First, good luck with the project, you have a lot to learn about the area. The first year I gardened here (1974) I had tomatoes from my garden at Thanksgiving. It hasn't happened again since. One spring (May 7) we had several inches of snow on my tomatoes. I had put bottomless glass jugs over them so they did fine, just didnt get tomatoes much sooner. I haven't bothered to plant them so early since. I'm just down the road from you in Saugerties, and probably a week earlier with blooms. I've noticed Woodstock is also about a week later than me.

Annual rye grass is just that, annual, so you dont have to worry about getting rid of it, it probably wont go to seed, but you probably wont have much left in August, either. Many of the "lawns" you see around are just mowed weeds, anyway. Unless you want a green, lush lawn mowed in patterns, you could probably just roughen up whatever is there and plant some grass seed, soonest is best because it might become too hot and dry to do well. And be sure to cover with some straw so the birds dont assume it's all for them.

I've found that the wildflower mixes dont produce the wonderful meadows pictured on the package. My advice is to make a long term plan, work on putting in shrubs, the trees will probably be fine as long as the ground level around them has not been changed (Soil up their trunks will kill them) and just kind of live with the area, notice what grows when and how well for this year. (Another mistake I made was pulling up most of the phlox bacause I didn't recognize it in early spring) You also need to find out how many deer are in the area waiting for you to plant treats for them. And then there are the rabbits and my own personal demon, the vole.

Have you heard about Catskill Native Nursery yet? They will open April 14 and have a Wildflower Festival on May 19. I don't think they do a website, I just received a postcard announcing these dates. They are at 607 Samsonville Rd, Kerhonkson, NY 12446 845 626-2758. I haven't been there for the past couple of years but they do some interesting classes. My favorite new native is Ironweed, just planted last fall, cant wait to see how it does. I'll try to remember to post dates when some natives bloom around here so you can more easily find them. Just wait until you hear the peepers in full chorus. They are magnificent! Spring is such a rush here, it makes me absolutely giddy.

As an FYI, Catskills Native Nursery does have a website - I'm hoping to make it to the wildflower show also - seems like it should be very interesting.

I second the comment about the wildflower mixes - I used one of those when I first moved up here and regretted it ever since. It had a lot more native weeds than flowers and was pretty much a waste of time. I would definitely go with what corapegia suggested and also start small - getting used to the growing season here will take a while.

Corapegia, you will love your ironweed ! I managed to grow 2 plants from seed from one of the classes I took at IES, and last year (year 2 in the ground) they each reached about 4 or 5 feet tall - blooms are just gorgoeus and the butteflys LOVE them !! I have a small back garden spot with ironweed,some really tall joe pye, and some swamp milkweed - looks fabulous come mid-late summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Catskills Native Nursery:

Thanks for the reply. I realize the wildflower option is 3 years or more in the making, so no false expectations here. The soil level around the trees looks like it has dropped about 2-3 inches but no cut roots are visible.

Yes, I know about the Catskill Native Nursery having gone to a talk at the Agroforestry Ctr in March. My calendar is marked for the opening, for Wildflower Festival and for the local Open Days Garden tours. I've helped with these before and there's nothing better than seeing someone's garden in its Sunday best!

Look and learn is the way to go. If anyone on this forum wants to drop a quick sentence about obvious stuff happening in their gardens, it would be appreciated. You may not realize how interesting it is that Hudson Valley gardening is discussed on a county by county basis. The quick elevation changes seem to give each gardener their very own plant timing schedule. See I'm learning already.

Dutchess County - City of Poughkeepsie: crocus blooms in very sunny beds - squirrels have been eating my sprouts for lunch. Early spring tulips are showing leaves 1-3", snowdrops have bloomed, lots of leaf buds on early shrubs and trees, yarrow's been growing leaves for about 2+ weeks.

Can't wait to see what happens in the garden this weekend (no snow please!!!)

bklyn2pok, Thanks for the note. Perfect way to learn and to scratch my gardening itch.