This is really a great thread! I just wanted to chime in a bit. I just finished planting 140 trees on about 1 acre, and it went pretty well. I planted: 25 Common Lilac 15 Manchurian Crab 25 White Pine 32 White Spruce 10 Bur Oak 5 Paper Birch 5 Silver Maple 5 Black Cherry 5 Red Oak 5 Rugosa Rose 2 Red Maple 5 Red Pine 4 Hybrid Poplar In addition, this summer, I planted 4 larger trees... a bur oak, an Autumn Blaze Maple, a Siouxland Cottonwood, and a Red Splendor Crab It will be interesting to see how fast everything grows. The clone of Hybrid Poplar I planted can grow anywhere from 5-10 feet per year.. while the bur oak will grow at a glacial 6-18" per year over its entire life. In 1996, about 60 red pines, 10 white pines, and 10 black hills and blue spruce were planted on our land. In 2007, the tallest Red Pine is about 15 feet tall, the tallest White pine is about 12 feet tall, and the tallest spruce is 7 feet tall. Of course, these were all started from seedlings with no weed control for the first 3 years, and only mowing after that (when we moved in). We no longer mow the eastern portion of the property, where red pines are growing. There are a few clearings among the trees, and some shrubs are starting to become established. Among them are Rugosa Rose, low bush blueberry, chokecherry, and American Hazelnut. To date, not one hardwood tree has seeded. Under our deck, however, about 6 Boxelder seeds germinated, and one vigorous and desperate sapling is about 4 feet tall in its second year. I will transplant it to the edge of our property when the leaves drop... Otherwise, the land we own on a lake is already forested... and it's more of a question of management than anything. I desperately want to clear some of the underbrush (it's nearly impossible to walk through the woods here... so thick with underbrush). Between the Beaked Hazel, tree saplings, fallen logs, grass clumps, and various other shrubs, if yo'ure not tripping and trying to regain balance, you have several small branches trying to enter your head through your eye sockets. You basically have to close your eyes and bore your way through the woods with your hands in front of you, shielding your face.

I have seeds to send to you for the Newbie packets but I lost your address. I'm so sorry I haven't gotten them to you sooner, the holidays and Real Life happened and frankly, 2016 is for crap thus far, but I want to get these out to you since you very kindly sent me some seeds last years right after we moved. Please let me know where to send them and I'll get them out to you right away.

Gina and nanduta, Go to this thread (link below) and read some of the Frequently Asked Questions. I'm not trying to be rude. Both of you need to enable messaging so that people can message you directly and that's how we share our addresses and information. We don't want you to put your address out here for the world to see. We hope there aren't any stalkers, but we try to keep information between individuals. Gina, look on the Exchange Thread, Seed Exchange. That will have the Newbie Seed Project and you can click on the name of the thread starter. Then click on "Message" and you can ask about free seeds or seeds for postage. She does a wonderful job. Heidi http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3371179/attention-newbies-please-read?n=33

I have been desperately trying to get my computer to connect to the website. It is not working... :( I would love if you had any organic herbal seeds, like the comfrey I saw you posted about. I believe in plant medicine, so trying to find good seeds are hard for me. Any seeds you could spare would be a dream for my very small courtyard garden. :) I REALLY hope the website would be working right now.......... My email is unicornj922@yahoo.com if you could possibly help me figure out how to make this work xx Very gratefully yours, Janine