The first time I came east to Connecticut for a visit with my brother at the
age of 16 I was overwhelmed by the trees. Growing up in the arid southwest
I had never seen the like before. As you drove up on the top of a hill,
looking through the cut of the road you could see to the horizon nothing but
green and all of it dozens of feet high. When I moved back east and ended
up in Connecticut I was very surprised to learn that the trees covering the
state were for the most part only 25 years old. That they had grown in when
farmers stopped farming. Humans cut down trees so that they can grow crops
or have fuel - much of the middle east was turned into desert simply form
the trees being cut down. Though I still find myself homesick for the
expanse of sky I think trees are one of the most wonderful things of nature.
If nothing else, being the most lazy person on earth (other than Kathy) I
find gardening under trees far less work than having a sun garden....

Donna

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
...
You know, woods are the native plant result for much of the country.

We have 34 acres in Raymond, MS. It was pasture before the former
owner began to be sick. He stopped cutting it. Grasses gave way
quickly to shrubs and soon to trees. Now, the trees are shading out
the shrubs. The portions I do not cut with a bush hog are becoming
semi-open woods. No mow, no lawn. If we mow, it would be nice to
have a low cover that does not need watering...maybe that should rise
up on the horticulturalist list of plants to develop. Actually, I
know they are trying to develop green grasses that require little
water.

Jim