native .. schmative .... so many facts.. too much coffee .... ooooooohhhhhhh ... dramatic moan ... linden .. let me get this straight ... you have an otherwise healthy tree.. and this guy wants to .. on a preventative basis ... drill holes and add cables.. so that he can insure that you pay him every few years to come back a 'maintain' this threat to your garage ... sounds like a tuition investment program for his son in college.. or a repeating boat payment ... be done with it ... ITS A THREAT ... the poplars ... get rid of them .. period ... figure out how to do it legally with the lot owner ... since you will have the tree guys out.. offer to pay for it ... since it will be a minor cost since they are there .... DO NOT RELY ON THE COURTS for you might be homeless for the few years it takes to sue them ... the box elder .... i have a 50 footer .. what a carp tree ... horrible form .. ugly ... and those darn bugs ... harmless but irritating when they come in the house ... be done with it ... its just another maple.. and you should know my hated of such ... the smaller ... if you were to keep it .. just cut off the two side ones.. and ignore the tree canopy reduction theory ... its a maple.. with no root zone impact from transplant/planting ... it will probably double in size in 2 years ... but i would still get rid of it ... did i hit them all ... ??? was there an ash ... is not EAB an issue up there.. if so.. just get rid of the ash .... if the team is there.. do everything that needs to be done .. its a lot cheaper than repeatedly calling them back ... as i recall.. you have down-sized the property size .... and you need all the space you can get... on your new 1/2 acre ... WHY WASTE SPACE WITH THESE WEEDS .... native or not ... if you had 5 acres.. and more space than you need.. what the heck .. but we both know you can do so much better ... the best upside.. this time of year.. the chips are all wood ... have them leave them.. and make some nice beds next spring ... with my first house.. i 'saved' all the prior/original owners 'problems' for the history of it .... what a nightmare.. and the happiest day of my life at that house... was when the last was gone ... YOU CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER ... please... just bite the bit.. and be done with them ... ken PS: as you are addicted to gardening .... have no guilt.... as i am sure.. you will replace it all if not twice... mother earth on the plus side ... Here is a link that might be useful: WI EAB

The only time the untended natives have a good establishment rate is when we have a really wet winter and a good rainy season the next year. And in 10-12 years you will have a skinny young tree, not the mature trees you are thinking of. Have you developed a land use plan so you know where you will put your house? You need that before you start planting trees. If you wait until you get here, site the house to take advantage of the existing mature vegetation and then do some "rain harvesting" and careful irrigation you can get native trees larger than the 12-year old untended ones in a couple of years. The limiting factor in their growth rate is water. The "Groasis" is a lot of hype, but unproven in AZ.

Danny, you will be welcome to seed if I can get something going with these little sunflowers. Keeping fingers crossed for a plant or two to evaluate this season. The information on this little sunflower says it blooms April through October. Now I'm guessing that would be in it's native area but even here, I'd hope to see blooms by late May, early June with an established plant if it is an early bloomer. Also don't know if blooms can be expected the first season. Here's hoping. Have you ever seen one of these sunflower plants in person? How's your milkweed seed doing? My little experimental pot, so far, has only the two germinated seedlings out of the five seed planted. I'm also trying to germinate Standing Cypress. Accidentally knocked over the germination pot so sprinkled some more seed on the top of the rescued potting mix and spritzed all again with room temp water. The seed information says it can take 2-3 weeks for germination so I'm just waiting. If I hadn't been so clumsy I might be seeing some seedlings already. On the other hand, I don't know if I'm supposed to dampen the seed, then leave it be or to continue to spritz the potting mix until germination occurs. I also sprinkled some seed in a bit of roughed up soil outside where I'd like to grow this plant but between the pair of doves who busy themselves in my garden and the rain storms, I doubt any seed remain. Did you catch any of that storm moving out of Oklahoma and Texas yesterday? We got lucky here. I moved everything in pots into the greenhouse, fearing hail, but we only got a bit of rain. Hope you escaped the worst of it, too. Mary

It's going to depend a lot on "normal" weather patterns and what the native trees are used to. In my area, recurring summer droughts are the normal pattern and natives have adapted to extended dry periods. However, this summer had been significantly drier than usual - broke a few records and have only received about 0.5 inch of rain since midJune and most of that has been in the last few days. Last previous measurable rainfall was 6/15!! (94 days without measurable precipitation!!) And the natives are getting restless :-)) Some drying and dropping of leaves on the deciduous stuff, also some early coloring. And everything else looks tired and droopy. Unfortunately, except for young seedlings, it is not common to see the real effect of drought stress immediately. It is often not until the next growing season that the true impact can be evaluated.