaves or shredded or torn-up paper or cardboard (cardboard tears much more easily if you soak it in a bucket of water til it's wet through & through). Voila! You got yourself a compost pile! (If you pile it up in the sun, it'll break down more quickly. If you keep it dampish, like a wrung-out sponge, it'll break down more quickly.) Have fun!

I would be very interested, but I don't know if I have anything you would be interested in. Please see my post below which describes things I have available for the Issaquah trade (and any other trade!). I also have some TBI that are purple, several Euonymous 'Emerald Gaiety' plants, and a large heather that is kind of a lime green and I think blooms pink or purple..but not sure as I just dug it out of my friends yard. I believe we may have met at a previous trade..I recognize several things on your have list that are now growing in my garden! :-) I love the little pink panda strawberries and I even ate bunches of them earlier in the summer. If I don't have anything your interested in I understand and maybe we can trade something later! Thanks, Susan (Nightnurse1968)

If the growths look otherwise like those of the rest of the tree, with the same coral red stem color do not worry about it. It is normal. Japanese maples have a main flush of growth in spring, and then after an interval other shoots tend to appear in summer.

Thanks macranthos. There were hundreds of these plants. They were in one of those special places where rare plants are often found, so I didn't pick one for examination. They're definitely not Lactuca. As said in my original post, leaves were clasping and alternate. They were also soft, and rounded at both ends. This will be easy once the flowers appear.