If it were easy, and things would grow just because you plopped them down on the ground, what fun would that be ? We grow to cherish the plants we worked hard to establish, right ? :) Plus, just think of all the weeds that would also flourish right over the tops of the desired plants ? Hee, no, give me semi-arid for the maintainability aspect. I know that eastern woodland climates are much much more prone to weeds. We got between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain yesterday...I'm not carrying water to the fencerow naturalization project for at least a week. And everything is so happy. Too bad I wasn't constitutionally able to plant the allium stellatum, vernonia letermani, or habranthus tubispathus...I just couldn't bear to move pots of flowering plants into the row away from the house, till they finished flowering. In about a week, I'll be ready to plant the remainder...just as the soil gets dry enough to require buckets of water again (if no more rain). Oh, and I have seedlings of coreopsis lanceolata (yes that weed), and engelmannia peristenia to plugs in...they're growing by pairs in plastic Dixie cups. I drilled a hole through the stack of cups, and they made perfect 2-3 inch pots to grow the seedlings up to potential rabbit snacks (yes, even by the house, they've nibbled and not liked). They go sometime next month...I want to get them a little bigger before they face the wild world w/o me looking at them 2-3 times a day.

We don't have EAB here yet, but we do have what are called lilac/ash borers. We have Phaenops gentilis, Chrysophana placida and Agrilus cyanescens. Many non native trees do need help here, but you don't know specifically what to add without a soil test. Unfortunately, they are not free here, but the cost is nominal, maybe $25-30 depending on what you're testing for. I would take soil samples from areas where you haven't fertilized. I just don't see wasting money on additives until you know what's missing from your soil, or what nutrients you already have enough of. I would also be extremely careful with fertilizing right now as we are in severe drought status. If you feel like you need to fertilize before you have soil test results, maybe do half strength. Any problems you're seeing now are most likely drought related as we've had virtually no rain, horrific winds and weeks in the high 90 - 100+ degree temps. We have a 50% chance of rain this weekend, which would certainly help. We've had roughly 4.5" of precip. so far this year. Your soil ph is most likely in the 7 range, as mine is 7.9. I have a Patmore ash, fraxinus pennsylvanica 'Patmore' planted 4-5 years ago and I've not ever fertilized it. It's doing fine. Your ash looks good to me. The native tree choices here are limited which is why we bring in non-natives. FWIW I don't have 10 years experience, just 5, but have planted and killed enough trees that maybe I'm not a newbie anymore, lol. I'm still learning and will be for life. This is a tough place to learn the ropes, but you're doing great. I love your yard! Barb

To make a long story longer I will continue to help you through your issues. "You said that if we created a raised bed with amended soil that we would probably lose most of the junipers. I'm not saying we're actually going to attempt this, but what do you think would cause them to die? The transplanting process itself, the amended soil, or the height of the raised bed?" It's just the fact you just planted them last October. They have had 8 months to reestablish with little or no side effects except inner browning which is normal. The fact you are now entertaining digging them back up for reestablishment in a raised bed will not be in their best interests especially with summer around the corner. Also they are not dying tells me your watering is not out of balance. Disregard the 5 inches of rain Mother Nature dumped upon them. I'll take that anytime. A natural occurrence. All nursery personal are programed weather qualified or not to sell shelf products to cure plant aliments. They will tell you all scenarios and create some as to what may be the problem with your plants. Hopefully they didn't relieve your pocket book of any change trying to diagnose all these potential problems. Save your receipts. If not convinced after talking to the forum about your concerns you have call your local extension agent and they will come out and tell you what, if any problems, you could have. Dave

Lindac, it's ok. Nobody is upset with anybody anymore. We all have moments when we are not at our best or most pleasant selves. Mel is actually kind of funny and seems like a nice person who just had an accidental adverse reaction, kind of like a brief allergy. She did apologize and has been a pleasant participant in other discussions. I think we can all relate to her frustrations about product labeling being confusing or misleading. Mel, I SO know what you mean about Aunt Flow. She can make any woman temporarily nuts! She possesses every woman at times and I don't know any woman without a story to tell about her devious, unexpected, and unpredictible powers. A misunderstanding can be the start of a great friendship, so hopefully we have several of those brewing. I hope to hear more from you. Please don't feel bad if you get corrected or contradicted. It happens to everyone. It can feel insulting even when I know the person didn't mean it that way at all. And that's what these gardening discussions are good for - so folks can escape the burdens of misinformation and to learn which parts of gardening have right/wrong answers (like soil PH) and which parts are subjective to opinions and regional quirks (like how to stake tomatoes) and have no definitive right/wrong answers. Are those hostas about ready to bloom? I was curious when that would happen in 4a. Can't we all just get along? Yes, Rodney, we can.