"mmarteen" wrote in message ...
I had to landscape an entire yard for our new house last year. I saved
money by growing a lot of stuff from seed. Also check out local fundraising
plant sales and swaps in your area, your local hortacultural assn. probably
has a list. Apart from the mail order places that other people have
mentioned, I had good luck with Gilbert H. Wild, www.gilberthwild.com They
have great deals on large numbers of plants, like their 50 hostas for 50
dollars, 100 hosta for 100 dollars. They don't have every plant known to
mankind but they concentrate on daylillies, hostas, oriental lillies, iris
and peonys for good prices. Those kind of perennials are the tough,
rewarding kind that will form the backbone of a garden in almost any zone.

mm


This is certainly true here in SE MI. It is a pity that I spent so
much money and time when I started my house here in 1996 (having moved
from California, I had no idea what worked here). Almost everything I
bought failed, and a;most everything I got (except oriental lilies and
coneflower grown from seed) I have transplanted from the woods around
the house, or from the backyard to the front yard. It did help that
the previous owner next door was a true gardener, and that three
successive owners had left a Micronesia of small beds over my two
acres.

The plants I found in large quantities (more than 100 plants) in the
woods or along fencerows or in the ditch were lamium, lily of the
valley, scilla, daylilies, forsythia, and bloodroot. I inherited lots
of vincas, some ostrich ferns and bags of iris corms from various
friends who were moving. I moved some peonies and about two hundred
daffs from the front yard to the backyard. Again, I only added a few
dozens oriental lilies, some houttunya, and several clusters of
seed-grown coneflowers. Nature has since done the rest, with all
plants propagating themselves (by now they have tripled in numbers at
least), clearly being well adapted to the partial sun/ open shade that
dominates around my house. This year I will add some blackeyed susans
in the sunniest spots and then I will be done. I plant a tray of
impatiens in containers under the windows every year. All these plants
have taken one foot of wood chips in the past, and a layer of leaves
every year, but are otherwise not watered or fertilized at all.