Colin:

You certainly got more than you bargained for in response to
your query. g

What most newbies, including myself, don't consider is the
amount of work
involved in collecting a tree. I dug up an azalea in my yard
and that was a
pain in the butt. I could just imagine what it would be like
digging up a
tree way out in the woods and getting it home. I'd rather pay
someone that
knows what they're doing and enjoys it. Then we both win.


On the other hand, part of the enjoyment in a collecting
expedition comes from the exercise -- "work," if you will. If
you plan to collect anything large -- 2 feet and with a
rootball that may measure 18 inches in circumference -- you need
to know that this will weigh _several_ pounds and that you need
to lug it back to your car or truck. Most of us carry these
large trees out on our backs, so get a pack frame.

If you're just getting 10-inch seedlings, and plants that will
fit in a 1-gallon pot, that's a gathering trip. ;-) Just sling
them into a plastic bag and walk home -- though 4-5 one-gal. pots
filled with soil are also heavy if you're walking more than a few
miles.

(And it's "worse" if you're slogging home through a swamp after a
day of digging trees out of 2-feet of water. Isn't it, Gary?)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden

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