"Kay Lancaster" wrote in message
...
too sandy or something. no problem with weeds and trees, but anyway - my
question this time is this:

Soil analysis and then check with your state extension service to see
what suggestions they have for plants that grow well.

You'll get much better results (particularly on a budget) choosing plants
to fit your soil rather than attempting to amend your soil to fit the
plants.

Another possibility is to go with native plants, and grow them yourself
from local seed or scion sources.

Good trees are fairly expensive to produce, particularly if you're after
fruit trees on virus indexed stocks (they do so much better). Bargain
trees are either well produced but an oversupply (real bargains!),
poorly grown, held or shipped
(not a bargain) or very small (ok, but not a bargain) --
at least in my experience. There are some growers who cut their
profit margins more thinly than others, but on the whole, good trees
aren't cheap.

There are some lists around compiled from folks' comments on catalog
companies... might be worthwhile to check on the reputations of the
companies. e.g.: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/
http://www.gardenlist.com/

and resources like: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dailey/byfg.html
http://www.nafex.org/

Kay


Hi Kay,

thanks for the weblinks. the types of dis-counts I was talking about were
the over-stock ones. they claim that the trees will be 3-4 foot on
delivery. i am mainly leaning towards crepe myrtle and dogwoods. we
already have a few that were here when we moved here and they have proven to
fair well. I would just like some other colors/variations to plant around
the yard. i don't really care about what height they will grow to.
thanks,
rae