When wanting to plant so many trees on a small half acre lot which is also taken up by a house footprint, it is best to consider planting more like what would be seen in the forest. First, planting the upper story trees planted in consideration of how they will cast their shade. Dappled shade is wonderful to create with the right overstory trees. Then, wait until those trees grow large enough to have a canopy that spreads far enough to shelter the ornamental dappled shade loving, understory trees along with the part-sun loving understory trees that like to grow along the outside edges of forested areas. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful, forests can be. Many of them seem like a master designer, skillfully, planned their tree, shrub and brush, spacings, positions, and species. Yet, I know you must have more ability, compared to nature, for planning a viable forest environment? Just take the time to consider what arrangement a forest needs to survive, and to provide a forest floor which is compatable for human occupancy. Above all, stay mindful, of the difference between wild areas that keep wanting to invade human settlement areas, compared to the forests which retain their own eco space, and advance outward slow enough; that it takes little effort from human settlement, situated within the forest, to keep the wild outside the settlement's boundries.

i have no problem deferring on z6 planting times .... but that was not my real point .... i am picturing this tree.. smaller than a pencil ... and how you protect them in 8 separate locations around the garden .... my point was .. all grouped together.. protection is easy .... and then there is the winter dryness ... if applicable... can you keep these SIX INCH BABES properly watered all winter long???? ... or would they be better protected otherwise .... are you z6'ers ... suggesting that a 6 month old.. 6 inch tree.. is equivalent to a pot grown or ball and burlap.. tree of say 3 to 5 years old .... 3 to 5 feet tall ... ???? though i usually lecture peeps that plants are not their babies ... in this case.. THESE ARE LITERALLY BABIES ... and i will stick to protecting them .. this winter ... if you plant .. get rid of any media.. bare root and plant in native soil .... do you have snow cover all winter????? good luck ken ps: best solution.. experiment .... plant 4 .. store 4 .... see what happens ....

Hmmm, so I may be adding almost one 25 lb bag for my 15K gallon pool, easy. I think I will do it in halves and follow along to readjust my SWG and pump time gradually. Thanks for the chart info. Graffster, I'm in central Naples, and had my pool start-up at Christmas 2007 (my present to myself). This is the first time I'm playing with salt since then. I have not had problems with overt rain-related material since then, although the rain itself has been tremendous, as you know. My pool area is caged, and that helps a lot to keep debris out.

I sat in court last week (haha, they issued a bench warrant for BM's arrest because she didn't show up for TWO hearings... the first for DCSS ~requesting an order that she seek work since she has not paid in over 6 months, the second ~ a contempt DH filed for her not paying her half of SD's medical bills) but being so close to Christmas... lots of the cases were about that. It was really pathetic to watch two people fight over how to split up the kids' Christmas day. One mom wants until noon, the dad wants them at 9am. I remember splitting it with my son's father & once, his wife came outside & assaulted me during the exchange... cops were called & of course nothing happened because she told them I hit her... they offered to take both of us to jail or do nothing. It was NOT the way any of the kids should have to spend the holiday... my son or the other five kids in the car that witnessed it. It is just so much better for the kids to spend the day with one parent & celebrate the holiday with the other parent on a different day. After the 'cops on Christmas' incident, that is what I did. and of course we had to get an order for every other year so we no longer split the holiday at all. We had to do the same for Thanksgiving but now that he's in his 20's, I look back and it was more harmful for HIM to split up his days. When the parents get along, I think it can work out fine.. but if they don't, it will ruin a kids holiday so what is the point of even getting them? I see many parents doing it for themselves, because THEY have an expectation of how they want their holiday to be. They are not thinking about what's best for the children. The sad thing is when one parent is going to see relatives for a holiday or vacation, that may be getting together from far away & they only have that one opportunity to see them but the other parent won't let them go.. it's the children that suffer. I see lots of that too. For that, there is no answer except that sometimes we have to sacrifice so the child isn't placed in a situation that makes it worse for them... and know that when they grow up, they will see through it. And there's no guarantee that they ever will see the truth. My son is almost 24 & is trying to plan part of his Christmas weekend with his dad, whom he hasn't spoken to since before he was deployed. We don't even know if he's incarcerated or not (he's been in & out of prison for many years) but my son has the hope that his dad will step up to be a dad to him & a grandpa to DGS. I had to talk to him when I was getting guardianship of DGS... he actually told me that he's fine with it as long as I allow him to see DGS when he wants. I said that's fine, anytime you want to see him just give me a call. That was several months ago.. not one call. (well, first he wanted me to agree to an every other weekend visitation schedule... and I said "you're going to come get him every other weekend?" and then he changed it to "let me see him when I want." I think he just wanted to see if he can engage me in a battle but when I refused to fight over it, he went away.) My stepmom always said, "kill 'em with kindness" because they thrive on conflict.