One good tip I learned (from trial & error, then much research) is to plant and harvest things at the proper time for your growing zone- even in places like california where people might tell you "oh you can grow anything there all year round"... not true! some plants are warm season, some are cool season, some like to overwinter, some are annual, some are perennial, some are biennial, etc. Research each plant, and also don't assume plants that seem similar will have the same needs, for example peas and beans both come in bush and vining varieties and grow in pods, but peas like cool weather while beans like it hot- except for a few certain beans that actually do prefer it cool... Also, potatoes can tolerate cool weather while sweet potatoes don't. Kale & lettuces grow best in cool weather while chard seems to do fine in hot or cool. You get the idea. If you plant things at the wrong time you'll be wasting your time and the seeds- I tried lettuce when it was too late to be planting it and in the heat of summer it went straight to bolt. I've planted zucchini and tomatoes when it was too cold for them and they grew poorly and didn't produce fruit. Harvest times are just as important as planting times- I planted radishes once and they didn't seem to get big enough by harvesting time so I thought I could just let them keep growing for a while longer- but found out that if you leave them in the ground too long they get tough and too spicy and shrivel up instead of getting bigger! Also it may be tempting to let a zucchini get huge, thinking it will just provide more food when you let a fruit get 2 feet long... No! Harvest them young & tender and about the size they sell them in the grocery store (or smaller), any larger and you get a hard shell, lots of seeds, and very little (and quite tasteless) flesh. Moral of these stories is to research each fruit or veggie you want to grow & follow the "directions", it will mean the difference between success & failure! Also- healthy soil is #1 important thing for plants - no chemical fertilizer! Compost is your best friend. Mulch is your other best friend- use what is available & free- leaves & pine needles are what I use. Good luck!!!

bought my Vanderwolf pine in the fall of 07... planted in a pretty much sunny area with hostas around it... gave it "plenty" of water.... in spring 08 the tips of the needles were already turning brown... talked with the nursery about it and they said it "might" be wind damage... by August it was 50% brown....took a picture of it and went back to the nursery....they gave me full credit for it... haven't gotten it dug out yet....but it is "Totally" brown now... a real Charlie "BROWN" Christmas tree....haha... good luck with yours... jill p.s....the nursery then told me they are pretty finicky...you can "Overwater" or "Underwater"....soooo...back to the drawing board for me...

Cleared the entire yard after a freeze wearing a bikini. It was a house we rented and I had no idea the yard was full of poison ivy. I missed a month of work and took steroids for 2 months. I had to sleep on the couch wrapped in towels because of all the fluid seeping out everywhere from my rash. Then I got poison ivy 2 BLOCKS from that house when the dog got tangled in weeds & I reached down to free him. I already had a rash and everywhere I scratched I got poison ivy-the resins were under my nails. Steroids for another 6 weeks and 3 weeks of missed work. We live 3 blocks from the house I used to rent. I don't go that way anymore! Luckily I don't own a weed eater or I'm sure I would use it to try and chop off body parts. I did sit in a mound of fire ants to pull weeds last summer, right after the poison ivy cleared. Got a great black eye from a branch that came back and hit me while I was trimming bushes. Pulled fireweed one day before work and had to call in because my hands were so swollen I couldn't type. And like PJ I look better AFTER the waterhose fight. I seem to attract mud to my body, I feel like pigpen when I garden. Cheap mudbath. Tally HO!

idie2live, Sorry so long in answering you. The ground cover is called pachysandra (Japanese Spurge). I really love it, it keeps its color thru winter (even the unusually cold and snowy winter we had this year. It does perfect under my maple tree. it does take a bit to start, there is the old saying of "sleep, creep, and leap" " Year 1 is sleep, year 2 is creep and on the 3rd year it leaps-fast growing") Here are some photos of my front yard..as you can see by the photo, I have recently gotten rid of a grass "pathway" (upper right side where you see the black pot with a bush I plan on planting there), soon the pachysandra will cover that area too. Then I planted bushes along the front of the property for winter color and not having to mow there either, plus I will grow them up a bit for privacy, I just need to add some mulch (right now) to that area, but, eventually the bushes get so wide that it will prevent weeds from sprouting and I won't need to mulch. Results are now I have only to move that slightly roundish area in my front yard. You will notice to the front-right under my pine tree is Ivy. That area is sunnier, so I used Ivy there, pachysandra does best in shady to partically shady. The only problem with Ivy is that it is very invasive, you have to stay on your toes to care for it, it will strangle out small plants and bushes, so I can't plant anything there with the ivy (unless you place a pot within the ivy with flowers as you see as I have done. The good thing about Ivy is that it covers quickly.